Hooker was a master of logistics. The forethought and excellent judgment
displayed in all orders under which these preliminary moves of the
army-corps were made, as well as the high condition to which he had
brought the army, cannot elicit higher praise than to state the fact,
that, with the exception of the Cavalry Corps, all orders issued were
carried out au pied de la lettre, and that each body of troops was on
hand at the hour and place prescribed. This eulogy must, however, be
confined to orders given prior to the time when the fighting began.
On April 26 the commanding officers of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps
were directed to march Monday morning, the 27th, towards Kelley's Ford,
on the Rappahannock,--some fifteen miles above its junction with the
Rapidan,--Howard leading.
As much secrecy as possible was enjoined, and the men were not to be
allowed to go down to the river. Eight days' rations to be carried in
the haversacks. Each corps to take a battery and two ambulances to a
division, the pack-train for small ammunition, and a few wagons for
forage only. The rest of the trains to be parked in the vicinity of
Banks's Ford out of sight. A sufficient detail, to be made from the
troops whose term was about to expire, to be left behind to guard camp,
and do provost duty.
Meade was ordered to march the Fifth Corps in connection with the
Eleventh and Twelfth, and equipped in similar manner.
The three corps to be in camp at Kelley's Ford, in positions indicated,
by four P.M. on Tuesday.
The first day's march was to the vicinity of Hartwood Church. Next day,
at four A.M., the head of the column was in motion; and at four P.M. the
three corps were in camp at Kelley's Ford.
At six P.M. the pontoon-bridge was begun, under charge of Capt. Comstock
of the engineers, by a detail mostly from the Eleventh Corps. Some four
hundred men of Buschbeck's brigade crossed in boats, and attacked the
enemy's pickets, which retired after firing a single shot. About ten
P.M. the bridge was finished, and the troops crossed; the Eleventh Corps
during the night, and the Twelfth Corps next morning. The Seventeenth
Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment was sent out as flankers to prevent the
Confederate scouting-parties from annoying the column. In this they
failed of entire success; as the rear of the Eleventh Corps was, during
the day, shelled by a Confederate battery belonging to Stuart's horse
artillery, and the Twelfth Corps had some slight skirmishing in its
front with cavalry detachments from the same command.
As soon as Hooker had seen to the execution of his first orders,
he transferred his headquarters to Morrisville, five miles north of
Kelley's Ford, and superintended the execution of the crossing and
advance. Urging Meade to equal celerity and secrecy in uncovering
United-States Ford, he instructed Slocum, should Meade's crossing at
Ely's be resisted, to push a column on the south side of the Rapidan to
open the latter ford.
At Germania Ford, on the Rapidan, previously seized by an advance party
of three or four smart marching regiments, a small body of one hundred
and twenty-five Confederate infantry, guarding the supplies for the
rebuilding of the bridge, then in progress, was captured.
The cavalry and artillery crossed at once by the ford, as well as a
portion of the infantry, the latter wading almost to the armpits. But
the construction of the bridge was soon temporarily completed by Gens.
Geary and Kane; and the rest of the troops and the pack-mules passed
safely, by the light of huge bonfires lighted on the banks. The men were
in the highest possible spirits, and testified to their enjoyment of the
march by the utmost hilarity.
At daylight the Twelfth Corps led the column, Geary in advance. Near
the Wilderness, the head of column was attacked from the south by some
cavalry and a couple of guns. Stuart had come up from Raccoon Ford the
day previous. But a slight demonstration cleared the road; and Stuart
retired, sending part of his force to Fredericksburg, and accompanying
the rest to Spotsylvania Court House.
About two P.M., Thursday, these two corps, under command of Slocum,
reached Chancellorsville, and found a portion of the Fifth Corps already
in position there. The Twelfth Corps was deployed south of the plank
road, with left at the Chancellor House, and the right near Wilderness
Church, which line the Eleventh Corps prolonged to the vicinity of
Hunting Creek.
The Fifth Corps had marched to Kelley's Ford, and crossed in rear of
the Twelfth Corps. From here, Sykes's and Griffin's divisions marched
towards Ely's Ford, preceded by Col. Devin's Sixth New York Cavalry,
which surprised the pickets at that place. The troops crossed by wading.
Humphreys remained behind to cover the passage of the trains, and after
followed the column.
On crossing the Rapidan, Sykes was pushed towards United-States Ford,
to dislodge the Confederate force there, by thus taking in reverse their
position, while Griffin marched to Chancellorsville. The whole corps
soon after united at the latter place, and was located with its right
joining Slocum, and the left extending towards the river, facing Mine
Run.
A skirmish of no particular moment had occurred between Griffin and
Anderson, as the former reached Chancellorsville. Anderson had
been retiring before the Federal advance, on the plank road towards
Fredericksburg. His rear guard made a short stand at the crossroads, but
withdrew after a few rounds; and Anderson took up a position near Mine
Road, where numerous ravines, perpendicular to the river, afforded
excellent successive lines of defence.
