The Campaign of Chancellorsville Part 10

It was near eight o'clock. The artillery was quite out of ammunition, except canister, which could not be used with safety over the heads of our troops. Our outer lines of breastworks had been captured, and were held by the enemy. So much as was left of Berry's division was in absolute need of re-forming. Its supports were in equally bad plight. The death of Berry, and the present location of our lines in the low ground back of the crest just lost, where the undergrowth was so tangled and the bottom so marshy, that Ward, when he marched to Berry's relief, had failed to find him, obliged the Federals to fall back to the Fairview heights, and form a new line at the western edge of the Chancellor clearing, where the artillery had been so ably sustaining the struggle now steadily in progress since daylight. Sickles himself supervised the withdrawal of the line, and its being deployed on its new position.

The receding of the right of the line also necessitated the falling-back of Williams. The latter officer had, moreover, been for some time quite short of ammunition; and though Graham had filled the place of a part of his line, and had held it for nearly two hours, repeatedly using the bayonet, Williams was obliged to give way before Stuart's last a.s.sault. But Graham was not the man readily to accept defeat; and, as Williams's line melted away, he found himself isolated, and in great danger of being surrounded. Gen. Birney fortunately became aware of the danger before it was too late; and, hastily gathering a portion of Hayman's brigade, he gallantly led them to the charge in person; and, under cover of this opportune diversion, Graham contrived to withdraw in good order, holding McGowan severely in check.

The Union troops now establish their second line near Fairview. The Confederates' progress is arrested for the nonce. It is somewhat after eight A.M. A lull, premonitory only of a still fiercer tempest, supervenes.

But the lull is of short duration. Re-forming their ranks as well as may be on the south of the road, the Confederates again a.s.sault the Union second line, on the crest at Fairview. But the height is not readily carried. The slope is wooded, and affords good cover for an a.s.sault. But the artillery on the summit can now use its canister; and the Union troops have been rallied and re-formed in good order. The onset is met and driven back, amid the cheers of the victorious Federals.

Nor are Stuart's men easily discouraged. Failure only seems to invigorate these intrepid legions to fresh endeavors. Colston's and Jones's brigades, with Paxton's, Ramseur's, and Doles' of the third line, have re-enforced the first, and pa.s.sed it, and now attack Williams with redoubled fury in his Fairview breastworks, while Birney sustains him with his last man and cartridge. The Confederate troops take all advantage possible of the numerous ravines in our front; but the batteries at Fairview pour a heavy and destructive fire of sh.e.l.l and case into their columns as they press on. Every inch of ground is contested by our divisions, which hold their footing at Fairview with unflinching tenacity.

Meanwhile Doles, moving under cover of a hill which protects him from the Federal batteries, and up a little branch coming from the rear of Fairview, takes in reverse the left of Williams's line, which has become somewhat separated from Geary, (whose position is thus fast becoming untenable,) moves up, and deploys upon the open ground at Chancellorsville. But he finds great difficulty in maintaining his footing, and would have at once been driven back, when Paxton's (old Stonewall) brigade comes up to his support on the double-quick. Jackson's spirit for a while seems to carry all before it; the charge of these two brigades against our batteries fairly bristles with audacity; but our guns are too well served, and the gallant lines are once again decimated and hustled back to the foot of the crest.

The seizure of Hazel Grove, from which Sickles had retired, had now begun to tell against us. It had enabled the Confederates not only to form the necessary junction of their hitherto separated wings, but to enfilade our lines in both directions. The artillery under Walker, Carter, Pegram, and Jones, was admirably served, and much better posted than our own guns at Fairview. For this height absolutely commanded the angle made by the lines of Geary and Williams, and every shot went cras.h.i.+ng through heavy ma.s.ses of troops. Our severest losses during this day from artillery-fire emanated from this source, not to speak of the grievous effect upon the morale of our men from the enfilading missiles.

About eight A.M., French, one of whose brigades, (Hays's,) had been detached in support of Berry, and who was in the rifle-pits on the Ely's Ford road near White House, facing east, perceiving how hotly the conflict was raging in his rear, on the right of the Third Corps line, and having no enemy in his own front, a.s.sumed the responsibility of placing four regiments of Carroll's brigade in line on the clearing, facing substantially west, and formed his Third Brigade on their right, supporting the left batteries of the Fifth Corps. This was a complete about-face.

