Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/50

46. Official reports it may be said, as a rule, are unsatisfactory, and often fail to furnish the information which would prove most useful in fixing localities and estimating the effect of a given movement. It is a usual failing to exaggerate the effect of minor actions, and to minimize serious errors. It is only by comparisons of reports on both sides that an approximate estimate can be arrived at. But any account of so intricate a battle as that of Chancellorsville, covering so wide an area, and involving so many changes of position, with few land marks to determine them, can only be general and must necessarily be imperfect. Individual prowess is hidden in the fog of battle, and organized units lose their identity. It is said that Victor Hugo spent three months studying the battlefield of Waterloo; and the house is still shown which he occupied while writing up his account of that battle. But it may be doubted if with all this preparation, the brilliant author did not draw upon his imagination to supplement what he saw and what he heard.

NotwitstandingNotwithstanding [sic] the writer was in Jackson's flanking column and participated in the battle of May 3d, the movements of the two armies from April 30th to May 5th, and the relative location of the different battlefields were always shrouded in more or less obscurity. A visit to these fields a few years since enabled him to realize more fully the trying situations which General Lee had to meet, as well as the immense difficulties which General Hooker overcame in his initial movement, and the opportunities which he afterwards threw away. The interest thus stimulated led him to again go over many of the official reports and war maps, and to read more or less of the literature published on the subject, including Colonel Henderson's graphic account, and the elaborate compilation of Captain Bigelow, and for his own satisfaction he has at leisure moments filled up the following sketch.

Before attempting however, any account of the campaign, it will be interesting to glance briefllybriefly [sic] at the situation of the two armies, the obstacles to be overcome by either, in any offensive movement, and the considerations which were brought to bear upon the two commanding Generals.