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THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

179

Hgiments and Martin’s New York battery of horse artillery. I posted thiscommand at the extreme west of the clearing, about two hundred yardsfrom the woods in which the Eleventh Corps was encamped. This posi-tion at Hazel Grove was about a quarter of a mile in extent, running nearly^orth-east and south-west, but was in no place farther than two hundredyards from the woods, and on the south and east it sloped off into a marshan d a creek. It commanded the position of the army at Fairview and Chan-oellorsville and enfiladed our line. The moving out to the Furnace of thefr y o divisions of the Third Corps left a gap of about a mile from Hazel Grovet° the right of the Twelfth Corps. Shortly after General Sickles had beenea gaged at the Furnace, he sent me word that the enemy were giving wayari d cavalry could be used to advantage in pursuit. Before moving my com-mand I rode out to the Furnace to comprehend the situation. It was no place0l ' cavalry to operate, and as I could hear spattering shots going more and^ore toward the north-west, I was satisfied that the enemy were not retreat-Ill g- I hastened back to my command at Hazel Grove; when I reached it,the Eleventh Corps to our rear and our right was in full flight, panic-strickenDe yond description. We faced about, having then the marsh behind us. It^ as an ugly marsh, about fifty yards wide, and in the stampede of theWeventli Corps, beef cattle, ambulances, mules, artillery, wagons, and horsese came stuck in the mud, and others coming on crushed them down, so that^hen the fight was over the pile of debris in the marsh was many feet high,saw that something had to be done, and that very quickly, or the Army ofle Potomac would receive a crushing defeat. The two cavalry regiments^ ere in the saddle, and as I rode forward Major Keenan of the 8th Pennsyl-vania came out to meet me, when I ordered him to take the regiment, chargeinto the woods, which, as we had previously stood, were to our rear, and°1<1 the enemy in check until I could get some guns into position. Her<3 plied with a smile at the size of the task, that he would do it, and started* nnuiediately. Thirty men, including Major Keenan, Captain Arrowsmith,a nd Adjutant Haddock, never came back. I then directed Captain Martin toHug his guns into battery, load with double charges of canister, and aim themj° that the shot would hit the ground half-way between the guns and the woods.

also stated that I would give the order to fire. Just then a handsome young^ e uteiiant of the 4th U. S. Artillery, Frank B. Crosby (son of a distinguished(fivyer of New York City ), who was killed the next day, galloped up and said,Gleneral, I have a battery of six guns; where shall I go ? what shall I do ? ” Id him to place his battery in line on the right of Martin’s battery, and gaveh ! m the same instructions I had given Martin as to how I wanted him to serves Suns. These 2 batteries gave me 12 guns, and to obtain more I then^ urged 3 squadrons of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry on the stragglers ofEleventh Corps to clear the ground, and with the assistance of the restrj,j the regiment succeeded in placing 10 more pieces of artillery in line.^. le hue was then ready for Stonewall Jackson ’s onset. It was dusk whens men swarmed out of the woods for a quarter of a mile in our front

See also statements of Major Edward J. Carpenter and others on p. 187.— Editors.