The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-16 00:00:00

4THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 16, 1863.

hours later the party of Federal cavalry which sub-
sequently so fluttered the doves at Richmond, and
from which at other points we narrowly escaped,
burst upon Ashland, and inflicted some slight da-
mage upon the railroad and upon the astonished
little town. On Saturday we travelled at our beat
pace from sunrise to sundown, and were rewarded
by hearing not far distant the heavy firing
which
commenced about four in the afternoon of Saturday,
and continuing long after dark announced that we
were approaching the neighbourhood of what was
rightly expected to be the bloodiest battle of the
war. Sleeping near Guiney's station we were close
to Chancellorsville at nine on the morning of Sun-
day, and I found that my anticipations that I should
be on the spot in time to witness the struggle were
fully and happily realised.
Wednesday, April 29.
This morning, under cloak of an opaque fog, a
large body of Federals arrived unmolested on pon-
toons below Fredericksburg, and, clinging closely
to the river bank, spread themselves right and left,
surprising two or three parties of Confederate
pickets, which were surrounded before it was known
a Yankee had crossed the stream. Simultaneously
a far larger body crossed the north branch of the
Rappahannock at Kelly's and other adjoining fords,
while Gen. Stoneman, with a powerful cavalry and
artillery force, struck in towards Culpepper Court-
house, and began to spread with impunity over Vir-
ginia, breaking his men up into parties, by whom
various raids were undertaken, which General J.
E. B. Stuart was for seven days powerless to cheek
or to chastise. The suddenness and simultaneity of
the enemy's operations, the apparent sagacity which
guided them, the magnitude of the varied force
wbieh assumed them, the consciousness that General
Lee, deprived of his " old warhorse," Gen. Long-
street, was far weaker in numbers than he has ever
been since he left Maryland, combined to create
uneasiness in the breasts of his staff, which was only
relieved when they comforted themselves by watch-
ing the unruffled calmness of " the old Tycoon" (as
they affectionately call him). Without bustle or
agitation his dispositions were made, their general
policy being to leave Gen. Early at Fredericksburg
with a sufficient force to guard the hills from Hamil-
ton's Crossing to Marye's Heights, and on down to
the river, while Generals Lee and Jackson with the
rest of the army slowly turned their faces westward
along the turnpike and plank roads. Upon the
afternoon of this day Gen. Stuart delayed the Fe-
deral advance in the neighbourhood of Kelly's Ford
by, cutting the head of one of their columns between
the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, and taking
prisoners from three different army corps. And
here it may be an assistance to the reader to repeat
the official order under which, since the last battle
of Fredericksburg, the Federal army has been re•
distributed and reorganized :
" GENERAL ORDERS (NO. Q.
"Head-quarters, Army of the Potomac, Camp,
near Falmouth, Virginia, Feb. 5.
" I. The division of the army into Grand Divisions im-
peding rather than facilitating its current business, and the
character of the service it is liable to be called 'upon to
perform being adverse to the movement and operations
of heavy columns, it is discontinued, and the corps organi-
zation is adopted in its stead. They will be commanded as
follows :—First corps, Major-General John F. Reynolds ;
second corps, Major General D. N. Couch; third corps,
Brigadier-General D. E. Sickles (temporarily) ; fifth corps,
Major General George G. Meade ; sixth corps, Major
General John Sedgwick ; eleventh corps, Major General
Franz Sigel; and twelfth corps, Major General H. W.
Slocum.
" 11. Hereafter the corps will be considered as a unit for
the organisation of the artillery, and no transfers of batte•
ries will be made from one corps or division to ethers
except for purposes of equalisation, and then only under
the authority of the Chief of Artillery.
" 111. The cavalry of the army will be consolidated into
one corps, under- the command of Brigadier Geyteral
Stoneman, wlio will make the necessary assignments for
detachment duty.
" IV. The foregoing changes in command will be made
as early as convenient.
"V. The Major Generals commanding Grand Divisions
will report to these head-quarters the names of such staff
officers as are for assignment for duty in the execution of
this order. "By command of Major General Hooker,
"JOSEPH DICKINSON, Assistant Adjutant General."
THURSDAY, April 30.
