on awaits him.

The operations of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps have been a
succession of splendid achievements.

By command of Major-Gen. Hooker.
S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

Pleasonton, during Thursday, pushed out towards Fredericksburg and
Spotsylvania Court House to observe the enemy.

Fitz Hugh Lee had bivouacked this evening at Todd's Tavern. Stuart, with
his staff, had started towards Fredericksburg to report the condition of
affairs to Gen. Lee. It was a bright moonlight night. A mile or two on
the road he ran against a party of Federal horsemen, the advance of the
Sixth New York Cavalry, under Lieut.-Col. McVicar. Sending back for the
Fifth Virginia Cavalry, Lee attacked the Federal troopers, leading in
person at the head of his staff; but, being repulsed, he sent for
the entire brigade to come up, with which he drove back McVicar's
detachment.

The combat lasted some time, and was interesting as being a night
affair, in which the naked weapon was freely used. Its result was to
prevent Pleasonton from reaching Spotsylvania Court House, where he
might have destroyed a considerable amount of stores.

The position on Thursday evening was then substantially this. At
Hamilton's Crossing there was no change. Each party was keenly scanning
the movements of the other, seeking to divine his purpose. Sedgwick
and Reynolds were thus holding the bulk of Lee's army at and near
Fredericksburg. Hooker, with four corps, and Sickles close by, lay at
Chancellorsville, with only Anderson's small force in his front, and
with his best chances hourly slipping away. For Lee, by this time aware
of the real situation, hesitated not a moment in the measures to be
taken to meet the attack of his powerful enemy.

IX. LEE'S INFORMATION AND MOVEMENTS.

Let us now turn to Lee, and see what he has been doing while Hooker thus
discovered check.

Pollard says: "Lee calmly watched this" (Sedgwick's) "movement, as well
as the one higher up the river under Hooker, until he had penetrated the
enemy's design, and seen the necessity of making a rapid division of
his own forces, to confront him on two different fields, and risking the
result of fighting him in detail."

Lossing states Lee's object as twofold: to retain Banks's Ford, so as to
divide Hooker's army, and to keep his right wing in the Wilderness.

Let us list