who made them,
doubtless concluding that his own success would prove greater than
that of his predecessors. This opinion seemed borne out by the first
proceedings of General Hooker. He set to work energetically to
reorganize and increase the efficiency of the army, did away
with General Burnside's defective "grand division" arrangement,
consolidated the cavalry into an effective corps, enforced strict
discipline among officers and men alike, and at the beginning of
spring had brought his army to a high state of efficiency. His
confident tone inspired the men; the depression resulting from the
great disaster at Fredericksburg was succeeded by a spirit of buoyant
hope, and the army was once more that great war-engine, ready for any
undertaking, which it had been under McClellan.

It numbered, according to one Federal statement, one hundred and
fifty-nine thousand three hundred men; but according to another, which
appears more reliable, one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and
artillery, and twelve thousand cavalry; in all, one hundred and
thirty-two thousand troops. The army of General Lee was considerably
smaller. Two divisions of Longstreet's corps had been sent to Suffolk,
south of James River, to obtain supplies in that region, and this
force was not present at the battle of Chancellorsville. The actual
numbers under Lee's command will appear from the following statement
of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, assistant adjutant-general of the army:

Our strength at Chancellorsville:
Anderson and McLaws........................... 13,000
Jackson (Hill, Rodes, and Trimble)............ 21,000
Early (Fredericksburg)........................ 6,000
_______
40,000
Cavalry and artillery......................... 7,000
_______
Total of all arms............................. 47,000

As the Federal infantry numbered one hundred and twenty thousand,
according to the smallest estimate of Federal authorities, and Lee's
infantry forty thousand, the Northern force was precisely three times
as large as the Southern.

[Illustration: Map--Battle of Chancellorsville.]

General Hooker had already proved himself an excellent administrative
officer, and his plan of campaign against Lee seemed to show that he
also possessed generalship of a high order. H