Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/251

Rh harbor, Texas, on January 1st, the Union flagship Westfield was blown up, and the Harriet Lane boarded by the Texans and taken. On March 5th a Federal brigade was captured at Spring Hill, Tenn., by Van Dora. Confederate armed cruisers were playing havoc among the shipping interests in many waters. The Alabama had captured the United States ship Hatteras, and this vessel and the Florida cruised in the West India waters and off the coast of South America. The commander of the Florida estimated his captures at 70 vessels, and Captain Semmes of the Alabama reported the capture by his ship of 56 vessels. Since the commencement of the war it was reported that 184 vessels with their cargoes, valued at $15,000,000, had been destroyed on the high seas by this active branch of the Confederate naval force.

For three months after the battle of Fredericksburg the army of Northern Virginia rested in winter quarters, and when the spring opened it was well prepared for the Federal attack which General Hooker, the successor of Burnside, was expected to make with his army of nearly 132,000 men. The official report of the Confederate army arrayed on the south side of the Rappahannock against this large Federal force shows present for duty on March 31, 1863: Anderson's and McLaws' divisions of Longstreet's corps, 15,649; Jackson's corps, 33,333; cavalry, 6,509; reserve artillery, 1,821; total of all arms, 57,212. Of this number less than 42,000 participated in the battle of Chancellorsville.

The army of the Potomac, with which Hooker was attempting to destroy the army of Lee, was composed of seven army corps of infantry the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Eleventh and Twelfth, containing 119,661 men, and a corps of cavalry, 12,000, making a total of