The three army corps which had crossed at Kelly's
Ford were, it is believed, joined this morning by
two other corps which crossed at the United States
Ford, and together they swept onwards in a fine
broad front towards Fredericksburg along the turn-
pike, plank, and Spottsylvania Court-house roads,
the last being the direct route from Fredericks-
burg to the Virginia Central Railroad, by which
on our first entry into Secessia, Colonel Wol-
seley and I proceeded on our way to Rich-
mond. The full strength of each army corps
should, I believe, amount to 20,000 men ; but,
making allowances for the inevitable shrinking of
regiments, it is computed that General Hooker's
army at this point could not have been less than
80,000 men. With them marched a band of
pioneers, or sappers and miners, 5,000 strong—in
other words, mechanics accustomed to handle
timber, fell trees, and build bridges ; lumbermen
from Maine and carpenters; men who are clad in
uniform in order that they may be exchanged if
taken prisoners, but whose arms are the pick,
shovel, and the axe, and their employment to work
at intrenchments while the soldiers rest. Contrast
with them the Southern army, composed of men
who for the most part never touched spade or axe
before the commencement of this war, who work
with tools insufficient in number, worn with use,
and all of them captured from the enemy, and who
fought on this occasion in the ratio of three fogged,
weary, and hungry against seven fresh and pam-
pered men.
General Lee, anxious to ascertain whether Gene.
ral Hooker designed to march straight on Fre-
dericksburg or, in 'pursuance of the plan by him
exhibited to the Congressional Committee which in-
vestigated General Burnside's failure, to strike
deeper into the country, moved leisurely towards
Chancellorsville, holding all his troops except Gene-
ral Early's division closely in hand. But when
General Anderson's division, stationed in the neigh-
bourhood of the United States Ford, recoiling
before the immense Federal host, heralded its
advance, General Lee threw up earthworks half-
way between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville,
and there arrested the advance of his foe. General
Hooker did not press him hotly, but, in his turn,
fell slowly back towards Chancellorsville, followed
still more slowly by the Confederates. On the even-
ing of this day General Stuart attacked the Federals
upon the Spottsylvania-road, and inaugurated one
of those "free fights" into which in this war night
conflicts ordinarily degenerate. The 3d Virginia
Cavalry charged the sth, the sth charged the 3d,
Major Von Borcke, of General Stuart's Staff, had
his horse killed by one of his own men, everybody
fired at anybody and anybody at everybody, but the
result was that "all's well that ends well," inas-
much as, after losing 50 prisoners, the Federals,
notwithstanding their immense numerical superio-
rity, fell back, and were heard no more on the
Spottsylvania-road.

FRIDAY, May

The day passed uneventually. General Lee con-
tinued to advance, General Hooker to fall back.
But as they neared Chancellorsville the former
penetrated the latter's purpose in retreating, when
he discovered that about 500 yards in front of Chan-
cellorsville, in the midst of a dente thicket of black
jack, the Federal pioneers had thrown up very
strong intrenchments at right angles to the turn-
pike and plank roads with an abattis of fulled trees
bristling outwards in front, and seemingly defying
the
Tassage of any living and walking animal. Ren-
ting ~luthwards for about a mile from the plank
oankee works turned short to the west
until a ,they
again met the plank road be-
tween Chanceltb:rsville and Orange Court-
house,road, the
towards the latter of which points (as
aeslrteeyydsiriteidet)iutulie after
cavingk road deflects in a
plank
Chancellors-
slouhtahv-eiC

vine. Within these works the Yankees stood
thickly and savagely at bay, their powerful ar-
tillery massed on some high ground a little in the
rear. Their position was - fearfully formidable—
repulse, if the works were attacked solely from the
front, seemed inevitable—the loss of life to the
assailants anyhow must have been ghastly. Under
these circumstances General Lee resolved to out-
flank the flanker.

po
fl a nt
sdea
xr
ei Tic
jig t
nnn
ahsasznarredtiol uy SATURDAY, May 2.
If ever a man was adapted for the execution of a
i
s t ihna
tthe
ae
nx twr camse
de-
pending for its safety upon the celerity and audacity
Jackson. With the first break
of dawn he plunged
with his three famous divisions—the first , Stonewall but
com-
manded by A. P. Hill; the second, in the absent:
of Trimble, by Coulson; the third, lately
under
D. H. Hill, by Rodes, into the country road which
leads to the Furnace. At the Furnace he ascended
a hill, and was viewed by the 'enemy from an ad-
joining hill called Fairview, and heavily though
harmlessly shelled. With his usual temerity he
sent word back to General Lee that the Furnace-
hill must be held by one regiment until his artillery
and waggons had got by. A South Carolina regi-
ment was accordingly sent there, but was, I believe,
shortly carried forward in company with the
cavalry, and in its place three or four companies of
a Georgia regiment were left to guar, the critical
spot. The enemy, discovering the weakness of the
guard, attacked and took theiGeorgians prisoners.
