THE ELEVENTH CORPS AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.

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THE CONFEDERATES CHARGING HOWARD’S BREASTWORKS.

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About sunrise at Dowdall’s I heard cheering. It was a hearty sound, withI* 0 much bass in it for that of the enemy’s charge. It was occasioned byeneral Hooker, with Colonel Comstock and a few staff-officers, riding along°Wly and inspecting the lines. General Sickles says of this: “ It is impos-®*ble to pass over without mention the iirepressible enthusiasm of the troops° 1- Major-General Hooker, which was evinced in hearty and prolonged cheersas he rode along the lines of the Third, Eleventh, and Twelfth corps.”

I Was ready, mounted, and with my officers joined the ever-increasing caval-^ a he. Hooker observed the troops in position; Barlow, who filled the cross-e Hches an hour later, had not yet come out of the front line, so that myreserves just at that time were small. Hooker noticed the breastworks,'^Usually well built by Scliurz and Devens. He passed to the extreme right,then returned by the shortest route. As he looked over the barricades,mle receiving the salutes and cheers of the men, he said to me, “ HowS *" 0ll g! How strong! ”

s till had much extension, so that there were gaps along Schurz’s andlens’s fronts. Colonel Comstock spoke to me in his quiet way: “ General,0 close in those spaces ! ”

t said, “The woods are thick and entangled; will anybody come through

mere ? ”

t)h, they may ! ”

ttis suggestion was heeded. During the forenoon General Sickles discov-J* Jack son’s moving column. It was passing toward Orange Court House,everybody said. Sickles forwarded all reports to General Hooker, who

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returned to Chancellorsville. He tried to divine Jackson’s purpose.

About midday Sickles received General Hooker’s orders to advance southrously. Soon after, perhaps by 2 r. m., there was a stronger apprehension

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