Soon after taking up this position, Hooker ordered him forward into the woods, to hold Colquitt and Thomas in check, who were advancing beyond the right of Sickles's position at Fairview, and compromising the withdrawal to the new lines which was already determined upon. Says French: "In a moment the order was given. The men divested themselves of all but their fighting equipment, and the battalions marched in line across the plain with a steady pace, receiving at the verge of the woods the enemy's fire. It was returned with great effect, followed up by an impetuous charge.... The enemy, at first panic-stricken by the sudden attack on his flank, broke to the right in ma.s.ses, leaving in our hands several hundred prisoners, and abandoning a regiment of one of our corps in the same situation."

But French had not driven back his antagonist to any considerable distance before himself was outflanked on his right by a diversion of Pender's. To meet this new phase of the combat, he despatched an aide to Couch for re-enforcements; and soon Tyler's brigade appeared, and went in on his right. This fight of French and Tyler effectually repelled the danger menacing the White House clearing. It was, however, a small affair compared to the heavy fighting in front of Fairview. And, the yielding of Chancellorsville to the enemy about eleven A.M. having rendered untenable the position of these brigades, they were gradually withdrawn somewhat before noon.

Still Jackson's lines, the three now one confused ma.s.s, but with unwavering purpose, returned again and again to the a.s.sault. Our regiments had become entirely depleted of ammunition; and, though Birney was ordered to throw in his last man to Williams's support, it was too late to prevent the latter from once more yielding ground.

For, having resisted the pressure of Stuart's right for nearly four hours, his troops having been for some time with empty cartridge-boxes, twenty-four hours without food, and having pa.s.sed several nights without sleep, while intrenching, Williams now felt that he could no longer hold his ground. The enemy was still pressing on, and the mule-train of small ammunition could not be got up under the heavy fire. His artillery had also exhausted its supplies; Sickles was in similar plight; Jackson's men, better used to the bayonet, and possessing the momentum of success, still kept up their vigorous blows. Williams's line therefore slowly fell to the rear, still endeavoring to lean on Sickles's left.

Sickles, who had kept Hooker informed of the condition of affairs as they transpired, and had repeatedly requested support, now sent a more urgent communication to him, asking for additional troops. Major Tremaine reached headquarters just after the accident to Hooker, and received no satisfaction. Nor had a second appeal better results. What should and could easily have been done at an earlier moment by Hooker,-to wit, re-enforce the right centre (where the enemy was all too plainly using his full strength and making the key of the field), from the large force of disposable troops on the right and left,-it was now too late to order.

Before nine A.M., Sickles, having looked in vain for re-enforcements, deemed it necessary to withdraw his lines back of Fairview crest. Himself re-formed the divisions, except that portion withdrawn by Revere, and led them to the rear, where the front line occupied the late artillery breastworks. Ammunition was at once re-distributed.

We had doubtless inflicted heavy losses upon the Confederates. "Their formation for attack was entirely broken up, and from my headquarters they presented to the eye the appearance of a crowd, without definite formation; and if another corps had been available at the moment to have relieved me, or even to have supported me, my judgment was that not only would that attack of the enemy have been triumphantly repulsed, but that we could have advanced on them, and carried the day." (Sickles.)

On the Chancellorsville open occurred another sanguinary struggle. Stuart still pressed on with his elated troops, although his men were beginning to show signs of severe exhaustion. Franklin's and Mott's brigades, says Sickles, "made stern resistance to the impulsive a.s.saults of the enemy, and brilliant charges in return worthy of the Old Guard."

But, though jaded and bleeding from this prolonged and stubbornly-contested battle, Jackson's columns had by no means relaxed their efforts. The blows they could give were feebler, but they were continued with the wonderful pertinacity their chief had taught them; and nothing but the Chancellor clearing, and with it the road to Fredericksburg, would satisfy their purpose.

And a half-hour later, Sickles, finding himself unsupported on right and left, though not heavily pressed by the enemy, retired to Chancellorsville, and re-formed on the right of Hanc.o.c.k, while portions of three batteries held their ground, half way between Chancellorsville and Fairview, and fired their last rounds, finally retiring after nearly all their horses and half their men had been shot, but still without the loss of a gun.

With characteristic gallantry, Sickles now proposed to regain the Fairview crest with his corps, attacking the enemy with the bayonet; and he thinks it could have been done. But, Hooker having been temporarily disabled, his successor or executive, Couch, did not think fit to license the attempt. And shortly after, Hooker recovered strength sufficient to order the withdrawal to the new lines at White House; and Chancellorsville was reluctantly given up to the enemy, who had won it so fairly and at such fearful sacrifice.