The last of Jackson's batteries was passing as the
Georgians were captured, whereupon Capt. Brown
unliMbered his guns, opened on the Federals, and
drove them back. He then passed on after Jackson,
whose waggons had to fall back and pursue their
General by a more circuitous route. Marvellous to
say, it never seems to have suggested itself to Gen.
Hooker, although this large body of Confederates
passed under his nose, that his rear was in danger,
or that Gen. Lee, greatly weakened, was lying
within a few hundred yards of the mighty Federal
host of 80,000 men.
At four in the afternoon Gen. Lee, knowing that
Jackson could not be far from his destination,
opened fire steadily along his whole line, feeling the
gigantic masses of his intrenched foe. For two
hours and a half a heavy fire was interchanged
between the hostile batteries, each party holding
its own line. Suddenly, about half-pest 6in the
evening, the rattle of musketry was heard in the
distance, followed by the loud boom of artillery,
and instantly General Lee passed word along
his lines, " Jackson at work ; press them heavily
everywhere." Swift and sudden as the falcon
swooping on her prey, Jackson had burst on his
enemy's rear, and crushed him before resistance
could be attempted. Passing right over the plank
road, and extending almost up to the Ely's Ford-
road, getting behind Chancelloraville, the three
noble divisions raced gallantly forward, drunk with
the animal joy and inebriation of battle. Not a
trench had been dug, not a tree felled, not a stick
raised to resist them ; the unconscious Federals en-
gaged in cooking their supper—one regiment on
dress parade—heard in the sudden volley of Jack-
son's long line the knell of their doom, An intel-
ligent Virginian farmer, Mr. Green, taken prisoner
by the Federals, heard one of their Generals say to
his men about six, o'clock, " Jackson and his rebels
don't dare face us to-night. Get your suppers
ready, boys, and enjoy yourselves." With faces
turning eastward, secured, as they fancied, by the
dense masses of their friends within the intrench-
ments in front, without a thought of their rear, the
Federals rummaged their knapsacks for all the
ltiscuries with which Boston, New York, and Phila-
delphia pamper and recruit their Sybarite soldiery.
Before that supper could be eaten the un-
washed, unkempt, starving —raggamuffins of the
South had burst on them from the west, and scat-
tered them, nerveless, panic-struck, helpless, like
chaff before the blast. Major Peyton, of General
Lee's staff, found a coffeepot, with cups round it,
standing in the wood. He poured the liquid out,
but it was so hot he could not drink it.
What might have been the result but for one
casualty which alone almost countervailed the vic-
tories of a week who shall say P Formation or
order the Federals had none ; reserve, tactics, orga-
nisation, disposition, plan, all went down before
the whirlwind suddenness of the surprise. The less of
the Confederates was ludicrously small; their advance
like that of a white squall in the Bay of Naples.
Night had fallen. About 8 o'clock General Jack-
son rode forward with two or three of his staff along
the plank road, and advanced 150 yards in front of
his foremost skirmishers, peering with those keen
eyes which you might fancy could be seen through
the densest gloom forward into the night. He
turned to ride back—a heavy fire from one of his
own regiments, hailing from South Carolina, but
whose number I will in mercy withhold, saluted
him. One bullet struck his left arm four inches
below the shoulder, shattering the bone down to
the elbow. The wound was intensely painful ; he
half fell, half was lifted from his horse. An aide
galloped back to A. P. Hill to report that Stone-
wall Jackson was wounded and lying in the road.
General Hill gallopedhastily up, flung himself from
the saddle, began, choked with emotion, to cut the
cloth of Jackson's sleeve, when suddenly four of the
Federal videttes appeared on horseback, and were
fired on by.the Staff officers. The videttes fell back
upon a strong and swiftly advancing line of Fede-
ral skirmishers. Gen. Hill and all the officers and
couriers of both Staffs had no alternative but to
mount and ride for their lives, leaving Jackson
where he lay. Right over the ground where was
stretched the wounded lion the Federals advanced.