On reaching Chancellorsville, Slocum took command of the three corps
there assembled. He was ordered to ascertain, by a cavalry party,
whether the enemy were detaching any considerable force from
Fredericksburg to meet his column. If not, an advance at all hazards was
to be made, and a position on the plank road which would uncover Banks's
Ford to be secured. If the enemy were in strong force, Slocum was to
select a position, and compel his attack. Not a moment was to be lost
until the troops were concentrated at Chancellorsville. "From that
moment all will be ours," said Hooker.
The inconsistency of these orders can be explained only by marked
ignorance of the country. To secure a position which would uncover
Banks's Ford was certainly a great desideratum; but the possession of
Chancellorsville was far from accomplishing this end, as we shall see.
So admirably planned and executed were all orders up to this time, that
on Thursday, by two P.M., three corps of nearly forty thousand men were
concentrated on Lee's flank, while the latter was still unaware of the
presence of any considerable Federal force in this vicinity.
On Monday Couch had been ordered to march two divisions of his (Second)
corps to Banks' Ford, but to keep back from the river, and to show no
more than the usual pickets. One brigade and a battery to be sent to
United-States Ford, there to relieve an equal detail of the Eleventh
Corps, which would rejoin its command. All their artillery to move with
these two divisions, and to be ready to cover a forced crossing. The
division whose camps at Falmouth were most easily seen by the enemy from
across the river (it happened to be Gibbon's) to be left in camp to do
picket and provost duty. The Third Corps would be available in case
the enemy himself attempted a crossing. Gibbon to be ready to join the
command at any time.
On Thursday, as soon as Anderson withdrew Mahone's and Posey's brigades
from United-States Ford, which he did when Meade's crossing at Ely's had
flanked that position, Couch, whose bridge was all ready to throw, was
ordered to cross, and march in support towards the heaviest firing. This
he did, with French and Hancock, and reached Chancellorsville the same
evening.
Swinton, rather grandiloquently, says, "To have marched a column of
fifty thousand men, laden with sixty pounds of baggage and encumbered
with artillery and trains, thirty-seven miles in two days; to have
bridged and crossed two streams, guarded by a vigilant enemy, with the
loss of half a dozen men, one wagon, and two mules,--is an achievement
which has few parallels, and which well deserves to rank with Prince
Eugene's famous passage of the Adige."
However exaggerated this praise may be, Hooker nevertheless deserves
high encomiums on his management of the campaign so far. Leaving
Stoneman's delay out of the question, nothing had gone wrong or been
mismanaged up to the present moment. But soon Hooker makes his first
mistake.
At 12.30 on Thursday, the Third Corps, which lay near Franklin's
Crossing, on the north side of the river, received orders to proceed by
the shortest route, and concealed from the enemy, to United-States Ford,
to be across the river by seven A.M., Friday; in pursuance of which
order, Sickles immediately started, in three columns, following the
ravines to Hamet's, at the intersection of the Warrenton pike and
United-States Ford road. Here he bivouacked for the night. At five A.M.
Friday he marched to the ford, and passed it with the head of his column
at seven A.M., Birney leading, Whipple and Berry in the rear. Leaving
Mott's brigade and a battery to protect the trains at the ford, he then
pushed on, and reported at Chancellorsville at nine A.M. Under Hooker's
orders he massed his corps near the junction of the roads to Ely's and
United-States Fords, in the open near Bullock's, sending a brigade and a
battery to Dowdall's Tavern.
Hooker, meanwhile, had arrived at Chancellorsville, and taken command.
He at once issued this characteristic order:--
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., April 30, 1863.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 47.
It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the commanding general announces
to the army that the operations of the last three days have determined
that our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind
his defences, and give us battle on our own ground, where certain
destruction awaits him.
The operations of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps have been a
succession of splendid achievements.
By command of Major-Gen. Hooker.
S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
Pleasonton, during Thursday, pushed out towards Fredericksburg and
Spotsylvania Court House to observe the enemy.
Fitz Hugh Lee had bivouacked this evening at Todd's Tavern. Stuart, with
his staff, had started towards Fredericksburg to report the condition of
affairs to Gen. Lee. It was a bright moonlight night. A mile or two on
the road he ran against a party of Federal horsemen, the advance of the
Sixth New York Cavalry, under Lieut.-Col. McVicar. Sending back for the
Fifth Virginia Cavalry, Lee attacked the Federal troopers, leading in
person at the head of his staff; but, being repulsed, he sent for
the entire brigade to come up, with which he drove back McVicar's
detachment.
The combat lasted some time, and was interesting as being a night
affair, in which the naked weapon was freely used. Its result was to
prevent Pleasonton from reaching Spotsylvania Court House, where he
might have destroyed a considerable amount of stores.
The position on Thursday evening was then substantially this. At
Hamilton's Crossing there was no change. Each party was keenly scanning
the movements of the other, seeking to divine his purpose. Sedgwick
and Reynolds were thus holding the bulk of Lee's army at and near
Fredericksburg. Hooker, with four corps, and Sickles close by, lay at
Chancellorsville, with only Anderson's small force in his front, and
with his best chances hourly slipping away. For Lee, by this time aware
of the real situation, hesitated not a moment in the measures to be
taken to meet the attack of his powerful enemy.