ness of the wood, and the
necessity of keeping the troops in line, the advance was slow, and night
fell before the movement could be completed. One more hour of daylight
and the whole Federal army would have been cut off and captured, but by
eight o'clock the darkness in the forest was so complete that all
movement had to be stopped.

Half an hour later one of the saddest incidents of the war took place.
General Jackson with a few of his staff went forward to reconnoiter. As
he returned toward his lines, his troops in the dark mistook them for a
reconnoitering party of the enemy and fired, killing or wounding the
whole of them, General Jackson receiving three balls. The enemy, who
were but a hundred yards distant, at once opened a tremendous fire with
grape toward the spot, and it was some time before Jackson could be
carried off the field. The news that their beloved general was wounded
was for some time kept from the troops; but a whisper gradually spread,
and the grief of his soldiers was unbounded, for rather would they have
suffered a disastrous defeat than that Stonewall Jackson should have
fallen.

General Stuart assumed the command; General Hill, who was second in
command, having, with many other officers, been wounded by the
tremendous storm of grape and canister that the Federals poured through
the wood when they anticipated an attack. At daybreak the troops again
moved forward in three lines, Stuart placing his thirty guns on a slight
ridge, where they could sweep the lines of the Federal defenses. Three
times the position was won and lost; but the Confederates fought with
such fury and resolution, shouting each time they charged the Federal
ranks, "Remember Jackson," that the enemy gradually gave way, and by ten
o'clock Chancellorsville itself was taken, the Federals being driven
back into the forest between the house and the river.

[Illustration: Map--THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE May 2nd. & 3rd. 1863.]

Lee had early in the morning begun to advance from his side to the
attack, but just as he was moving forward the news came that Sedgwick
had recrossed at Fredericksburg, captured a portion of the Confederate
force there, and was advancing to join Hooker. Lee at once sent two of
his three little divisions to join the Confederates who were opposing
Sedgwick's advance, while, with the three or four thousand men remaining
to him, he all day made feigned attacks upon the enemy's position,
occupying their a