Seven Months in the Rebel States During the North American War, 1863

III. Battle of Chancellorsville

48 SEVEN MONTHS IN THE REBEL STATES who beset him in three units, and if possible, to keep these troops from uniting with McClellan. However, Jackson had not been satisfied with this purely defensive task, which was difficult within itself, but he had fallen like a lion upon the separate forces of each of his superior opponents and had so crushed all of them that they, taken aback, sought protection beyond the Alleghenies or beyond the Potomac. He had threatened Washington to the extent that the frightened government withdrew badly needed reserves from General McClellan to defend the capital city, and, leaving behind him the enemies that had been thrown into terror, he had finally hurried quickly southward on incredibly swift marches. He arrived thereby at Cold Harbor ["Cool Harbour"] just in time to fall so effectively upon McClellan's right flank in the Battle of Gaines's Mill ["Gaines Hill"] near Richmond, that the latter gave up further harassment of this capital city. Now McClellan had also fallen into disfavor in the North, as had [Brig. Gen. Irvin] McDowell ["McDowall"] after the Battle of Bull Run, and a certain General [Maj.-Gen. John] Pope, who had penetrated with his unattached forces into the region between the Rappahannock and the Potomac evacuated by Jackson, was put in command. He was also supposed to gain laurels for himself, and he began by replacing the respectable waging of war introduced by McClellan with a brutal conduct of the business more pleasing to the mob. But the attempt failed completely, since he, circumvented by Jackson and attacked on the flank by the rest of the army, was sent home in such a fashion that he lost his glory and his office. The victorious Southern troops crossed the Potomac, and the worried Northern Cabinet again called McClellan to the colors, who was now given supreme command of the entire Northern army. At the Battle of Antietam (called the Battle of Sharpsburg by the Southerners), which was indecisive, to be sure, he succeeded in stopping the advance of the Confederates, who were already threatening Pennsylvania, but he was neither able to prevent the surprise of Harpers Ferry by Jackson, where- THE ARMY AND THE WAR SITUATION IN 1863 49 by the latter general captured a tremendous mass of war material and provisions, along with 12,000 prisoners, nor to disturb the withdrawal of Lee's army across the Potomac, since his troops were not able to undertake an operation so closely resembling an offensive after the battle mentioned above. General Stuart again succeeded not only in spreading fear and confusion in the rear of the hostile army in a cavalry operation carried out with rare boldness and energy, but he even outfitted his entire cavalry division with the booty and augmented it with 600 horses. The failure of the campaign, which must be charged at least as much to the ineffectiveness of the Northern army as to the hesitant caution of General McClellan, became a basis for complaint against the General, who lost his command , however, mainly because of his moderate political tendencies, so that the command was transferred to General [Ambrose] Burnside. The latter resolved, as they say, "to take the bull by the horns." He crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and made a frontal attack against General Lee's army, which was deployed concentrically on hills. This army remained strictly on the defensive, since the favorable terrain permitted a sustained fire of volleys almost everywhere from a depth of four lines, in addition to the artillery fire. The result was that Burnside's army, thoroughly staggered, made no further attempt to take the position at Fredericksburg after it had suffered losses seven times as heavy as those of its opponents. It was due only to the possibly excessive caution of General Lee, who had no knowledge of the demoralized condition of the beaten army, that the latter again reached the northern bank of the Rappahannock without being completely annihilated. (December, 1862.) General Burnside shared the fate of his predecessors. He lost his command, which was taken over by General Hooker. The latter had made a name for himself by his personal bravery on the one hand, and by making serious charges against his predecessors and General McClellan on the other hand. He was called "Fighting Joe" by his friends, and he 50 SEVEN MONTHS IN THE REBEL STATES attempted to extol...