er quarters the omens did not point to decisive success in the
forthcoming campaign. During the same period that Lincoln and
Stanton, taught by successive disasters, had ceased to interfere with
their generals, Jefferson Davis and Mr. Seddon, his new Secretary of
War, had taken into their own hands the complete control of military
operations. The results appeared in the usual form: on the Northern
side, unity of purpose and concentration; on the Southern,
uncertainty of aim and dispersion. In the West the Confederate
generals were fatally hampered by the orders of the President. In the
East the Army of Northern Virginia, confronted by a mass of more than
130,000 foes, was deprived of three of Longstreet's divisions; and
when, at the end of April, it was reported that Hooker was advancing,
it was absolutely impossible that this important detachment could
rejoin in time to assist in the defence of the Rappahannock.

A full discussion of the Chancellorsville campaign does not fall
within the scope of this biography, but in justice to the Southern
generals--to Lee who resolved to stand his ground, and to Jackson who
approved the resolution--it must be explained that they were in no
way responsible for the absence of 20,000 veterans. Undoubtedly the
situation on the Atlantic littoral was sufficiently embarrassing to
the Confederate authorities. The presence of a Federal force at New
Berne, in North Carolina, threatened the main line of railway by
which Wilmington and Charleston communicated with Richmond, and these
two ports were of the utmost importance to the Confederacy. So
enormous were the profits arising from the exchange of munitions of
war and medicines* (* Quinine sold in the South for one hundred
dollars (Confederate) the ounce. O.R. volume 25 part 2 page 79.) for
cotton and tobacco that English ship-owners embarked eagerly on a
lucrative if precarious traffic. Blockade-running became a recognised
business. Companies were organised which possessed large fleets of
swift steamers. The Bahamas and Bermuda became vast entrepots of
trade. English seamen were not to be deterred from a perilous
enterprise by fear of Northern broadsides or Northern prisons, and
despite the number and activity of the blockading squadrons the
cordon of cruisers and gunboats was constantly broken. Many vessels
were sunk, many captured, many wrecked on a treacherous coast, and
yet enormous quantities of supplies found their way to the arsenals