THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN.

162

HOOKER’S HEADQUARTERS AT CHANCELLORSVILLE, SATURDAY MORNING, MAY 2 —THE PICTUREFACES SOUTH. FROM A WAR-TIME SKETCH.

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O11 the morning of May 2 d our line had become strong enough to resist afront attack unless made in great force; the enemy had also been hard atwork on his front, particularly that section of it between the Plank road andturnpike. Sedgwick, the previous night, had been ordered to send the FirstCorps (Reynolds’s) to Chancellorsville. At 7 A. M. a sharp cannonade wasopened on our left, followed by infantry demonstrations of no particularearnestness. Two hours later the enemy were observed moving a mile orso to the south and front of the center, and later the same column wasreported to the commander of the Eleventh Corps by General Devens, whosodivision was on the extreme right dank. At A: AO a. m. a circular directed toGenerals Slocum and Howard called attention to this movement and to theweakness of their flanks. |)

At 11 a. m. our left was furiously cannonaded by their artillery, establishedon the heights in front of Mott’s Run, followed by sharp infantry firing on thefronts of the Second and Twelfth corps. As time flew along and no attackcame from the enemy seen moving in front, Hooker conceived that Lee wasretreating toward Gordonsville. There was color for this view, as the mainroad from Fredericksburg to that point diverged from the Plank road twomiles to the left of Chancellorsville, and passed along his front at about thesame distance. Hooker therefore jumped at the conclusion that the enemy’®army was moving into the center of Virginia . But instead of the hostilecolumn being on the Gordonsville road in retreat, it was Stonewall’s corps mov-ing on an interior neighborhood road, about one mile distant, and in search

1 See p. 219 for a copy of this circular order. Maps showing the positions of the Eleventh andTwelfth corps appear on pages 191 -201.— Editors.