details of the battle of
Chancellorsville. We now repeat it as it was given to us. On the day
that the army broke up its winter camp, General Hooker led the Fifth,
Eleventh, Twelfth and Second corps, except Gibbon's division of the
latter, up the river, until he reached Kelley's Ford, about twenty miles
above Fredericksburgh. Here he crossed his whole force, and pushing
southward and eastward, uncovered the United States Ford eight miles
below, which was guarded by a brigade of rebels, and struck the
intersection of the Gordonsville plank road with the Orange county
turnpike, about five miles from United States Ford; having by great
exertions crossed two rivers and marched twenty miles. At the crossing
of the two roads, west of the turnpike, and south of the plank road,
stood a single large mansion, the Chancellor house. Here General Hooker
made his head-quarters, and from this point he disposed the corps of the
army so as to form a line of battle, which should face south and east,
with a single corps to guard against an advance from the west. The Third
and First corps soon joined Hooker's forces, and the corps were posted
as follows: The Eleventh corps, under General Howard, was on the right
of the line, three miles southwest of Chancellorsville, facing westward;
next, to the left of Howard, but far to the south, and holding the
turnpike five miles in front of Chancellorsville, was Sickles with his
Third corps; back almost to the plank road, and left of the turnpike,
was Slocum with the Twelfth corps; and still to the right, and behind
the plank road, the Fifth corps, under General Meade, faced toward the
southwest; behind Meade and Slocum, the Second corps was posted, one
division guarding the approach to the bridge. The country was densely
wooded. Except an open space about the house, it was a tangled
wilderness. The ground was low and marshy, and nearly level. Earthworks
were thrown up in front of all the corps, and everything seemed in
readiness for the enemy, for whom General Hooker now waited, hoping,
that by fruitless assaults upon what seemed an impregnable position, the
enemy would be so exhausted that he might turn upon him with fresh
divisions, and rout the retreating forces. His programme was to secure a
position in the rear of the rebel positions at the fords, while that
portion of the army left at Fredericksburgh was to divert attention from
the principal movement. Stoneman, with the cavalry, was to make a