re: 150 years ago today...August 20th, 1863...

April 21, 1863

General Robert E. Lee filed periodic reports to the Confederate Department of War as well as writing regularly to President Davis directly. One of his War Department reports today stated that the men of his Army of Northern Virginia were being supplied with a daily ration of one pound of flour and a quarter-pound of meat. There were increasing reports of typhoid fever and scurvy among the troops.

Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory wrote Commander James Dunwoody Bullock: "The recent repulse of the enemy before Charleston will show the world that we have not been idle with regard to ordnance and that the enemy's ironclads suffered severely. At a recent experimental trial of the triple-banded Brooke navy gun, a wrought iron bolt was driven through 8 inches of iron and 18 inches of wood. The distance was 260 yards, 16 pounds of powder, with a bolt of 140 pounds."

Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren noted in his private journal: "I had a conversation with the Secretary about Charleston. He is not satisfied and thinks Du Pont gave up too soon: I reminded him that Du Pont was a judicious and brave officer, and that the Captains of the ironclads who were chosen officers concurred with Du Pont."

Rear Admiral David D. Porter, in the USS Lafayette, personally reconnoitered the Confederate works at Grand Gulf. He found a "strong fort" under construction and shelled the workers out. The Confederate steamer Charm attempted to land supplies for the fort but was driven back up the Big Black River. By the 24th, Porter had stationed his gunboats so that they commanded the upper battery at Grand Gulf and closed off the mouth of the Big Black, "...through which ammunition and supplies are brought down, and by which the rebels have hitherto obtained supplies from Red River.'' Porter continued to call for quick action. ''Dispatch,'' he urged Major General John A. McClernand, "is all important at this moment."

Confederate guns at Vicksburg opened fire on Union Army steamers attempting a night passage of the batteries. The USS Tigress was sunk and the USS Empire City was totally disabled; the Moderator was badly damaged, but the J. W. Cheeseman, Anglo Saxon, and Horizon passed safely.

Captain Andrew Thomas Lapole, with seven men of the Fifth and Sixth Virginia Confederate cavalry, were captured near Berryville, Virginia, by a much larger, combined party of the Second Virginia loyal infantry and New York First cavalry, under Lieutenants Powel and Wykoff.

At Nashville, Tennessee, by order of Union Brigadier General R. B. Mitchell, all white persons over the age of eighteen years residing within the lines of his command were compelled to subscribe to the oath of allegiance or non-combatant's parole, or to face exile and go South.

Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut on board the USS Hartford wrote to Rear Admiral Theodorus Bailey about his passage of Port Hudson: "My disaster in passing Port Hudson was a misfortune incidental to battle, but the damage, with the exception of the loss of the Mississippi was nothing: the smoke was so thick that the pilots could not see. I worked through by the compass as I did by Jackson and had my pilot in the mizzentop. . . . I have now been absent from my command six weeks and know nothing of what is going on below. . . . they say no news is good news, and I hear of no disasters, and therefore hope for the best."

The USS Octorara, Commander Napoleon Collins piloting, seized the blockade running British schooner Handy east of Florida with a cargo of salt.

The USS Rachel Seaman, under Acting Lieutenant Quincy A. Hooper, captured the schooner Nymph attempting to run the blockade off Pass Cavallo, Texas, with a cargo including coffee, rice, shoes, and medicine.

April 23, 1863

Interest in spiritualism was intense in mid-century America, and was considered a combination of scientific investigation and parlor entertainment. This night a seance was held at the White House, with participants including the President and First Lady as well as many cabinet members. There were reports that after Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln left, the "spirits" tweaked the nose of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and tugged on Navy Secretary Gideon Welles' beard.

The steamers Merrimac, Charleston, and Margaret and Jessie successfully ran the blockade into Wilmington. Brigadier General William H. C. Whiting, CSA, reported: "The Merrimac brings me three splendid Blakely guns, 8-inch rifled 13-pounders."

The CSS Florida, Lieutenant John N. Maffitt commanding, captured and burned at sea the bark Henrietta bound for Rio de Janeiro with a cargo including flour.

The gunboat USS Tioga, piloted by Commander Clary, seized the blockade running British sloop Justina bound from Indian River, Florida, to the Little Bahama Bank, Nassau with a cargo of cotton.

The USS Pembina, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Young in charge, captured the sloop Elias Beck with an assorted cargo near Mobile.

