Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/422

388 ready for an assault upon Hooker in his intrenched position around Chancellorsville, and saying to his staff, as he mounted his horse: "Those people shall be pressed immediately." No one in the army was more fitted to take the place of Jackson and lead his hardy veterans to victory than fearless "Jeb" Stuart, and with the rising of the sun he promptly ordered forward A. P. Hill's division to the south of the plank road, inclining it to the eastward, while, at the same time, Lee moved McLaws westward, along the plank road, and Anderson northward and westward, south of the plank road, inclining to the left, to fill up the line of interval between his left and Stuart's right.

During the night of the 2d, Hooker was reinforced by 17,000 men of the First corps, under Reynolds, and he now had concentrated at Chancellorsville some 80,000 men, disposed in a bluntly acute salient, projecting southward from each side of Chancellorsville, with the apex at Hazel Grove. The western side of this salient extended for over a mile to the northward from the apex, covering the approaches from the west and the ground held by Jackson's corps. The eastern side of the salient extended about a mile to the northeast, from the apex to the old turnpike, east of Chancellorsville, then reached about a mile to the west of north, to near the Bullock house, thus covering all approaches to Chancellorsville from the eastward. Hooker's lines were nearly those he held the night before, after the retreat of his right from Jackson. His left, facing eastward, was held by 20,000 men of Geary's and Hancock's divisions and the remnant of Howard's corps. In front of these, on Lee's right, were the 14,000 of McLaws and Anderson. Hooker's right was held by the 23,000 men in the division of Williams and the corps of Sickles. Within these two Federal wings were 37,000 more men of the corps of Meade, Reynolds and Couch, in reserve, in the open fields, ready to support either wing. Facing Hooker's right was Stuart with the 20,000 veterans of the Second corps of the army of Northern Virginia.

Stuart began the battle at early dawn by moving against Hooker's right, mainly north of the plank road and against the heavy line of defenses of timber and abatis that the active Federal army had thrown up before and during the preceding night. Stuart, in person, rode