In determining upon this, one of
the most extraordinary movements of the war, General Lee proceeded in
defiance of military rules, and was only justified in his course by
the desperate character of the situation of affairs. It was impossible
to make any impression upon General Hooker's front or left, owing to
the elaborate defences in both quarters; it was, therefore, necessary
either to retire, or attack in a different direction. As a retreat,
however, upon Richmond would have surrendered to the enemy a large and
fertile tract of country, it was desirable, if possible, to avoid that
alternative; and the attack on the Federal right followed. The results
of this were truly extraordinary. The force routed and driven back in
disorder by General Jackson was but a single corps, and that corps, it
is said, not a legitimate part of the old Army of the Potomac; but the
disorder seems to have communicated itself to the whole army, and to
have especially discouraged General Hooker. In describing the scene
in question, we refrained from dwelling upon the full extent of the
confusion into which the Federal forces were thrown: some sentences,
taken from Northern accounts, may lead to a better understanding of
the result. After Jackson's assault, a Northern historian says: "The
open plain around Chancellorsville presented such a spectacle as
a simoom sweeping over the desert might make. Through the dusk of
nightfall a rushing whirlwind of men and artillery and wagons swept
down the road, past headquarters, and on toward the fords of the
Rappahannock; and it was in vain that the staff opposed their persons
and drawn sabres to the panic-stricken fugitives." Another writer, an
eye-witness, says the spectacle presented was that of "solid columns
of infantry retreating at double-quick; a dense mass of beings flying;
hundreds of cavalry-horses, left riderless at the first discharge from
the rebels, dashing frantically about in all directions; scores of
batteries flying from the field; battery-wagons, ambulances, horses,
men, cannon, caissons, all jumbled and tumbled together in one
inextricable mass--the stampede universal, the disgrace general."

After all, however, it was but one corps of the Federal army which
had been thus thrown into disorder, and General Hooker had no valid
grounds for distrusting his ability to defeat Lee in a more decisive
action. There are many reasons for coming to the conclusion that he
did from that moment dist