Lieutenant Cushing, with a large party of men belonging to the Federal gunboat Commodore Barney, with a small howitzer, visited Chuckatuck, Virginia, where he encountered forty Confederate cavalrymen, killing two, and capturing three of their horses fully equipped. Lieutenant Cushing lost one man killed and several wounded.

The British schooner St. George was captured off New Inlet, North Carolina, by the Union steamer Mount Vernon.

April 25, 1863

Hard Times Landing, Mississippi, lived up to its name today as General Hiram U. Grant came to town. Deciding that Vicksburg could not be immediately attacked, he had decided to leapfrog the city and take everything around it. Other fighting occurred in Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory; Greenland Gap, Virginia, and Webber's Falls, Indian Territory (later known as Oklahoma).

The steamer CSS Georgia, under the command of Lieutenant W. L. Maury, captured the ship Dictator with a cargo of coal off the Cape Verde Islands in latitude 25 degrees north, longitude 21 degrees 40 minutes west. Maury burned the prize the next day.

A fight took place at Duck River Shoals,on the Tennessee River, between the United States gunboat Lexington and the ram Monarch, and the Confederate shore batteries, resulting in a defeat of the latter, with a loss of twenty-five Rebels killed and wounded.

Two schooners from New York, with cargos of clothing and medicines, were captured in Mobjack Bay, Virginia, by the Union steamers Samuel Rotan and Western World.

The fight that took place at Greenland Gap, Virginia, was between a detachment of Union troops, under the command of Captain Wallace, of the Twenty-third Illinois, and a force of Confederates, under General William E. Jones. The contest lasted nearly two hours, the Rebels making three desperate charges, but were repulsed on each occasion.

An important debate took place in the English Parliament, in reference to the seizure of British vessels by American cruisers, and other subjects growing out of the warfare in America. In the House of Lords, an elaborate speech was made by Earl Russell, and in the House of Commons, Mr. Roebuck made a very defamatory one.

April 27, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln has become agitated this spring as the weather has warmed and battle season approached. He was constantly urging the current commander of the Army of the Potomac to go further and faster, to fight instead of this perpetual maneuvering. Today he wrote to General Joseph Hooker, "How does it look now?" Hooker did not immediately respond, as he was finessing his army up the Rappahannock, from Falmouth towards the fords across the river. This commenced the forward movement on Fredericksburg, Virginia. This morning at five o'clock, the Eleventh, Major General Howard's corps, the Twelfth, Major General Slocum's, and the Fifth, Major General Meade's corps, struck their tents and marched westward from Falmouth on the several roads leading to Kelly's Ford, distant from the line of Aquia Creek and Fredericksburg Railroad about twenty-five miles; the Eleventh corps being in the advance.

Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter issued a general order concerning the attack on Grand Gulf: "It is reported that there are four positions where guns are placed, in which case it is desirable that all four places should be engaged at the same time. The Louisville, Carondelet, Mound City, and Pittsburg will proceed in advance, going down slowly, firing their bow guns at the guns in the first battery on the bluff, passing 100 yards from it, and 150 yards apart from each. As they pass the battery on the bluff they will fire grape, canister, and shrapnel, cut at one-half second, and percussion shells from rifled guns." Porter gave specific orders for the subsequent actions of the gunboats, and instructed: "The Lafayette will drop down . . . stern foremost, until within 600 yards, firing her rifled guns with percussion shells at the upper battery. The Tuscumbia will round to outside the Benton, not firing over her while so doing; after rounding to, she will keep astern and inside of the Benton, using her bow guns while the Benton fires her broadside guns. The Tuscumbia and Benton will also fire their stern guns at the forts below them whenever they will hear, using shell together."

Under Acting Master Louis A. Brown, boat crews from the USS Monticello and Matthew Vassar boarded and destroyed the British blockade runner Golden Liner in Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina. The ship contained a cargo of flour, brandy, sugar, and coffee.

The USS Preble, Acting Master William F. Shankland commanding, was accidentally destroyed by fire while at anchor off Pensacola.

A large party of Federal cavalry, belonging to the division of General Granger, and under the command of Colonel Watkins, left their camp at Murfreesboro last night. This morning at daybreak, they succeeded in surprising and capturing the Texan Legion of Confederate troops, posted at a point eight miles from Franklin, Tennessee, between the Columbia and Carter's Creek turnpikes. In the skirmish, several Rebels and Yankees were killed and wounded.

