HOOKER’S COMMENTS ON CHANCELLORSKILLE.
22 I
^as giving direction to the battle, which was now raging with great fury, thecannon-balls reaching me from both the east and the west, when a solid shots triiek the pillar near me, splitting it in two, and throwing one-half longitudi-nally against me, striking my whole right side, which soon turned livid. Fora few moments I was senseless, and the report spread that I had been killed.r* u t X soon revived, and, to correct the misapprehension, I insisted on beinghtted upon my horse, and rode back toward the white house, which subse-quently became the center of my new position. Just before reaching it, thePam from my hurt became so intense that I was likely to fall, when I wasassisted to dismount, and was laid upon a blanket spread out upon the ground,^ n d was given some brandy. This revived me, and I was assisted to remount.Scarcely was I off the blanket when a solid shot, fired by the enemy at Hazelft rove, struck in the very center of that blanket, where I had a momentbefore been lying, and tore up the earth in a savage way.” As he endedthis recital General Hooker turned to Major Chancellor, who was standingby, and said, “Ah, Major! Your people were after me with a sharp stick onthat day.”
A- short distance from the Chancellor House, in the direction of Dowdall’sJ-avern, our carriage was halted, and, dismounting, Major Chancellor led us^ few paces out of the road, along a faint cart-path, when he said, “ This is( b e place where Stonewall Jackson received the wounds that proved mortal.”I have always been struck,” observed General Hooker, “ with the last wordsGeneral Jackson , evincing how completely he was absorbed in the progressbf the battle. In his delirium he was still upon the field, and he cried out,Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action — pass the infantry to the front^PHlly — tell Major Hawks —’ when he stopped with the sentence unfinished,^aer a little his brow relaxed, as if from relief, and he said, ‘ Let us crossthe liver, and rest under the shade of the trees,’— and these were hisGst words.”
^‘living at Dowdall’s Tavern, General Hooker pointed out the excellentPosition here afforded for Howard’s corps to have made a stout defense.
‘hisehbeck’s brigade of that corps,” said he, “ did wonders here, and held the^hole impetuous onset of the enemy in check for an hour or more, whichSave me opportunity to bring my reserves into position. The loss of thisS l ound brought me into so cramped a condition that I was obliged to take upttew position, which I successfully accomplished. I now ordered Sedgwick,110 commanded the Sixth Corps, the largest in my army, some 22,000 men,
ti 0ll ^ exceptions, no change was made in the posi-tlie ° 01 'P H - The losses suffered by myStop iu tlle action of May 2d were very severe inIsjjj y r tion to my whole effective force. I had 15 officers36 i i 7. ’ 23 bounded, and 15 missing, and 102 men killed,^Med, and 441 missing,—total, 953.d°sinJ 0f ^ amounted to about 23 per cent. . . .■ Inrei h ;i j£ roport I beg leave to make one additionalef *Pepi7i Eleventh Corps, and, by error or malice,v hoio, y the Third Division, has been held up to theb ecil ' country as a band of cowards. My division has
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hiade
responsible for the defeat of the Eleventh
Corps, and the Eleventh Corps for the failure of thecampaign. Preposterous as this is, yet we have beenoverwhelmed by the army and the press with abuse andinsult beyond measure. We have borne as much ashuman nature can endure. I am far from sayingthot onMay 2d everybody did his duty to the best of liis power.
“But one thing I will say, because I know it: thesemen are no cowards. . . . I have seen, with my owneyes, troops who now affect to look down upon theEleventh Corps with sovereign contempt behave muchworse under circumstances far less trying. ...”
Editors.