April 29th, when the Army broke camp and started on a campaign intended
to be brief, but sharp and decisive, fruitful of great and important
results.
It was Hooker's plan, most intelligently conceived and thorough in its
details. Without Jackson on the other side, it would have gone down
in history as the battle of the War, and Hooker would have been the
Lieutenant-General. No rebel army would thereafter have crossed the
Potomac to make a Gettysburg. The Gettysburg of the War would have been
on Southern soil.
The Regiment participated in the feint to the left of Fredericksburg,
and on the
1st of May, moved toward Chancellorsville, the place of the campaign,
crossing the Rappahannock at United States Ford.
On the 2d, late in the afternoon, Sickles was ordered to send two
Divisions, the 2d and 3d, in the direction of the Old Furnace, to cut
off the march of rebel troops toward the right of our line. Jackson,
however, as was his custom, had already passed by and out of the way,
excepting a regiment, which was captured.
While two-thirds of Sickles' Corps was in this exposed position,
Jackson literally fell on the 11th Corps, away to the right of the
Union line, at a time when the whole of that Corps was lying in
supposed security, doubled it up, and in this way substituted the Field
plan of Lee for the Camp study of Hooker; and Chancellorsville was
become a ground to fight on but not a place of victory.
In the words of that memorable Order, the "Enemy was in a bag." But
where was the string?
However, there was virtue in the situation, in that it furnished
the grandest test that could have been presented to the Army of the
Potomac. Most fully defeated, yet not alarmed. Line broken, yet not
pursued.
Hooker's Army was a body of positive soldiery, who knew not on that 2d
of May, nor until well back on sure ground, how nearly Lee had gained
what Hooker started out to accomplish.
Back from the Old Furnace came the two Divisions of Sickles', while
Keenan, with his Battalion of Cavalry, held the whole rebel force, to
make time for the planting of the guns, and lessen the time for the
falling of the night, which was to be the safeguard of our Army.
The next morning found our Brigade too far out, and where it would not
have remained through the night had its position and number been known
to the occupants of the woods along the line of which it was posted.
The Brigade was drawn back in the direction of the Chancellor House,
and put behind a short line of light breast-works, in an isolated
position, without any support to the right or left. We had been closely
followed in our withdrawal of the morning, and were now hard pressed by
the enemy forcing in upon our front, while a large force could be seen
moving some distance on our left, which, within a half-hour, coming
through the woods and over the rise to our rear, were immediately at
our back before their coming was known.
For some time, such of the Union troops as could be seen from the
position occupied by the Regiment, had been giving way and falling
back to the protection of the numerous guns posted in front of the
Chancellor House, and which had not yet opened fire.
The Union line did not seem to be holding anywhere.
The killed and wounded of the Regiment had been added to at every fire.
Pressed to the front and rear by forces too large to contend with, with
one flank closed and the other nearly so, it was now only the question
of escape, or capture.
When the colors of the Regiment were planted behind the inner works,
twice the fingers of the hands counted the total of the officers and
men who stood with them.
Out of 391, 1 officer, Peterman, then Captain of K Co., and 5 men
had been killed; 5 officers and 54 men wounded, and 154 captured and
missing.
General Whipple was killed just to the right of the Regiment, on the
4th.
On the night of the 4th, rain came down in a flood, so that the
Rappahannock was much swollen. About midnight, Hooker's Army commenced
crossing to the North side, and, by the night of the 5th, all were back
on the old camp ground.
Many of the dead had been left on the field where they fell, and many
of the wounded left to rebel care. Death had come to some of the
wounded from the fire in the woods, caused by the shelling on the 3d.
The great loss to the rebel side came a few days after, in the death of
Jackson, who had been mortally wounded on the night of the 2d.
Following on Chancellorsville, owing to the death of Whipple and the
numerous casualties, the Division was broken up and the regiments
assigned to other commands.