HOOKER’S COMMENTS ON CHANCELLORSVILLE.

219

^ flank movement upon my right. I immediately dictated a dispatch | toGenerals Slocum and Howard,’ the latter commanding the Eleventh Corps,^flich stood upon the extreme right, saying that I had good reason to believethat the enemy was moving to our right, and that they must be ready tolT)ee t an attack from the west. This was at 9:30 in the morning. In thee °urse of two hours I got a dispatch from G-eneral Howard, saying that hee °uld see a column of the enemy moving westward, and that he was taking^he precautions necessary ‘ to resist an attack from the west.’ |i I had previ-°Usly p u t "Williams’s division of the Twelfth Corps on an interior line lookingWestward, and had it fortified, so that if Howard should give way, this interiorHie would be for safety, as it afterward proved my salvation.

I sent Sickles to pierce this moving column of the enemy, and made prepa-rations to flank the portion of Lee’s army that was still upon my front, in the( hi‘er;tion of Fredericksburg, and, sweeping down in reverse, to destroy it iffl°ssible. But a swamp intervened which had to be corduroyed, and a smallstream had to be bridged, which consumed time; and though Sickles wassuccessful in breaking in upon the enemy’s column and making some captures,before he was in position to make his decisive attack, Jackson, who hade d liis column by a long circuit, out of sight and hearing, through the dense0l ’est, came in upon my right flank, and by one concentrated blow of hisv ' hole corps, some 25,000 men, had crushed and put to flight almost the entireeor Ps of Howard; and it was with the utmost difficulty that I could lead upreserves to the interior line of Williams, and bring Jackson’s victorious? r ces to a halt. This failure of Howard to hold his ground cost us our posi-J°u, and I was forced, in the presence of the enemy, to take up a new one.u pon investigation I found that Howard had failed properly to obey myffistructions to prepare to meet the enemy from the west.” In this connec-l0u the following extracts from a letter to Hooker from Schurz (who sub-Se quently gave General Hooker leave to print it) will be read with interest:

“ 40 W. 32d St., New York , April 22cl, 1876.

'VL Dear General : Your letter of the 8th inst. was forwarded to me from St. Louis , and^ ae hed me here early this morning, and I hasten to reply. I regret very much that, my paperseiu g boxed up, I have no access to a memorandum of the circumstances connected with the

t 1 “ H’dq’rs, Army of the Potomac, Ciiancel-c 1 rf RSVlLliE > Va -> May 2d, 1803, 9 : 30 a. m. Cir-j ttr - Major-Generals Slocum and Howard :to m A ’ r ected by the Major-General commandingCo the disposition you’ have made of your

hs lias heen with a view to a front attack by thefla ^ lle should throw himself upon your

det "’biles you to examine the ground and^ ® r,n ine upon the position you will take intor i ? Ven fi in order that you may bo preparedSll llt n in whatever direction ho advances. Heh an ^ es ts that you have heavy reserves well inlip meet this contingency. The right of yourar tifi C •° es not a PP oar to be strong enough. NoUp t Cl!l l defenses worth naming have been thrownthero appears to be a scarcity of troops atfav^TA ailA not > in the general’s opinion, as° r ably posted as might be. We have good rea-

son to suppose that the enemy is moving to ourright. Please advance your pickets for purposesof observation as far as may be safe, in order toobtain timely information of their approach. J.H. Van Alen, Brigadier-General and Aide-de-camp.” [This is the dispatch which General How-ard states he did not receive at the time. See p.190. Iu the “ Official Records ” the word circulardoes not appear, and the address is “Major-Gen-erals Howard and Slocum.”— Editors.]

]) “ Headquarters, 11th Corps, May 2d, 10m. to 11 o’k [10 :50 a. m.] Maj.-Genl. Hooker,Comd’g Army. General: From Gen. Devens’sheadquarters we can observe a column of infantrymoving westward on a road parallel with this on aridge about 154 to 2 miles south of this. I amtaking measures to resist an attack from the west.Respectfully, O. O. Howard, Maj.-Gen.”