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THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF CHANCELLORSUILLE.

May when I moved from Hazel Grove. Sickles, with the two divisions ofthe Third Corps, reached Hazel Grove from the Furnace between half-pastnine and ten on the night of the 2d of May. Some of his troops had fightingin the woods before I left, but I am unable to say what was its character.

On the morning of the 3d of May (Sunday) General Stuart was in com-mand of Jackson’s forces, Jackson and A. P. Hill having been wounded, asreported by the prisoner taken the night before. Stuart prepared, with hisusual impetuosity, to renew the attack early that morning, and by one ofthose unfortunate occurrences so prevalent during the war, he caught theThird Corps in motion to take up a new position, connecting with the TwelfthCorps at Fail-view, and facing to the west. This withdrawal enabled Stuartto take the position at Hazel Grove from which Jackson had been repulsedthe evening before. He saw its advantages at once, and, placing some thirtypieces of artillery there, he enfiladed the Twelfth Corps at Fail-view andChancellorsville, and punished the Third Corps severely. The Third Corpswas fighting throughout the day under great disadvantages. To add to theembarrassments of the army, General Hooker that morning was disabled bya concussion, and the army was virtually without a head, the different corpscommanders fighting their commands on the defensive. Such extraordinaryconditions forced the Army of the Potomac to fall back from Chancellors-ville and Fail-view, and form a new line of battle to the north and some dis-tance from Chancellorsville. This line presented a front to the enemy thatcould not be enfiladed or turned. Desultory fighting, especially with artillery,was kept up on the 4th of May; but Hooker’s battle ended on the 3d, afterthe army had gained its new position.

It is useless to speculate what General Hooker would have done if he hadnot been disabled. Up to the evening of the 2d of May the enemy hadsuffered severely, while the Army of the Potomac had comparatively butfew killed and wounded; but the unfortunate circumstances that contractedthe lines of our army enabled the enemy to inflict the severest punishmentupon all the troops that were engaged. In fact, the greatest injury wasinflicted on the 3d of May, while the army had no commander. Had the FirstCorps, which had not been engaged, and the Fifth Corps, still fresh, beenthrown into the action in the afternoon of Sunday, the 3d of May, when Lee’stroops were exhausted from the struggle, they would certainly have madeChancellorsville what it should have been,— a complete success. These twocorps mustered from 25,000 to 30,000 men. There was no one to order theminto the fight, and a second golden opportunity was lost. The army recrossedthe Rappahannock River on the night of May 5th, and took up again th eposition at Falmouth which they had occupied before the campaign.