In retiring from the Chancellor clearing, Sickles states that he took, instead of losing, prisoners and material. This appears to be true, and shows how Stuart had fought his columns to the utmost of their strength, in driving us from our morning's position. He says: "At the conclusion of the battle of Sunday, Capt. Seeley's battery, which was the last battery that fired a shot in the battle of Chancellorsville, had forty-five horses killed, and in the neighborhood of forty men killed and wounded;" but "he withdrew so entirely at his leisure, that he carried off all the harness from his dead horses, loading his cannoneers with it." "As I said before, if another corps, or even ten thousand men, had been available at the close of the battle of Chancellorsville, on that part of the field where I was engaged, I believe the battle would have resulted in our favor." Such is the testimony of Hooker's warmest supporter. And there is abundant evidence on the Confederate side to confirm this a.s.sumption.

The losses of the Third Corps in the battle of Sunday seem to have been the bulk of that day's casualties.

There can be no limit to the praise earned by the mettlesome veterans of Jackson's corps, in the deadly fight at Fairview. They had continuously marched and fought, with little sleep and less rations, since Thursday morning. Their ammunition had been spa.r.s.e, and they had been obliged to rely frequently upon the bayonet alone. They had fought under circ.u.mstances which rendered all attempts to preserve organization impossible. They had charged through tangled woods against well-constructed field-works, and in the teeth of destructive artillery-fire, and had captured the works again and again. Never had infantry better earned the right to rank with the best which ever bore arms, than this gallant twenty thousand,-one man in every four of whom lay bleeding on the field.

Nor can the same meed of praise be withheld from our own brave legions. Our losses had been heavier than those of the enemy. Generals and regimental commanders had fallen in equal proportions. Our forces had, owing to the extraordinary combinations of the general in command, been outnumbered by the enemy wherever engaged. While we had received the early a.s.saults behind breastworks, we had constantly been obliged to recapture them, as they were successively wrenched from our grasp,-and we had done it. Added to the prestige of success, and the flush of the charge, the ma.s.sing of columns upon a line of only uniform strength had enabled the Confederates to repeatedly capture portions of our intrenchments, and, thus taking the left and right in reverse, to drive back our entire line. But our divisions had as often done the same. And well may the soldiers who were engaged in this b.l.o.o.d.y encounter of Sunday, May 3, 1863, call to mind with equal pride that each met a foeman worthy of his steel.

Say Hotchkiss and Allan: "The resistance of the Federal army had been stubborn. Numbers, weight of artillery, and strength of position, had been in its favor. Against it told heavily the loss of morale due to the disaster of the previous day."

XXIII. THE LEFT CENTRE.

While the bulk of the fighting had thus been done by the right centre, Anderson was steadily forcing his way towards Chancellorsville. He had Wright's, Posey's, and Perry's brigades on the left of the plank road, and Mahone's on the right, and was under orders to press on to the Chancellor clearing as soon as he could join his left to Jackson's right. He speaks in his report as if he had little fighting to do to reach his destination. Nor does Geary, who was in his front, mention any heavy work until about nine A.M.; for Geary's position was jeopardized by the enfilading fire of Stuart's batteries on the Hazel-Grove hill, and by the advance of Stuart's line of battle, which found his right flank in the air. He could scarcely be expected to make a stubborn contest under these conditions.

While thus hemmed in, Geary "obeyed an order to retire, and form my command at right angles with the former line of battle, the right resting at or near the Brick House," (Chancellorsville). While in the execution of this order, Hooker seems to have changed his purpose, and in person ordered him back to his original stand, "to hold it at all hazards."

In some manner, accounted for by the prevalent confusion, Greene's and Kane's brigades had, during this change of front, become separated from the command, and had retired to a line of defence north of the Chancellor House. But on regaining the old breastworks, Geary found two regiments of Greene's brigade still holding them.

Now ensued a thorough-going struggle for the possession of these breastworks, and they were tenaciously hung to by Geary with his small force, until Wright had advanced far beyond his flank, and had reached the Chancellor clearing; when, on instructions from Sloc.u.m, he withdrew from the unequal strife, and subsequently took up a position on the left of the Eleventh Corps.

Anderson now moved his division forward, and occupied the edge of the clearing, where the Union forces were still making a last stand about headquarters.