Great thread. Thanks.

April 29, 1863

The last Union troops passed over the Rappahannock River fords upstream from Fredericksburg early this morning. They were clear of even the far left wing of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, but still had to cope with the terrain which was known as the Wilderness for good reason. Federal cavalry forces under General George Stoneman (10,000-strong) worked even farther around the Confederate force, hampering communication with Richmond. What would become known to historians as the Battle of Chancellorsville was beginning.

Gunboats under Rear Admiral David D. Porter engaged the heavy Confederate works at Grand Gulf, "which," the Admiral acknowledged, "were very formidable." In the 5 1/2-hour battle, the gunboats silenced the lower batteries but could succeed in stopping the fire from the upper forts only 'for a short time.'' Army transports passed safely below the batteries at night. Grand Gulf had been strongly fortified since Rear Admiral David G. Farragut passed the batteries the preceding summer, to prevent his coming up again," and four batteries were placed a quarter of a mile apart, completely commanding the Mississippi River.

Though USS Benton, Tuscumbia, and Pittsburg were "pretty much cut up" in the engagement, the expedition was successful and the net result was summed up by Porter: "We are now in a position to make a landing where the general [Grant] pleases."

A Confederate soldier wrote on 30 April from Grand Gulf remarking on the state of affairs after the gunboat attack: "We came here two weeks ago and have had hot times ever since. Enemy from their gunboats have shelled us every day. Yesterday our batteries gave them a fight. The firing beat Oak Hill, Elkhorn, Corinth, Hutchin's Bridge, or anything I ever heard. I believe, too, they gave us rather the worst of it. We did not sink a single boat, while they silenced one of our batteries, dismounted 4 pieces, killed Colonel [William] Wade, commanding artillery, and one of his staff, and some 5 or 6 men." As it turned out, the hulls of the Federal fleet were considerably damaged and the crew suffered many casualties. killing at least twenty and wounding a large number.

The Union Army and Navy expedition feigned an attack on the Confederate batteries at Haynes' Bluff on the Yazoo River. The force consisted of the USS Tyler, Choctaw, DeKalb, Signal, Romeo, Linden, Petrel, Black Hawk, and three mortar boats under Lieutenant Commander Breese and 10 large transports carrying troops under command of Major General William T. Sherman. The feint was made to prevent Confederates from reinforcing Grand Gulf. On the 29th the expedition proceeded as far as Chickasaw Bayou. As the force departed on the morning of the 30th, Petrel, remained at Old River on station; the remaining vessels moved up the Yazoo with Choctaw and DeKalb opening fire on the main works at Drumgould's Bluff and Tyler and Black Hawk opening on the fieldworks and batteries. Though instructed not to conduct an actual assault, the feint was so vigorously prosecuted that Choctaw, Lieutenant Commander Ramsay, was struck 53 times by Confederate guns. The soldiers were landed and "Marched up toward Haynes' Bluff on the only roadway, the levee, making quite a display, and threatening one also." Naval gunfire supported the soldiers throughout the demonstration, which lasted through 1 May. The evening of the 1st, the expedition returned to the mouth of the Yazoo. Porter reported to Secretary Gideon Welles: ''The plan succeeded admirably, though the vessels were more exposed than the occasion called for; still as they met with no casualties, with the exception of the hulls, it mattered but little."

The steam sloop-of-war USS Juniata, Commander John M. B. Clitz piloting, captured the schooner Harvest at sea north of the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton.

This morning about five o'clock, a courier dashed into Fredericksburg, Virginia, with the startling, exciting intelligence that the Yankees were crossing the Rappahannock in that vicinity. Immediately the Episcopal church bell, the ring of which had been previously agreed upon as a signal, sounded the alarm, and the streets presented a busy spectacle of military preparation, and women and children leaving the scene of danger.

Fairmount, Virginia, was this day captured by a strong Confederate force under General William E. Jones, after a desperate resistance and contest by the garrison of the place, under the command of Captain Chamberlain, of the One Hundred and Sixth New York volunteers.

