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 Slocum, 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. Hancock strengthened Miles's outpost line, who "held it nobly
against repeated assaults."
While this is transacting, Couch orders Hancock 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
assuredly a sufficiency of troops there.
But Hancock 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. Hancock'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
circumstances, difficult for him to maintain any footing.
When Couch had temporarily assumed command, Hancock, 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. Hancock 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 shelling by the enemy
having set it on fire some time before.
Hancock'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
assaults 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.