Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/92

 86 Southern Historical Society Papers.

crushing defeat at Fredericksburg-, where, with ofie hundred thou- sand men, he had the temerity to assault Lee in strong position with seventy-five thousand. This was the easiest victory of the war, inflicting terrific loss upon the attacking force, while that of Lee was insignificant.

The next act of this tremendous drama opens with the spring of 1863, when Lee, with fifty -seven thousayid meyi, confronted Hooker, the new Federal commander, with one hundred and thirty-two thousand.

Now, Lee, look to thy charge ! These be odds which might well strike terror to the stoutest heart.

Sedgwick, with a strong force, crossed the river below Fredericks- burg, and demonstrated against Lee's front, while Hooker, with the bulk of his army, swept around Lee's left, crossing at the upper fords, and concentrated at Chancellorsville, in position, not ten miles removed, to assail Lee in left flank and rear. The ordinary com- mander would have escaped from this cul-de-sac by promptly re- tiring his army and establishing it between his enemy and coveted Richmond. But Lee never failed to find, in the division of his adversary's forces, an opportunity to neutralize, as far as possible, the odds against him, by striking him in fragments. Lee's resolve was promptly taken. Leaving the gallant Early with only nine ihousa7id moi to handle Sedgwick, he himself, with the forty-eight thousand remaining, marched straight for Chancellorsville, vigo- rously assaulted the advance of Hooker and soon placed that por- tion of the Federal army on a serious defensive. No time was to be lost. Sedgwick would soon drive back the inferior force of Early, and come thundering on his rear. Hooker must be disposed of promptly, or all was lost. Hooker had seventy five thousand men well entrenched, which was increased to nhiety thousand before the battle was over. Direct assault was desperate, if not hopeless. "The lion's skin is too short, we must eke it out with the fox's."

By a movement whose inconceivable boldness alone insured its success, he still further divided his force, and remaining with only fourteen thousand men in Hooker's front, he sent Jackson with the rest of his army to march across Hooker's line of battle clear around his right, and there, to dash upon his flank and rear, while by simultaneous assault upon his front he would be inevitably crushed.

With that rapidity and perfection of execution which character- ized him, Jackson, unobserved, reached the coveted position, stood