Page:Civil War The 42nd Infantry Division of Bedford County Virginia.djvu/24

 needed to know. That night he set General Jackson's entire force in motion in front of Hooker's men and marched them around back of Hooker's troops, to get at his weak spot.

General Hooker had not made his move yet and had lost too much time and his advantage had passed. He now thought that General Lee was pulling his forces out and would retreat back to Richmond and no battle would be fought.

At 5:30 p. m. on May 2 Jackson's men were in position as the bugle call sounded, the rebel yell and the cannons opened up on the Eleventh Corp of Hancock's division, under General O. O. Howard. They were eating dinner and had their rifles stacked. They took off with the pack mules, officer's horses, caissons with men and horses running for their lives. They ran into Berry's division of the 3rd Corps, Hayses' brigade of the 2nd Corps and part of the 12th, no one could make an effectual stand until finally dark came and each outfit tried to reorganize and form a battle line for next day.

The night of May 2nd, 1863, was to be a sad night for the Confederate forces and General Lee. General Jackson was doing some scouting ahead of the lines and ran into a brigade of North Carolinian troops on guard and was mistaken for Yankee scouts. The party was fired upon and General Jackson was hit by 3 balls, most of his party was killed or wounded. General Jackson died 8 days later on May 10, 1863. The command was passed to General A. P. Hill and he was carried from the field early next morning wounded also. General Lee placed General "J. E. B." StuardStuart [sic] in command of Jackson's forces and the 3rd of May was a seesaw battle, but General Stuart was a smart cookie also. He saw an advantage to be had by placing 30 pieces of artillery on top of Hazel Grove and shelling the Federal troops. This made the difference in a winning battle and a loosing battle and the army of General Hooker was now a defeated army. This is not exactly correct, the General was defeated, not the army.

On May 4th and 5th General Hooker ordered his army to withdraw back across the river rather than to risk total war with General Lee, explaining this to his Corp commanders that their duty was first to protect Washington. The Federal forces lost 17,287, the Confederates lost 12,821 at Chancellorsville.

The 42nd Infantry was at Chancellorsville under Lt. Gen. Jackson's second corps. They were in General Trimble's division, BrigaderBrigadier [sic] General J. R. Jones's brigade, commanded by Lt. Col. R. W. Withers. The 42nd Division had 15 killed and 120 wounded in this battle.

While Richmond rejoiced at the victory, the deep despair in Washington was summed up by Lincoln's anguished cry "My God! What will the country say?"