Historic Fredericksburg Part 5

[Sidenote: _A Critique of the Armies_]

In the whole action at Fredericksburg, General Lee used but 57,000 men, while official reports state that the Northern forces "in the fight"

numbered 100,000. As bearing on this (and most a.s.suredly with no intention to belittle the gallant men of the Federal Army, who fought so bravely) the condition of Burnside's Army, due to the policy of his government and to Major-General Hooker's insubordination, is to be considered. An estimate of this army by the New York Times shows to what pa.s.s vacillation had brought it. The Times said after Fredericksburg:

"Sad, sad it is to look at this superb Army of the Potomac--the match of which no conqueror ever led--this incomparable army, fit to perform the mission the country has imposed upon it--paralyzed, petrified, put under a blight and a spell. You see men who tell you that they have been in a dozen battles and have been licked and chased every time--they would like to chase once to see how it "feels." This begins to tell on them. Their splendid qualities, their patience, faith, hope and courage, are gradually oozing out. Certainly never were a graver, gloomier, more sober, sombre, serious and unmusical body of men than the Army of the Potomac at the present time."

On the other hand, thus spoke the correspondent of the London Times of the "tatterdermalion regiments of the South":

"It is a strange thing to look at these men, so ragged, slovenly, sleeveless, without a superfluous ounce of flesh on their bones, with wild, matted hair, in mendicants rags, and to think, when the battle flags go to the front, how they can and do fight. 'There is only one att.i.tude in which I should never be ashamed of you seeing my men, and that is when they are fighting.' These were General Lee's words to me the first time I ever saw him."

_At Chancellorsville_

_The Struggle in the Pine Woods when death struck at Southern hearts_

From the close of the battle at Fredericksburg in December 1862, until the spring of 1863, General Burnside's Army of the Potomac and General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia lay in camp; the first on the north and the second on the south bank of the Rappahannock. The little town, now fairly well repopulated by returned refugees, lay between the hosts. The Northern lines practically began at Falmouth, where General Daniel b.u.t.terfield had headquarters, and at which spot young Count Zeppelin and his a.s.sistants were busily arranging to send up a great Observation Balloon with a signalling outfit. Southward, Lee's army stretched over thirty-three miles, from the fords of the Rappahannock, where the hard riding cavalrymen of Stuart and W. H. F. Lee watched, to Port Royal, Jackson's right.

Burnside's headquarters were the Phillips house and Chatham, (recently owned by the famous journalist, Mark Sullivan and where he and Mrs.

Sullivan made their home for some years). Hooker, part of the time, was at the Phillips house, Lee in a tent, near Fredericksburg, while General Jackson had headquarters first in an outbuilding at Moss Neck, now the home of Count d'Adhemar and later in a tent. It was here that he became fond of little Farley Carbin, who came every day to perch on his knee and receive little presents from him. One day he had nothing to give her, and so, ere she left, he tore the gold braid from the new hat that was part of a handsome uniform just given him by General "Jeb" Stuart, and placed it like a garland on her pretty curly head. During the winter the General, who from the beginning of the war never slept at night outside his army's camp, nor had an hour's leave of absence, saw for the first time since he left Lexington, and for next to the last time on earth, his wife and little daughter, whom he so fervently loved. They spent some weeks near him at Moss Neck.

[Sidenote: _Christmas at the Front_]

Christmas Eve came. In the Southern camp back of the hills down the river road, up towards Banks Ford, out at Salem Church, and even in the town, hunger and cold were the lot of all. General Lee, wincing at the sufferings of his "tatterdermalion" forces, wrote and asked that the rations of his men be increased, but a doctor-inspector sent out by the often futile Confederate Government reported that the bacon ration of Lee's army--one-half a pound a day, might be cut down, as "the men can be _kept alive_ on this." General Lee himself wrote that his soldiers were eating berries, leaves, roots and the bark of trees to "supplement the ration," and although at this time the Confederate Government had a store of bacon and corn meal that would have fed _all_ its armies a half year, Lee's ragged soldiers starved throughout the winter. It is worthy of note here that when Lee's starving army moved, foodless, toward that last day at Appomattox, they marched past 50,000 pounds of bacon alone, which the Confederate commissary, at Mr. Jefferson Davis' orders, burned next day.

We spoke of Christmas Eve, when in the long lines of the two camps' great fires beamed, voices rose in songs and hymns, and bands played. Late in the evening, when dusk had settled, a band near Brompton broke out defiantly into "Dixie," and from the Was.h.i.+ngton Farm a big band roared out "The Battle Hymn." There was a pause and then, almost simultaneously, they began "Home, Sweet Home," and catching the time played it through together. When it was done, up from the camps of these boys who were to kill and be killed, who were to die in misery on many a sodden field, rose a wild cheer.

Hardly could two great armies ever before have lain for months' within sight of each other as these two did in almost amicable relations. There was no firing; the cannon-crowned hills were silent. Drills and great reviews took place on either bank of the river and in the Confederate ranks there went on a great religious "revival" that swept through the organization. Along the banks of the river where pickets; patrolled by day, and their little fires flamed in the night, trading was active. From the Union bank would come the call softly:

"Johnny."

"Yea, Yank."

"Got any tobacco?"

"Yes, want 't trade?"

"Half pound of coffee for two plugs of tobacco, Reb."

"'right, send 'er over."

They traded coffee, tobacco, newspapers and provisions, sometimes wading out and meeting in mid-river, but as the industry grew, miniature ferry lines, operated by strings, began to ply.

