The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-07-09
HOOKER AND THE ARMY.

Editor National Tribune: The state
ment you make of date May 81, 1908
that 1.-THE confidence of his (Hookers)
own army had been irretrievably lost al
Charlottesville" and-which, doubtless
you intend to publish in a more perma-
neut book form, to be read and quoted
and believed as truthful history, is as
far from the truth as darkness is from
light, and should not be allowed to
stand without protest from those who
know the truth. Disregard Halleck
and any other unfriend- or Halleck's
Washington clerk, Benjamin, and ask
the soldiers who served in that cam
pafgn, many of whom are yet living, If
they then, or ever, lost confidence in
Hooker: ask the men who ciambered
over the rocks on the rugged side of
Lookout Mountain, or those who on
the firing line were driving the enemy
thru the open woods near Hope Church,
in Georgia. when they heard cheering
close behind them, turned and saw
"Old Joe" and a single staff officer try
ing to cheer in that din of battle, and
who took it up and the whole line for
a mile or more took it up, and drowned
the firing with their huzZahs; or ask
any of the Twentieth Corps that with
sorrowful faces and moistened eyes babe
him farewell under the walls of At
lanta, when he resented the indignity
put upon MIN Dt 1el soflCi IiSiIl "a pei
sonal unfriend. since their younger days
quarrel in California;, who appointed
Howard to the place left vacant by the
death of Mcpherson, which of right be-
1onged to Hooker, and he promptly de-
manded to be relieved from serving
with Sherman. Don't go to a bureau
clerk in Washington to find out if we
who served at the front ever lost con-
fidence in Hooker. His order issued
when we returned to our old camps
from Charlottesville expressed the
feeling of the army then, and don't you
write otherwise if you would write
truthful history.
1 am tempted to give you a page or
two from an unpublished manuscript
entitled Recollections of Quarter
master.
I was in the Army of the Potomac
when that inexcusable laundering at
tack ordered by Burnside at FreGaricks
burg was made; and when the foolish
attempt to march thru the bottomless
mud eofv Virginia occurred, and then
saw want of confidence in the General
in cornriand; and in the Administration
that had selected such commander;
and saw with distress the disorganized
army, melting away like ice before a
Midsummer sun by desertion; and
saw it reorganized, and drilled. and
disciplined by Gems. Hooker and But
terfield, until confidence was restored
and never again lost by any soldiers
under the command of Gen. Joseph
Hooker. The men behind the guns felt
that they would never be required to
try such experimental slaughter as that
required by Gen. Sherman at KeneSaw,
or the deliberate but.hery required by
Gen. Grant in the Wilderness. Instead
of loss. Of confidence. confidence was
firmly established in the minds of those
Tod hril rrtc g raf 70
q of that campaign CT Charlottesville.
A commander had at last been found
who could not only organize an arm..
but could skillfully march and fight
Il or refuse battle when the interest of
his country required it. When by dis
cipline the General had brought his
army into condition for service, he
sought an opening for employment and
TO give further instruction in marching
and fighting. His plans, being well con-
sidered, were made known to no one but
his Chief of Staff, who was enjoined to
secrecy. BY his numerous spies he
was well informed; one of them had
dined at the table with Jefferson Davis,
another had measured the depth OF
water on Germanna Ford, on the Rapid
an, and one had reported the number
of rations issued to the rebel army the
day before the advance of the Eleventh
Corps. Thus he knew all about the
rebel army, and where it was. His
intention was to take Richmond, wheth-
er in the taking of 1t he whipped Lee
or not.
The Eleventh and Twelfth Corps
were at Stafford. in the rear of the
main. army. Their movement could not
be seen or absence noticed by the en-
envy. and they We're ordered to march
early in the morning, and the Eleventh
in adv acc. to make Kelly's Ferry, as
=
reach them at that place. The orders
there received were waiting for them.
and were to cross Immediately and push
for Germanna Ford on the Rapidan.
So speedy was this march, that they
surprised the rebel forces on the Ra-
pidan building bridge across the river
The advance of Eleventh Corps crossed
this stream. water breast high. and cap
tured all The bridge builders who did
not run away. Both the Eleventh and
Tweiffn Corps crossed the river that
night, the third night out. This gave
control of the United States Ford at
the mouth of the Rapidan, and pom
toon bridge was thrown across. over
which all the other troops passed de-
signed to cross above Fredericksburg.
Meanwhile, Sedgwick threw pom
toon bridge across, below, and he was
ordered to cross and drive the enemy
out of the town the next day and occu-
nv the nights. Position was taken
atChanceilorsyille and the attack which
Lee Was forced to make was awaited
and desired He attacked in front as
expected. and was repulsed. Then
Jackson made his flank movement on
our right, and found the Eleventh
Corps wholly unprepared for defense.
and he rolled them up and back on the
main body of the army. This necessi-
tated the taking up of a new position
during the night, which the enemy at
tackled the next morning, and they suf-
fered a bitter repuise. Sedgwiek, ex-
ceIient soldier as he was, had taken
Fredericksburg. but failed to come TO
time as ordered. He was too late to
fill the place TO which he was ordered
to be at daylight but toward which he
did not attempt to move until after 9
o'clock of the day when he should have
been in the position where ordered
After 9. clock he had to fight for what
The could have walked peacefully over
before. That night found Sedgwick al
Banks's Ferry and Hooker's fine strate-
gle operations nuiIiied. He was now
in a position where he could not profit
from his superior forces, where he could
only use .iteads of columns and where
Lee could bring as many men into ac-
fion as Hooker could, where tactics and
strategy would amount to nothing
where soldiers must be subjected
to simply. the necessity of a murder
ous contest, in which the party that
could suffer the most and still have a
few men left would be victors. and
then with the possibility that his army
would be SO weakened as to be In
capable of taking ADVANTAGE of a yic-