The Campaign of Chancellorsville Part 19

"I may say here, the battle of Chancellorsville has been a.s.sociated with the battle of Fredericksburg, and has been called a disaster. My whole loss in the battle of Chancellorsville was a little over seventeen thousand."

"I said that Chancellorsville had been called a disaster. I lost under those operations, one piece artillery, I think five or six wagons, and one ambulance." "In my opinion, there is nothing to regret in regard to Chancellorsville, except to accomplish all I moved to accomplish. The troops lost no honor, except one corps, and we lost no more men than the enemy; but expectation was high, the army in splendid condition, and great results were expected from it. It was at a time, too, when the nation required a victory." "I would like to speak somewhat further of this matter of Chancellorsville. It has been the desire and aim of some of Gen. McClellan's admirers, and I do not know but of others, to circulate erroneous impressions in regard to it. When I returned from Chancellorsville, I felt that I had fought no battle; in fact, I had more men than I could use; and I fought no general battle, for the reason that I could not get my men in position to do so; probably not more than three or three and a half corps, on the right, were engaged in that fight."

And he repeats his understanding of his manoeuvring as follows: "My impression was, that Lee would have been compelled to move out on the same road that Jackson had moved on, and pa.s.s over to my right. I should add in my testimony that before leaving Falmouth, to make this move, I had a million and a half of rations on board lighters, and had gunboats in readiness to tow them up to points on the Pamunkey River, in order to replenish my provisions, to enable me to reach Richmond before the enemy could, in case I succeeded in throwing him off that line of retreat. When I gave the order to Gen. Sedgwick, I expected that Lee would be whipped by manoeuvre. I supposed that he would be compelled to march off on the same line that Jackson had. He would have been thrown on the Culpeper and Gordonsville road, placing me fifty or sixty miles nearer Richmond than himself."

Criticism upon such an eccentric summing-up of the results of the campaign of Chancellorsville, is too unprofitable a task to reward the attempt. But a.s.suredly the commander of the gallant Army of the Potomac stands alone in his measure of the importance of the movement, or of the disastrous nature of the defeat.

x.x.xVII. SOME RESULTING CORRESPONDENCE.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, NEAR CHANCELLORSVILLE, VA., May 5, 1863.

To the Commanding Officer, Confederate Forces, Chancellorsville, Va.

I would most respectfully request the privilege of sending a burial-party on the field of Chancellorsville, to bury the dead, and care for the wounded officers and soldiers of my command.

Very respectfully, etc., JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, May 6, 1863.

MAJOR-GEN. J. HOOKER, Commanding Army of the Potomac.

General,-I have had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday, requesting permission to send a burial-party to attend to your dead and wounded on the battle-field of Chancellorsville. I regret that their position is such, being immediately within our lines, that the necessities of war forbid my compliance with your request, which, under other circ.u.mstances, it would give me pleasure to grant. I will accord to your dead and wounded the same attention which I bestow upon my own; but, if there is any thing which your medical director here requires which we cannot provide, he shall have my permission to receive from you such medical supplies as you may think proper to furnish. Consideration for your wounded prompts me to add, that, from what I learn, their comfort would be greatly promoted by additional medical attendance and medical supplies.

I have the honor to be, Respectfully, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, May 6, 1863, 4.30 P.M.

HIS EXCELLENCY A. LINCOLN, President of the United States.

Have this moment returned to camp. On my way received your telegrams of eleven A.M. and 12.30. The army had previously re-crossed the river, and was on its return to camp. As it had none of its trains of supplies with it, I deemed this advisable. Above, I saw no way of giving the enemy a general battle with the prospect of success which I desire. Not to exceed three corps, all told, of my troops have been engaged. For the whole to go in, there is a better place nearer at hand. Will write you at length to-night. Am glad to hear that a portion of the cavalry have at length turned up. One portion did nothing.

JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., May 7, 1863.

MAJOR-GEN. HOOKER.

My dear Sir,-The recent movement of your army is ended without effecting its object, except, perhaps, some important breakings of the enemy's communications. What next? If possible I would be very glad of another movement early enough to give us some benefit from the fact of the enemy's communication being broken; but neither for this reason or any other do I wish any thing done in desperation or rashness. An early movement would also help to supersede the bad moral effect of the recent one, which is said to be considerably injurious. Have you already in your mind a plan wholly or partially formed? If you have, prosecute it without interference from me. If you have not, please inform me, so that I, incompetent as I may be, can try and a.s.sist in the formation of some plan for the army.

