HOOKER’S COMMENTS ON CHANCELLORSVILLE.
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Banks’s Ford, on the south side of the stream, and I would bring my wholearmy to his support; but the order failed to reach him until he had already^crossed the river. & Could I have had my army on the open grounds at thatPoint where I could have manoeuvred it properly, I felt assured that I couldhave gained a decisive victory. But this, my last chance, was frustrated.” J
& The “ Official Records ” (Vol. XXV., Part II., p.^18) show that Sedgwick recrossed the Rappa-hannock in obedience to an order from GeneralHooker, dated May 5th, 1 a. m., and received by^dgwick at 2 a. m. At 1:20 a. m. Hooker sent( J le following order to Sedgwick (Ibid., p. 419):
Yours received, saying you should hoid positionUs ordered]. Order to withdraw countermanded.”fhis countermand was received by Sedgwick atd :2 0 a. m., but meanwhile almost his entire com-mand had recrossed under the order of 1 a. m.—
Editors.
J The subjoined letter has been kindly furnished0 Vs for publication by Lieutenant Worth G. Ross,s ° n of the late Colonel Samuel Ross, to whom it isaddressed. It is believed that it had not beenMuted before its appearance in “ The Century”or April, 1888.— Editors.
“Lookout Valley, Tenn., February 28tli, 1864.My Dear Colonel : For some reason your letter waslo u« time in reaching me. When tlie Eleventh CorpsfeWe W ay on Saturday, Berry’s division and Hays’s1 eadc were dispatched to seize and hold the groundu Pied by tlie left of that corps. Berry double-quickeda],! lllen t° the point, but was too late. Tlie enemy weredi r eady hi possession. When this was reported to me Ibeted my engineers to establish a new line, whichtin 9 Whited out to them on the map, and at the samebio* 6 ^'dod to them that we would probably have to■ r , Vr ' on it as soon as the enemy opened on us in thefro ni " s ' as his batteries would sweep the plain infllui ^ le Chaneelloraville House, and, besides, en-H e line held by the Second and Twelfth corps^ its entire length. Soon after these instructions, e ^ v eu to the engineers, peremptory orders weret 0;i . General Sedgwiolt to advance over tlie Plankof th , m Fredericksburg and attack the enemy in frontobig '^eoond and Twelfth corps at daylight. My singletoV* * n holding on to the position as long as I did wasetu ’ Sedgwick’s guns, which I momentarily expected,
of course. General Warren had been sent to guide him.The orders reached him between 10 and 11 o’clock, [he]had but eight miles to march, a bright moonlight night,with only a small force to oppose. Probably had hemarched as directed, not a gun would have been tired.With Lee in my front and Jackson on my flank I was un-willing to attempt to force my way through Lee, espe-cially as the roads through the forests would only enableme to present my columns with narrow fronts, whichthe enemy could cut down as fast as they were exposed.I knew that I could do this, and I gave the enemy creditfor being able to do as much as I could, but no more.Had Sedgwick come up on Lee's rear, the latter wouldhave found himself between two armies, and woulddoubtless have followed Jackson’s flank movement,which I desired, as that would throw the enemy off theshort road to Kickmond and our troops on it. I do notknow that you ever heard that I had one and a halfmillions of rations afloat in the Potomac to throw up thePamuukey River in view of this contingency.
“1 recrossed the Rappahannock, expecting to returnat or near Franklin’s Crossing, where I had elbow-room[see p. 74], and at least an oven chance for being victo-rious, and so stated to tlie President at the time. Nogeneral battle was fought at Clmncellorsville, for I wasunwilling to give battle with such great odds againstme. I rejoice that what was not gained was not lost.
“ We lost no honors at Cliancellorsville. With all of ourmisfortunes the enemy’s loss exceeded our own by one-third. Of this I have abundant evidence in tlie officialreturns of the enemy’s casualties, as they have fromtime to time been published. [But see p. 238.] If I didnot cross tlie river again it will appear that it was forreasons over which I had no control. The rains hadnothing to do with our returning from Clmncellorsville,for it had been determined on in my mind long beforetlie rain commenced falling. I do not like to be quotedas authority on this subject until after the official reportis published, and for the flattering terms in which youspeak of me —not ever. I hope that you and yours arewell. My kindest regards to Mrs. Ross and my bestwishes for yourself. Your friend,
“ Joseph Hooker.
“ Colonel Samitel Ross,
. ^ '-jar
TOSS 3
FORAGING IN THE WILDERNESS.