edericksburg was a
ruin, riddled with shot and shell, tenanted only by the poorest
classes. Her once cheerful and elegant population were ruined and
starving refugees in Richmond; the smiling tracts stretching back to
the Potomac were one broad, houseless waste--browned by fire, and cut
with the winding wagon-roads of the enemy. Constant incursions of his
cavalry--for "raiding" had now become a feature of the war--harassed
the people, everywhere removed from the immediate army lines. These
slaughtered and drove off their cattle, stole and consumed their
supplies, burned their barns, _and destroyed their farming utensils!_--a
refinement of barbarity to non-combatants, never before practiced by a
civilized race.

Then, too, the news from the West, heretofore sketched, reacted on
Richmond; and the gloom in the Capital grew deep and universal.
Burnside had, meantime, been dismissed in disgrace for his shameful
failure. The inevitable howl had again gone up in the North; then the
inevitable result had come. Joseph Hooker was now the coming man--the
war-gong was sounded more loudly than ever; the army was re-enforced to
greater size than ever; and so equipped that its general proclaimed it
the "finest army on the planet." Agog with preparation, and stuffed
full with promises of certain success this time, the North forgot the
many slips between its lips and the coveted cup of triumph, and waited
in secure impatience for the moment when the roads would permit Hooker
to advance.

And the South waited, too--not hopefully, nor with the buoyant
anticipation of the past, but still with a confidence in its cause and
its defenders nowise diminished; with even more fixed determination
never to yield, while there were muskets left and hands to grasp them.

At last the movement came. Late in April, Hooker divided his immense
army into two columns, one menacing right crossing below Fredericksburg,
to hold the troops at that point; the other crossing above, to flank
and pass to their rear, combining with the other wing and cutting
communication with Richmond. Taking command in person of his right
wing--while the left was confided to General Slocum--Hooker rapidly
crossed the river, concentrating not less than 60,000 men on the
Chancellorsville road, eleven miles above Fredericksburg. Grasping the
situation at once, Lee ordered the small force there back to Mine Run,
until re-enforced; and then, on the 2d of May, Stonewall Jackson
compl