Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/292

 2SC) SoutJiern Historical Society Papers.

tactics ol the enemy enabled him to outnumber us at every point of attack, while an equal number of available Union troops lay upon their arms close by, witnessing the unneeded slaughter of their com- rades.

The attack of the Confederates began shortly after daylight, with ' ' Jackson ' ' for a watchword, and was gallant in the extreme. Ander- son pushed in on our left centre, as Stuart did on the right centre, both contending for the Chancellor House, which barred their pos- session of the turnpike. No praise is too high for the staunchness of the attack or the stubbornness of the defence ; but, after heavy fighting during the entire forenoon, the Army of the Potomac yielded to the Confederate pressure and retired to a new line already pre- pared by its engineers, and which had its apex at White House. Time does not allow the barest details of this struggle to be entered upon. Suffice it to say, that the loss of the Third, Twelfth and Sec- ond corps, of four thousand, three thousand and two thousand, re- spectively, effectually gauges the bitterness of the contest. The Confederate loss was, if anything, higher than ours during this Sun- day morning. Lee was reforming for an assault upon our new line, when rumors from Fredericksburg diverted his attention.

During this fight of Sunday morning, the general plan of the Con- federates was to obtain possession of the direct road, by which they could keep to themselves the communications with Fredericksburg. Hooker's plan, after failing to attack one or the other of Lee's divided wings, should have been to retain this road, the key to which was the Chancellorsville crest and plateau. But he seemed to have no conception of using the forces at hand. The First, Fifth and Eleventh corps were not put into action at all, though of their forty-seven thousand men, thirty thousand could easily have been spared from the positions they held. Reynolds could have projected a strong column upon Stuart's left flank, and was eager to render this simple service. From our left, several divisions could have made a diver- sion against McLaws's right. Our force at Fairview could have been doubled at any time. But all that Hooker seemed able to do was to call upon Sedgwick, a dozen miles away, to perform an im- possible task in succor of his own overwhelming force.

To be sure. Hooker was disabled lor some hours by the falling against him, about lo A. M., of a column of the Chancellor House, which was dislodged by a shell. During this period Couch acted as his mouthpiece. But this disablement cannot excuse the error which preceded it, and Hc;oker was beaten, morally and tactically, before this