General Stahel, with about two thousand cavalry and a light battery, left Fairfax Court House on Monday morning last, to make a reconnaissance in force toward Warrenton and the Blue Ridge, taking the Aldie Pike. The column moved on to Aldie without meeting any force of the enemy. Several captures of John Singleton Mosby's partisan guerrillas were made, some on foot, who were hoping to pick off a scout or two for the sake of the horses. At Aldie the advance guard forced a small party of Mosby's men out of the town, capturing three. From Aldie to Middleburgh light skirmishing was continued on all sides with guerrillas. At Middleburgh, Mosby, who preceded the command up the road with about fifteen men, succeeded in getting from fifty to sixty together. A charge through the town by the advance guard counter charged them, however, and drove them to the woods beyond, from which they were dislodged and scattered by a half dozen shells from Captain Daniels's battery. Camping at Middleburgh on Monday night, scouting parties were sent out toward Snicker's and Ashby's Gaps, but found nothing but scattered bodies of guerrillas. Yesterday the march was resumed to Salem. Skirmishing with other parties of guerrillas took place along the route, and at Salem, Mosby, with at most one hundred and fifty men, was driven from the place, being so badly outnumbered. From Salem the column moved on to White Plains, which place was reached about dark. Here a wounded Confederate lieutenant in Stuart's command was found. From White Plains the force made a night march back to Middleburgh. Halting a few hours, they moved on to Aldie, which place they reached about four o'clock. After resting a few hours at Aldie, the line of march was taken, and the troops reached camp about five o'clock this morning. This reconnaissance demonstrated that there was no regular force of the Rebels in the valley between the Bull Run and the Blue Ridge mountains.

April 30, 1863

After he led his men out of Fredericksburg, crossed the Rappahannock River and entered that part of Virginia known as the Wilderness, General Joseph Hooker set up camp at the home of a family named Chancellor. He then wrote a speech to his troops, saying "...our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their defenses and give us battle...where certain destruction awaits him."

General Hooker's full address: "It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the General Commanding 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 their defenses 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 series of splendid successes."

Hooker, President Abraham Lincoln's new commander had crafted a brilliant plan for the campaign that he expected would at least compel General Robert E. Lee to abandon his Fredericksburg entrenchments, and, possibly, prove fatal to the Army of Northern Virginia. First, Hooker would detach his cavalry, 10,000 strong, on a flying raid toward Richmond to sever Lee's communications with the Confederate capital. Then, he would send most of his infantry 40 miles upstream to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers beyond the Confederate defenses, and sweep east against Lee's left flank. The rest of "Fighting Joe's" army would cross the river at Fredericksburg and menace the Confederate front as the second blade of a great pincers. "My plans are perfect," boasted Hooker "and when I start to carry them out may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none."


Yesterday, on April 29, Hooker's cavalry and three army corps had crossed Kelly's Ford. His columns split, with the cavalry pushing to the west while the army corps secured Getmanna and Ely's fords. Today these columns reunited at Chancellorsville. General Robert E. Lee, sensing danger as he put himself in Hooker's mind, reacted to the news of the Federals in the Wilderness by sending General Richard H. Anderson's division to investigate. Finding the Northerners massing in the woods around Chancellorsville; Anderson commenced the construction of earthworks at Zoan Church. Confederate reinforcements under General Thomas J. Jackson began marching this afternoon to help block the Federal advance, but did not arrive until May 1. The Confederates had no intention of following the script and retreating, as Hooker had recently predicted.

Hooker's troops rested at Chancellorsville after executing what is often considered to be the most daring Northern march of the war. They had slipped across Lee's front undetected. To some the hardest part of the campaign seemed to be behind them; to others, the most difficult had yet to be encountered. The cavalry raid had faltered in its initial efforts and Hooker's main force was trapped in the tangles of the Wilderness without any significant cavalry to alert them of Lee's approach.



General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry clings to the Federal column, sending Lee information as to its strength. Lee hesitantly divides his army, leaving Major General Jubal Early at Fredricksburg while the remainder of his troops move toward Chancellorsville.

The frequent transmission of false intelligence, and the betrayal of the movements of the Army of the Potomac by publication of injudicious correspondence of an anonymous character, made it necessary for General Hooker to issue general orders requiring all newspaper correspondents to publish their communications over their own signatures.

Major General Hiram U. Grant started ferrying his troops across the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg, Mississippi to commence the work of isolating Vicksburg from reinforcements.