Within their grasp lay the mightiest prize, the most
precious jewel in the Confederate crown ; but it was
not destined that Stonewall Jackson should be
struck by Federal bullet, or yield himself prisoner
to a Federal soldier,
As General Hill and his companions galloped
back they also became the target of the same luck-
less North Carlolinians. General Hill's boot was cut
by a bullet, but his leg uninjured; Colonet Crutch-
field, chief of artillery to Jackson, was seriously, if
not mortally, wounded; Boswell, of Jackson's Staff,
killed; Howard, engineer to A. P. Hill, knocked
from his horse, but whether killed, or wounded, or
a prisoner, is not known ; two or three couriers
killed. Without losing a moment, General Hill
threw his own skirmishers forward, backed by heavy
supports, and the ground on which lay Gen. Jack-
son was again occupied by the Confederates. But
in the meantime two more bullets, both from his
own men, had struck him as he lay on the ground,
one passing through the wrist of his shattered arm,
the other eutering the palm of his right hand and
coming out , through its back. He was at once car-
ried to the rear, and his arm instantly amputated
under chloroform. Grave fears were entertained
that he would lose his right hand also, but I am
happy to add that they have since abated. Again
may it be hoped that, if he is wanted, Stonewall
Jackson will carry into action a guilelessness, sim-
plicity, and unselfishness which are all his own, and
combine with them Cromwell's fiery zeal, saintly
earnestness, and dauntlessness of purpose.
Never was it more apparent than this evening
ar to his
what Jackson's presence and influenc
e
deseperation
men. With his wound ceased the fiery
flew like wildfire
of their onslaught ; tidings of
els found them-
through the ranks; eel routed F
and took heart of
selves no longer cloy pressed,
canisterd down the
grace as they poured grape_
dalno General A. P. Hill
plank road. Between 9an
the calf of his le
was struck by a bit of shell on.
d forced O.'
which caused a painful contustonan
p.m. ina
reluctantly from the field. At 10 u neral
Lee withdrawn
J. E. B. Stuart was by General
from his cavalry comm
and and put temporarily at
the head of Gen. Jackson s corps, stripped as it was
of his own two leading Generals who have hitherto
partaken its dangers and glnries without being
arrested by disease or stricken by bullet.
SIJNDAY, May 3.
In interpreting a battle the narrator is under

At Chancellorsville the battle, hardly intermitte
through the night, opened furiously with the earlies
dawn of day. Last night it had raged principally
to the left of the plank road as you travel from
Orange Court-house to Chancellorsville; this
morning it was mostly transferred to the right,
as the right wing of the Federals, recoiling
before Jackson's onslaught, was doubled back on
the Federal centre. Morning found the Fede-
rals entirely within their lines, which ran from
the neighbourhood of the river across the turnpike
and plank roads, back again, at a right angle, to
the same plank road, after it has left Chancellors-
ville, and turned southwards. The slope up which
the road from Orange ascends, and which is one of
the few spots in that densely clothed region which
is bare of trees, was defended by ordinary earth-
works, but behind them was massed a wealth of
artillery such as no other modern field of battle
has witnessed. Against this slope with earliest
morning advanced in three divisions what, whether
he lives or dies, will never cease to be called
" Stonewall Jackson's corps." First advanced the
division of A. P. Hill, now commanded by Gene-
ral Heath; next advanced the" Stonewall" division,
under General Coulson; last, and in reserve,
advanced D. H. Hill's division, now under
command of General Bodes. Through a perfect
tornado of shot and shell hurtling through the
woods, and rending trunk and limb and bush and
sapling, as though a hurricane of iron hail had
rushed from the clouds, steady as regulars, inexor-
able as doom, advanced, division after division, the
fiery Militia of the South. Who that has seen the
listless, sleeveless, ragged, mendicant-like units
which compose the Southern host, dragging them-
selves wearily and painfully to the front, with
pleading eye and dejected mien, could imagine into
what a thunderbolt of war the aggregate of these
units grows and ascends when death and danger
lower in their front? Onward, right onward they
press ; they have gained the edge of the torn and
riven woods, they burst into the open, and here,
for the first time, Heath's Division falters under
the tempest of shot rained upon it from the
heights. At this critical moment the Stonewall
division, which should have given Heath in-
stant support, ineffectively handled, as is alleged
to me by its commanding General, failed to ad-
vance, and disaster and repulse seemed not impos-
sible; But a man was found equal to the perilous
emergency, as General Bodes, animating his men
with voice and gesture, commanded the third, or
reserve division, to advance over friend or foe and
storm the heights. Nobly did they respond to his
call. Under the inspiration of their presence and
example Heath's division slowly and sternly re-
covered itself, and together they swept up the slope,
[ and never rested till the well•known battle-flag of
the rebels was flying from the earthworks torn
from their foe.
