220
HOOKER’S COMMENTS ON CHANCELLORSNILLE.
battle of Cliancellorsville, as they came under my observation, which memorandum I put onpaper shortly after that event. So I have to depend upon my memory in answering' your ques-tions. According to my recollection, you are mistaken in your impression that General Howard put your dispatches and orders into his pocket without communicating them to his divisioncommanders. About noon or a little after on the day of the attack on the Eleventh Corps 1was at General Howard ’s headquarters, a house on the Cliancellorsville road near the center ofour position. General Howard , being very tired, wanted to rest a little, and asked me as nextin rank to open dispatches that might arrive and to wake him in case they were of immediateimportance. Shortly after a courier arrived with a dispatch from you calling General Howard ’sattention to the movement of the enemy toward our right flank, and instructing him to takeprecautionary measures against an attack from that quarter. I went into General Howard atonce and read it to him, and, if I remember rightly, while we were speaking about it anotheicourier, or one of your young staff-officers, arrived with a second dispatch of virtually tb esame purport. We went out and discussed the matter on the porch of the house. I am n°*sure whether General Steinwehr was present or not. ...
“ I have seen it stated that my troops were already gone when General Devens’s division i 11its hurried retreat reached my position. This is utterly untrue. Some of my regiments, whichhad remained in their old position, succeeded in wheeling round under the fire of the enemy iothers were swept away, but those whose front I had changed during the afternoon in antici-pation of the attack held their ground a considerable time after the debris of General Devens^division had swept through our line. I saw General Dovens, wounded, carried by, and he hadlong been ... in the rear when we were overpowered and fell back upon Colonel Busch-beck’s position, where General Howard in the meantime had been trying to rally the routedtroops. This also you will find in my report. My loss in killed and wounded was quite heavy •if I remember rightly, about twenty per cent.
“ I ought to add that he [General Howard ] thought he could not carry out as well as hedesired your instruction to hold a strong reserve in hand, for the reason that General Barlow’ sbrigade of Steinwehr’s division had been ordered to the support of Sickles. All the precautionthat was taken against a flank attack, aside from what I did without orders, was the construc-tion of a small rifle-pit across the Cliancellorsville road in the rear of my division, near thehouse [Dowdall’s Tavern] occupied by General Howard as headquarters. ... Of coursethis hasty note is not written with any expectation on my part to see it printed as part of a 11historical narrative. It is simply to give yon the information you wish for, and which it givesme pleasure to furnish. Very truly yours, C. ScHURZ .
“ Major-General Hooker.
“ P. S.—Whether General Howard received on that day any dispatches or instructions fromyou subsequent to those mentioned, I do not know.” \
When we arrived at the Chancellor House (which is all there is of Chancel'lorsville), where Greneral Hooker had his headcquarters, and wliere he receivedthe hurt that came near proving mortal, Greneral Hooker said, “ I was stand'ing on this step of the portico on the Sunday morning of the 3d of May, aiaCl
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ground we then occupied, with our front nt right nh>*with tins Plunk road, lining tho church grove and *border of tho woods cast of tho open plain with infam"]placing strong delicious behind both wings, and tlistriy - eing tho artillery along tho front on ground most favor* jfor its action, especially on the eminence on the ng ,and left of Dowdell's Tavern. ... In the ahscnc 1 eorders, but, becoming more and more convinced thatenemy’s attack would eomo from the west and fall ul'our right and rear, I took it upon my own rcsponsiWto detach two regiments from tlm second line of ^Second brigade and to place them in a good position]tho right, ami loft of Ely’s Eord road, west of IlawkU .farm, so as to chock the enemy if ho should attack .extreme rigid and penetrate through tho woods at tpoint. This was subsequently approved by you. •
\ The following are extracts from the officialreport of General Sehurz, who shows, besides, thathis division made strenuous efforts to Btem thoassaults of Jackson’s men:
“ In tile course of tho forenoon I was informed thatlarge columns of the enemy could ho seen from GeneralDevens’s headquarters, moving from oast to west. . • .I observed them plainly as they moved on. r rode hackto your [General Howard ’s] headquarters, and on theway ordered Captain Dilger to look for good artillerypositions on the held fronting west, as the troops -wouldin all probability have to execute a change of front.Tile matter was largely discussed ut your headquarters,and I entertained and expressed In our informal conver-sations tho opinion that we should form upon the open