Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/295

 The Battle of C hancellorsville. 289

A pontoon bridge was now thrown across at Banks's ford, and nearer communication was opened with headquarters. Up to this time, be it noted. Hooker in nowise reflected on Sedgwick's tardi- ness, though aware, through Warren, who had been his representa- tive with Sedgwick, of all the Sixth corps had done or failed to do. His dispatches to Sedgwick are plainly couched in terms of ap- proval.

During Sunday night Lee concluded that he must permanently dispose of Sedgwick before he could again assault Hooker's lines. Early had recaptured the Fredericksburg heights. Gibbon had recrossed the river. The balance of Anderson's force now joined Mc- Laws. With Anderson, McLaws and Early, some twenty-five thou- sand men, Lee thought he could fairly expect to dispose of the Sixth corps, which was now reduced to five thousand less, and felt its lack of success. After this he could turn again upon Hooker. Jackson's corps alone was left to watch Hooker.

Here, then, we have the spectacle, happily rare in war, of a slender force of twenty thousand men, who had been continuously marching and fighting for four days, penning in their defences an army of over sixty thousand, while its commander cries for aid to a lieutenant who is miles away and beset by a larger force than he himself commands. And this slack-sinewed commander is the very same who initiated the campaign with the watchword : "Fight! Fight!! Fight!!!" and with the motto : "Celerity, audacity, and resolution are everything in war."

Despite which lamentable fact, this same commander's after wit sought to lay half the blame of his defeat upon this lieutenant's failure to come to his assistance. The other half fell upon Howard on equally invalid grounds.

So soon as Sedgwick became aware of the presence of the bulk of Lee's force in his front, he disposed his three divisions so as best to cover Banks's ford, both from east and west, and to hold a footing on the plank-road. Substantially, Newton faced west, Brooks south, Howe east. Lee, after some hours' preparation, made ready to push in Sedgwick's centre. It is worth while, perhaps, to note the fact that Lee's delay in attacking Sedgwick was fully as great as Sedgwick's in forcing Marye's Heights. And yet his haste was quite as pressing, for at any moment Hooker might decide to move toward his lieutenant.

Many dispatches passed between Hooker and Sedwick at this time. Sedgwick must, of course, be judged by the time of their receipt.