If in this narrative something like censure of the
Stonewall division is expressed, it is nothing less
than justice to state that on the preceding evening
a charge made by this division, and of which the
exact particulars are unknown to me, elicited the
very highest encomiums from General Jackson, and
was continually mentioned by him for the first two
or three days:after his wound. The prompt presence
of mind and gallantry of Gen. Bodes were to the
full appreciated by Gen. Lee, and a recommendation
that he should be advanced to a major-generalship
was by the latter instantly forwarded to the War
Department at Richmond. Meanwhile the Federal
lines, as they sweep round and face eastward, were,
as I have said, defended by works more formidable
than the slope at Chancellorsville. The trunks of
trees, about the thickness of a man's thigh, had
been cut down, trimmed of their branches, and laid 1
longitudinally to the height of four feet, the in-
stertices between the logs being banked with
earth. More scientific or better engineered works
I have never seen. In front the lopped branches
were interwoven with felled trees, and an abattis,
difficult and impenetrable beyond description,seemed
to defy attack. To four brigades of Gen. Anderson's
division was intrusted the perilous task of storming
works strong enough to have stood a siege, and de-
fended by vastly superior numbers of Federals. I
am warned by the length to which this letter is ex-
tending that your readers' patience must well nigh
be exhausted. But there were no more gallant rushes
during six days of unprecedented gallantry than
those of the brigades of Pesey's Mississippians and
Wright's Georgians against the almost impregnable
intrenchments of their foe. With admirable sagacity
Gen. Stuart had fastened upon the hill called Fair-
view, and opened upon the flank of the Yankees an
enfilading fire of 20 Napoleon guns. Simulta-
neously right up to the breastworks rushed
Posey's and Wright's brigades. They spring into
and upon the felled trees and matted branches—
they bound like tigers into the works, and drive
the panic-struck Federals headlong from their cover.
Never shall I forget the yell which rent the sky,
and announced that the enemy was broken. Yield-
ing works—from which ten times their number
should never have driven determined men, leaving
behind them knapsacks, canteens, overcoats, oil-
cloths, books, cards, paper, newspapers, muskets—
the Federals rushed quailing to the rear, and never
stopped until they had got behind the building at
Chancellorsville, beyond which their artillery opened
a heavy fire.
ttThe battle at Chancellorsville was over for the day. The
loss of Posey's and Wright's brigades, notwithstanding the
terrible works they carried, was slight. Bat in the three
divisions of Jackson's corps the loss in killed, wounded, and
missing could not have been less than 0,000 men. Such a
sight as the inside of the Yankee breastworks, just after
they had left them, never may I see again I With astonish-
ing accuracy Stuart's enfilading fire had torn through their
ranks. In every variety of attitude of death, torn, rent,
and shivered into scarcely distinguishable relics of humanity,
lay what so lately had breathed and moved. Still more ter-
rible and strangely appalling was the road from Chancel-
lorsville towards Orange Courthouse, along which, and on
either side of which Jackson had descended to the harvest
of death. Tumbrils overthrown, caissons exploded, horses
dead and dying, sometimes with broken legs, sornetiftmere.s
with ghastly wounds, human bodies in every Vista
fearful
ndf
all, a crackling fire running swiftly throne:if: grassethoughts of
black jack brushwood, and suggesting
blood with horror as
wounded and helpless men perishitnhgebydrtre most agonising
death known to humanity, %
the spectator in agony turnedfr°l2; eyes to heaven, to gain a
moment's relief from the unutterable and woful anguish of
earth.
Shortly after 1
for the first time, I encountered
General Lee, calm.
ed, evenly balanced, but not, even
ifcultiorclli
i .
at that time, wholly devoid of that quaint humour of which
so rich a vein runs through his composition. In answer to
hearty congratulations he answered that they were pre-
ray
mature, that things were not going everywhere as he wished
them, "for," said he, "eve have lost Marye's Heights." I
then learnt that at an early hour upon Sunday morning
the Federals had made two or three abortive attempts to
storm the heights, which were held by one Mississippi re-
giment (the 21st) on the top, and another Mississippi regi-
ment (the 18th) in the lane at their base. A flag of truce
was sent in by the Federals, asking to be allowed to bury
their dead and carry off their wounded. To this consent
was given by Col. Griffin. It is scarcely necessary to add
that the real object of this flag of truce was that its bearer
might ascertain the strength of the Confederates holding the
hill. Scarcely had the flag got tack before three heavy bodies
of Yankees, in all not less than 20,000 men, burst from the
town of Fredericksburg, from the river road leading towards
Bowling Green, and from the west of Taylor's Hill, and
made at the double quick for the heights. One large body
came across Bernard's Flats, in front of the eminence known
to your readers as Lee's Hill, and ascended Marye's Heights
from the rear; another column burst up the plank road, and
were on the defenders before effectual resistance was pos-
sible ; but gallantly and dauntlessly did the Mississippians