McLaws, meanwhile, in Couch's front, fought mainly his skirmishers and artillery. Hanc.o.c.k strengthened Miles's outpost line, who "held it n.o.bly against repeated a.s.saults."

While this is transacting, Couch orders Hanc.o.c.k to move up to the United-States Ford road, which he imagines to be threatened by the enemy; but the order is countermanded when scarcely begun. There is a.s.suredly a sufficiency of troops there.

But Hanc.o.c.k is soon obliged to face about to ward off the advance of the enemy, now irregularly showing his line of battle upon the Chancellorsville clearing, while Sickles and Williams slowly and sullenly retire from before him.

The enemy is gradually forcing his way towards headquarters. Hanc.o.c.k's artillery helps keep him in check for a limited period; but the batteries of Stuart, Anderson, and McLaws, all directing a converging fire on the Chancellor House, make it, under the discouraging circ.u.mstances, difficult for him to maintain any footing.

When Couch had temporarily a.s.sumed command, Hanc.o.c.k, before Geary was forced from his intrenchments by Anderson, disposed the Second Corps, with its eighteen pieces of artillery, in two lines, facing respectively east and west, about one mile apart. But Geary's relinquishment of the rifle-pits allowed the flanks of both the lines to be exposed, and prevented these dispositions from answering their purpose. Hanc.o.c.k clung to his ground, however, until the enemy had reached within a few hundred yards. Then the order for all troops to be withdrawn within the new lines was promulgated, and the removal of the wounded from the Chancellor House was speedily completed,-the sh.e.l.ling by the enemy having set it on fire some time before.

Hanc.o.c.k's artillery at the Chancellor House certainly suffered severely; for, during this brief engagement, Leppien's battery lost all its horses, officers, and cannoneers, and the guns had to be removed by an infantry detail, by hand.

The Confederate army now occupied itself in refitting its shattered ranks upon the plain. Its organization had been torn to shreds, during the stubborn conflict of the morning, in the tangled woods and marshy ravines of the Wilderness; but this had its full compensation in the possession of the prize for which it had contended. A new line of battle was formed on the plank road west of Chancellorsville, and on the turnpike east. Rodes leaned his right on the Chancellor House, and Pender swung round to conform to the Federal position. Anderson and McLaws lay east of Colston, who held the old pike, but were soon after replaced by Heth, with part of A. P. Hill's corps.

In the woods, where Berry had made his gallant stand opposite the fierce a.s.saults of Jackson, and where lay by thousands the mingled dead and wounded foes, there broke out about noon a fire in the dry and inflammable underbrush. The Confederates detailed a large force, and labored bravely to extinguish the flames, equally exhibiting their humanity to suffering friend and foe; but the fire was hard to control, and many wounded perished in the flames.

XXIV. THE NEW LINES.

The new lines, prepared by Gens. Warren and Comstock, in which the Army of the Potomac might seek refuge from its weaker but more active foe, lay as follows:-

Birney describes the position as a flattened cone. The apex touched Bullock's, (White House or Chandler's,) where the Mineral-Spring road, along which the left wing of the army had lain, crosses the road from Chancellorsville to Ely's Ford.

Bullock's lies on a commanding plateau, with open ground in its front, well covered by our artillery. This clearing is north of and larger than the Chancellor open, and communicates with it. The position of the troops on the left was not materially changed, but embraced the corps of Howard and Sloc.u.m. The right lay in advance of and along the road to Ely's, with Big Hunting Run in its front, and was still held by Reynolds. At the apex were Sickles and Couch.

The position was almost impregnable, and covered in full safety the line of retreat to United-States Ford, the road to which comes into the Ely's Ford road a half-mile west of Bullock's.

To these lines the Second, Third, and Twelfth Corps retired, unmolested by the enemy, and filed into the positions a.s.signed to each division.

Only slight changes had been made in the situation of Meade since he took up his lines on the left of the army. He had, with wise forethought, sent Sykes at the double-quick, after the rout of the Eleventh Corps, to seize the cross-roads to Ely's and United-States Fords. Here Sykes now occupied the woods along the road from Bullock's to connect with Reynolds's left.

Before daylight Sunday morning, Humphreys, relieved by a division of the Eleventh Corps, had moved to the right, and ma.s.sed his division in rear of Griffin, who had preceded him on the line, and had later moved to Geary's left, on the Ely's Ford road. At nine A.M., he had sent Tyler's brigade to support Gen. French, and with the other had held the edge of Chancellorsville clearing, while the Third and Twelfth Corps retired to the new lines.