Soldiers and Generals pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed in the streets of Fredericksburg, where wreckage still lay about in confusion, houses presented dilapidated fronts, and only a few of the citizens attempted to occupy their homes.

Once, in midwinter, the armies became active when Burnside attempted to move his army and cross the river above Fredericksburg; but only for a few days, for that unfortunate General's plans were ruined by a deluge and his army "stuck in the mud." General Hooker took his place.

[Sidenote: _The Coming of Spring_]

About April 26 Hooker's great army, "The finest army on the planet," he bombastically called it, moved up the river and began crossing. It was his purpose to get behind Lee's lines, surprise him and defeat him from the rear. On April twenty-ninth and thirtieth, Hooker got in position around Chancellorsville, in strong entrenchments, a part of his army amounting to 85,000 men, but the Confederate skirmishers were already in front of him.

It was the Northern Commander's plan for Sedgwick, left at Fredericksburg with 40,000, to drive past Fredericksburg and on to Chancellorsville, and thus to place the Southern forces between the two big Federal armies and crush it.

[Sidenote: _The First Aerial Scout_]

Before the great battle of Chancellorsville began, this message came down from the first balloon ever successfully used in war, tugging at its cable two thousand feet above the Scott house, on Falmouth Heights:

Balloon in the Air, April 29, 1863.

Major-General b.u.t.terfield, Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac.

General: The enemy's line of battle is formed in the edge of the woods, at the foot of the heights, from opposite Fredericksburg to some distance to the left of our lower crossing. Their line appears quite thin, compared with our forces. Their tents all remain as heretofore, as far as I can see.

T. C. S. LOWE, Chief of Aeronauts.

But the force did not "remain as heretofore" long, though the tents were left to confuse the enemy, for on April 29 General Anderson moved to Chancellorsville, followed on April 30 by General McLaws; and under cover of darkness "Stonewall Jackson" moved to the same place that night, with 26,000 men. On May 1, then, Hooker's 91,000 at Chancellorsville were being pressed by Lee's army of 46,000.

General Early's command of 9,000 and Barksdale's brigade of 1,000 and some detached troops were left to defend Fredericksburg against Sedgwick's corps, which was now crossing the Rappahannock, 30,000 strong. At 11 A.

M., May 1, General Lee's army, with Jackson's corps on his left, began the attack at Chancellorsville, of which this dispatch speaks:

Balloon in the Air, May 1, 1863.

Major-General Sedgwick, Commanding Left Wing, Army of the Potomac.

General: In a northwest direction, about twelve miles, an engagement is going on.

T. C. S. LOWE, Chief of Aeronauts.

[Sidenote: _Fight at Chancellorsville_]

Before evening of May 1 Hooker's advance guard was driven back, and the Confederate forces swept on until within one mile of Chancellorsville, and there, stopped by a "position of great natural strength" (General Lee) and by deep entrenchments, log breastworks and felled trees, they ceased to progress. It was evident at nightfall that with his inferior force the Southern commander could not drive Hooker, and that if he failed to do so, Sedgwick would drive back the small force in Fredericksburg and would come on from Fredericksburg and crush him.

Jackson and Lee bivouaced that night near where the Old Plank Road and the Furnace Road intersect, and here formulated their plans for the morrow.

From Captain Murray Taylor, of General A. P. Hill's staff, they learned that a road existed, by advancing down which (the Furnace Road) then turning sharply and marching in a "V" Jackson's plan to turn Hooker's right might be carried out, and at Captain Taylor's suggestion they sent for "Jack" Hayden, who could not be gotten at once, and who, being an old man, was "hiding out" to avoid "Yankee" marauders.

Lee and Jackson slept on the ground. Jackson, over whom an officer had thrown his overcoat, despite his protests, waited until the officer dozed, gently laid the coat over him and slept uncovered, as he had not brought his own overcoat. Later, arising chilled, he sat by the fire until near dawn, when his army got in motion.

When Jackson moved away in the early hours of May 2 there were left to face Hooker's 91,000 men on the Federal left, Lee's 14,000 men, attacking and feinting, and nowhere else a man. Jackson was moving through tangled forests, over unused roads, and before 5 o'clock of that memorable afternoon of May 2 he had performed the never-equalled feat of moving an army, infantry and artillery of 26,000 men sixteen miles, entirely around the enemy, and reversing his own army's front. He was now across the Plank Road and the Turnpike, about four miles from Chancellorsville, facing toward Lee's line, six miles away. And Hooker was between them!

[Sidenote: _Jackson's Stroke of Genius_]

It was 5:30 when Jackson's command (Colston's and Rhodes' Divisions, with A. P. Hill in reserve) gave forth the rebel yell and sweeping along through the woods parallel to the roads, fell on Hooker's right while the unsuspecting army was at supper. The Federals fled in utter disorder.

Before his victorious command, Jackson drove Hooker's army through the dark pine thickets until the Federal left had fallen on Chancellorsville and the right wing was piled up and the wagon trains fleeing, throwing the whole retreating army into confusion. At 9 o'clock he held some of the roads in Hooker's rear, and the Northern army was in his grasp.

Hill was to go forward now. He rode to the front with his staff, a short distance behind Jackson, who went a hundred yards ahead of the Confederate lines on the turnpike to investigate. Bullets suddenly came singing from the Northern lines and Jackson turned and rode back to his own lines.