THE CHANCELLORSHILLE CAMPAIGN.

170

finally he would receive the order for which he had waited all that longmorning, “ to go in.” Colonel N. H. Davis broke out: “We shall have somefighting now.” These incidents are mentioned to show the temper of thatknot of officers. No time was to be lost, as only Hancock’s division now heldLee’s army. Dispatching Major John B. Burt with orders for the front toretire, I rode back to the thicket, accompanied by Meade, and was soonjoined by Sickles, and after a little while by Hooker, but he did not interferewith my dispositions. Hancock had a close shave to withdraw in safety, hisline being tliree-fourths of a mile long, with an exultant enemy as close inas they dared, or wished, or chose to be, firing and watching. But every-thing was brought off, except five hundred men of the Second Corps who,through the negligence of a lieutenant charged by Hancock with theresponsibility of retiring the force at Mott’s Run, were taken prisoners-However, under the circumstances, the division was retired in better shapethan one could have anticipated. General Sickles assisted in getting mento draw off the guns of the Maine battery before spoken of. General Meadewished me to hold the strip of thicket in rear of Chancellorsville, some sixhundred yards in front of our new line of defense. My reply was: “ I shallnot leave men in this thicket to be shelled out by Lee’s artillery. Its posses-sion won’t give us any strength. Yonder [pointing to the rear] is the liu ewhere the fighting is to be done.” Hooker heard the conversation, but madeno remarks. Considerable bodies of troops of different corps that lay 111the brush to the right were brought within the lines, and the battle ofChancellorsville was ended. My pocket diary, May 3d, has the following 1“ Sickles opened at about 5 a. m. Orders sent by me at 10 for the front toretire; at 12 ji. in my new position ”; the latter sentence meaning that at thathour my corps was in position on the new or second line of defense.

As to the charge that the battle was lost because the general was intoxicated,I have always stated that he probably abstained from the use of ardent spil'd®when it would have been far better for him to have continued in his usualhabit in that respect. The shock from being violently thrown to the ground,together with the physical exhaustion resulting from loss of sleep and th eanxiety of mind incident to the last six days of the campaign, would tell ofiany man. The enemy did not press us on the second line, Lee simply varyingthe monotony of watching us by an occasional cannonade from the left, a p al ^of his army having been sent to Salem Church to resist Sedgwick. Sedgwi®^had difficulty in maintaining his ground, but held his own by hard fightinguntil after midnight, May 4tli-5tli, when he recrossod at Banks ’s Ford.

Some of the most anomalous occurrences of the war took place in tlu*jcampaign. On the night of May 2d the commanding general, with 80,0dmen in his wing of the army, directed Sedgwick, with 22,000, to march to In®relief. While that officer was doing this on the 3d, and when it would 0 eexpected that every effort would be made by the right wing to do its P aJ ' ’only one-lialf of it was fought (or rather half-fouglit, for its ammunition 'V' ra ®not replenished), and then the whole wing was withdrawn to a place whei eit could not be hurt, leaving Sedgwick to take care of himself.