Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Two).djvu/515

 however, has come from an unexpected quarter. Dr. August Choate Hamlin, formerly Lieutenant-Colonel and Medical Inspector, United States Army, a nephew of Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, had, in the course of the war, become acquainted with many of the officers and men of the Eleventh Corps. The frequent repetitions be heard of the old stories about the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville—not, indeed, from serious military critics, but from that class of old soldiers who were fond of vaunting their own brave deeds at the expense of others—provoked him so much, that, prompted by a mere sense of justice, he undertook to investigate the happenings at Chancellorsville, so far as they touched the Eleventh Corps, to the minutest detail. He not only studied all the documents bearing upon the subject, but he visited the battlefield, inspected the positions, measured to the yard and to the inch the distances between the various points mentioned in the reports, and sought out every person, North and South, who could give him any information of consequence. In his painstaking way he has produced a book of rare historical value. After sifting his evidence with unsparing rigor, he delivered his judgments with absolute impartiality, not only sweeping away the slanders that had been heaped upon the Eleventh Corps, but also putting under merciless searchlight many of the fanciful stories told of the heroic deeds performed in the dark of night to repair the mischief done by the so-called “misconduct” of that ill-fated body of brave soldiers.

However, the Army of the Potomac as a whole recovered quickly from the disappointments and fatigues of the Chancellorsville campaign, and when before the middle of June the rumor spread that Lee had stretched forth his left toward the Shenandoah Valley to attempt another invasion of the North, our men were ready and eager to march and fight.