Yours, as ever, A. LINCOLN.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., May 7, 1863.

His Excellency, President of the United States.

I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of this date, and in answer have to state that I do not deem it expedient to suspend operations on this line, from the reverse we have experienced in endeavoring to extricate the army from its present position. If in the first effort we failed, it was not for want of strength or conduct of the small number of troops actually engaged, but from a cause which could not be foreseen, and could not be provided against. After its occurrence the chances of success were so much lessened, that I felt another plan might be adopted in place of that we were engaged in, which would be more certain in its results. At all events, a failure would not involve a disaster, while in the other case it was certain to follow the absence of success. I may add that this consideration almost wholly determined me in ordering the army to return to its old camp. As to the best time for renewing our advance upon the enemy, I can only decide after an opportunity has been afforded to learn the feeling of the troops. They should not be discouraged or depressed, for it is no fault of theirs (if I may except one corps) that our last efforts were not crowned with glorious victory. I suppose details are not wanted of me at this time. I have decided in my own mind the plan to be adopted in our next effort, if it should be your wish to have one made. It has this to recommend it: it will be one in which the operations of all the corps, unless it be a part of the cavalry, will be within my personal supervision.

Very respectfully, etc., JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, May 7, 1863.

MAJOR-GEN. HOOKER, Commanding Army of the Potomac.

General,-The reasons that prevented me from complying with your request with reference to your wounded no longer existing, I have the honor to inform you that you can extend to them such attentions as they may require. All persons whom it may be necessary to send within my lines for this purpose will remain until the wounded are finally disposed of. The burial of your dead has already been provided for.

I have directed that those of your wounded who desire it, shall be paroled and transferred within your lines, should you be willing to receive them; those in the vicinity of Chancellorsville at the United-States Mine Ford, and those on the battlefield of Salem Church at Banks's Ford or Fredericksburg. As your wounded generally occupy the few houses in the vicinity of the late battle-field, the transportation of this army cannot be employed in conveying them to the river until my own wounded have been removed to a place of shelter. As soon as this can be accomplished, I will cause such of your wounded as may desire to be paroled, to be delivered at the points above indicated, upon being advised of your willingness to receive them. In the mean time they shall have such care as is given to my own.

I have the honor to enclose a copy of my letter of yesterday in case the original may not have reached you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., May 7, 1863, 8 P.M.

GEN. R. E. LEE, Commanding Confederate Forces at Fredericksburg, Va.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two communications of May 6 and 7 this moment. If agreeable to you, I would like to send medical supplies and attendance to my wounded, and, at such times as the state of the stream will permit, send ambulances for them via the fords designated in your communications, viz., United-States and Banks's Fords. I will, with your consent, send parties to those fords with supplies at an early hour to-morrow. The swollen state of the Rappahannock probably preventing the crossing of any vehicles with supplies, I shall have to depend upon you for transportation for them. I will receive the wounded at the points named as soon as it can be done. I will send an officer to Chancellorsville, with your consent, to arrange the details, which, judging from your letter, with the state of the river, cannot now be determined by correspondence. Upon an intimation from you as to any deficiency in your immediate necessities of medical supplies of your own, by reason of their use for my wounded or other causes, I shall with pleasure replace them. I would be obliged for approximate information concerning the number of wounded, that a sufficient amount of supplies may be forwarded. I would be under obligations for an early reply.

Very respectfully, etc., JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General Commanding.

(Copy furnished medical director.) HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., May 9, 1863.

GEN. R. E. LEE, Commanding Army of Northern Virginia.

The relatives and friends of several of the officers of this army who fell in the recent battles, have visited my headquarters with the view, if possible, of proceeding to the battle-fields to recover the bodies of those near to them. I therefore have the honor to ask whether any person will be permitted to visit the battle-fields for the purpose indicated, or whether any arrangement can be made for sending to the lines of this army the bodies of such of our fallen officers as may have friends here seeking for them.

Very respectfully, etc., JOSEPH HOOKER, Major-General Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, May 10, 1863.

MAJOR-GEN. JOSEPH HOOKER,

Commanding United-States Forces on the Rappahannock.

General,-In reply to your communication of the 9th inst., I have the honor to state that it will give me pleasure to afford every facility to relatives and friends of officers killed in the late battles, to recover their bodies; but I have no means of identifying them, or of ascertaining the fields on which they fell. If you will have me informed, I will cause search to be made.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General.

