mental commanders had fallen in equal proportions. Our forces had,
owing to the extraordinary combinations of the general in command, been
outnumbered by the enemy wherever engaged. While we had received the
early assaults behind breastworks, we had constantly been obliged to
recapture them, as they were successively wrenched from our grasp,--and
we had done it. Added to the prestige of success, and the flush of the
charge, the massing of columns upon a line of only uniform strength
had enabled the Confederates to repeatedly capture portions of our
intrenchments, and, thus taking the left and right in reverse, to drive
back our entire line. But our divisions had as often done the same.
And well may the soldiers who were engaged in this bloody encounter
of Sunday, May 3, 1863, call to mind with equal pride that each met a
foeman worthy of his steel.

Say Hotchkiss and Allan: "The resistance of the Federal army had been
stubborn. Numbers, weight of artillery, and strength of position, had
been in its favor. Against it told heavily the loss of morale due to the
disaster of the previous day."

XXIII. THE LEFT CENTRE.

While the bulk of the fighting had thus been done by the right centre,
Anderson was steadily forcing his way towards Chancellorsville. He had
Wright's, Posey's, and Perry's brigades on the left of the plank road,
and Mahone's on the right, and was under orders to press on to the
Chancellor clearing as soon as he could join his left to Jackson's
right. He speaks in his report as if he had little fighting to do to
reach his destination. Nor does Geary, who was in his front, mention any
heavy work until about nine A.M.; for Geary's position was jeopardized
by the enfilading fire of Stuart's batteries on the Hazel-Grove hill,
and by the advance of Stuart's line of battle, which found his right
flank in the air. He could scarcely be expected to make a stubborn
contest under these conditions.

While thus hemmed in, Geary "obeyed an order to retire, and form my
command at right angles with the former line of battle, the right
resting at or near the Brick House," (Chancellorsville). While in the
execution of this order, Hooker seems to have changed his purpose, and
in person ordered him back to his original stand, "to hold it at all
hazards."

In some manner, accounted for by the prevalent confusion, Greene's and
Kane's brigades had, during this change of front, become separated
from the command, and had