APPENDIX.

In February and March, 1886, there was delivered at the Lowell Inst.i.tute, in Boston, a series of lectures upon the late civil war, by the following gentlemen:-

Feb. 16. Introduction. Gen. Charles Devens of Boston.

Feb. 19. Pope's Campaign. Col. Jed. Hotchkiss of Staunton, Va.

Feb. 23. Antietam. Gen. George H. Gordon of Boston.

Feb. 26. Chancellorsville. Col. Theodore A. Dodge, U. S. Army.

March 2. Stonewall Jackson. Col. W. Allan of McDonough, Md.

March 5. Gettysburg. Gen. Francis A. Walker of Boston.

March 9. The Northern Volunteer. Col. T. L. Livermore of Boston.

March 12. The Southern Volunteer. Major H. Kyd Douglas of Hagerstown, Md.

March 16. Chattanooga. Gen. William F. Smith of Wilmington, Del.

March 19. The Wilderness. John C. Ropes, Esq., of Boston.

March 23. Franklin and Nashville. Col. Henry Stone of Boston.

March 26. The Last Campaign. Col. Fred. C. Newhall of Philadelphia.

These lecturers were well equipped for their task. Earnest study of their respective subjects had been attested by numerous volumes published by them relating to the war. The desire to have the truth told was apparent in the presence of three Confederate officers among the number; and the special feature of the course seemed to be, that not only was the truth spoken in the most unvarnished manner, but that it was listened to with marked approval by overflowing audiences.

Perhaps the most invidious subject fell to my lot. What I said was merely a summary of the foregoing pages. But one point in my lecture aroused the ire of some of Gen. Hooker's partisans, and was made the subject of attacks so bitter that virulence degenerated into puerility. The occasion of this rodomontade was a meeting of Third-Corps veterans, and its outcome was a series of resolutions aimed at the person who had dared to reflect on Gen. Hooker's capacity, and to refer to the question of Gen. Hooker's habitual use of stimulants. The public mention of my name was as sedulously avoided as a reference to his satanic majesty is wont to be in the society of the superst.i.tious; but the exuberance of the attack must have afforded unbounded satisfaction to its authors, as it very apparently did to the audience.

Following are the resolutions, which are of mild flavor compared to their accompanying seasoning of speeches:-

RESOLUTIONS.

The veterans of the Third Army Corps a.s.sembled here to-day, soldiers who served under Gen. Joseph Hooker in his division, corps, and army, re-affirm their lifelong affection for their old commander, their admiration for his brilliant achievements as one of the prominent generals of our armies, and protest against the recent revival of unjust a.s.saults made on his conduct at Chancellorsville. Whether, after one of the most noted tactical victories of modern times, having placed the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River on the flank of Lee, he might have gained a still farther advanced position; whether the failure of the cavalry to fully accomplish what was expected of it; whether the disaster to the Eleventh Corps and the delay in the advance of the Sixth Corps,-are to be attributed to errors of judgment of Gen. Hooker or of the subordinate commanders, are points which will be discussed again and again with profit to the military student. But we, who witnessed his successful generals.h.i.+p at Williamsburg, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, and Antietam, have no language at our command strong enough to express our contempt for any one who, twenty years after the war, affirms that on any occasion in battle, with the lives of his men and the cause of his country in his keeping, Gen. Hooker was incapacitated for performing his whole duty as an officer by either the use of liquor or by the want of it.

We protest against oft-repeated statements that "Fighting Joe Hooker," while one of the bravest and ablest division commanders in the army, was possibly equal to handling a corps, but proved a failure as an independent commander. a.s.signed to the Army of the Potomac in January, 1863, after the disaster at Fredericksburg and the failure of oft-repeated campaigns, our army demoralized by defeat, desertions, and dissensions, Gen. Hooker re-organized his forces, stopped desertions, brought back to their colors thousands of absentees, and in three months revived confidence, re-established discipline, and enabled his army to take the field unsurpa.s.sed in loyalty, courage, and efficiency, as was shown at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. We say Chancellorsville because, although not a victory for us, the campaign inflicted on the enemy losses at least equal to our own; and we say also Gettysburg because that victory was won by the army Hooker had re-organized, and led with such matchless skill from Falmouth to the eve of the battle.

Whatever ambition he may have had to command armies, it did not prevent his cheerfully serving his country under junior officers, giving them faithful support, and his record shows no instance of his removal from command by his superiors.