A Confederate battery on the Nansemond River, Virginia, was silenced, after a spirited contest, by the guns from the Union battery Morris and the gunboat Commodore Barney.

William F. Corbin and T. G. Graw, found guilty of recruiting for the Rebel service, inside the Federal lines, were this day sentenced to be shot, by a court martial in session at Cincinnati, Ohio.

A detachment of the Sixth New York cavalry, under the command of Union Lieutenant Colonel Duncan McVicar, while reconnoitering in the vicinity of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, today were surrounded by four regiments of General Fitz-Hugh Lee's Confederate cavalry and fifty-two of their number were killed, wounded, or captured. The balance, numbering fifty-eight, cut their way out, but McVicar was killed at the first Southern onset.

May 1, 1863

Union General Joseph Hooker had the past few days taken almost 134,000 Union troops in two wings across the Rappahannock to bring battle to the Confederates in the Army of Northern Virginia. General Robert E. Lee had to leave 10,000 men in Fredericksburg with General Jubal Early, but brought 47,000 men to the gathering. The Federals had encountered virtually no opposition to this point. Moreover, they could now press eastward, break clear of the Wilderness, and uncover Banks Ford downstream, thus significantly shortening the distance between their two wings. Hooker, however, decided to halt at Chancellorsville and await the arrival of additional Union troops. This fateful decision disheartened the Federal officers on the scene who recognized the urgency of maintaining the momentum they had thus far sustained.

Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, gladly seizing the initiative that Hooker needlessly surrendered, left the Fredericksburg lines at 3:00 a.m. this morning and arrived at Zoan Church five hours later. There he found two divisions of Confederate infantry, Major General Richard H. Anderson's and Major General Lafayette McLaws', fortifying a prominent ridge covering the Turnpike and Plank Road. Although his corps had not yet appeared, Jackson ordered Anderson and McLaws to drop their shovels, pick up their rifles, and advance to the attack.

Jackson's audacity dictated the shape of the Battle of Chancellorsville. When Hooker at last authorized an eastward movement late in the morning of May 1, his troops on the Turnpike and Plank Road ran flush against Jackson's, outgunned but aggressive brigades. Union front-line commanders had not expected this kind of resistance. They sent anxious messages to Hooker, who quickly ordered his generals to fall back to the Wilderness and assume a defensive posture, even though he had Jackson outnumbered at least 3 to 1. The Federal columns on the River Road marched almost to Bank's Ford without seeing a Rebel. They returned to Chancellorsville fuming, fully realizing the opportunity that had slipped through their fingers.

Late in the day, as the Yankee infantry threw up entrenchments encircling Hooker's Chancellorsville headquarters, Major General Darius N. Couch approached his superior. As the army's senior corps commander, Couch had advocated an offensive strategy and shared his comrades' disappointment with "Fighting Joe's" judgment. "It is all right, Couch," Hooker reassured him, "I have got Lee just where I want him; he must fight me on my own ground." Couch could barely believe his ears. "To hear from his own lip that the advantages gained by the successful marches of his lieutenants were to culminate in fighting a defensive battle in that nest of thickets was too much, and I retired from his presence with the belief that my commanding general was a whipped man."

Hooker's confidence had faded to caution, but whether he was "whipped" depended upon Lee and Jackson. Those two officers reined up along the Plank Road at its intersection with a byway call the Furnace Road on the evening of May 1. Transforming discarded Federal cracker boxes into camp stools, the generals examined their options.

Confederate scouts verified the Federals' strong positions extending from the Rappahannock River, around Chancellorsville, to the high, open ground at Hazel Grove. This was the bad news. The Southern army could not afford a costly frontal attack against prepared fortifications.

Then, about midnight, Lee's cavalry chief, General J.E.B. Stuart, galloped up to the little campfire. The flamboyant Virginian carried thrilling intelligence. The Union right flank was "in the air" -- that is, resting on no natural or artificial obstacle. From that moment on, the generals thought of nothing but how to gain access to Hooker's vulnerable flank. Jackson consulted with staff officers familiar with the area, dispatched his topographical engineer to explore the roads to the west, and tried to snatch a few hours rest at the chilly bivouac.

Before dawn tomorrow, Lee and Jackson would study a hastily drawn map and decide to undertake one of the biggest gambles in American military history. Jackson's corps, about 30,000 troops, would follow a series of country roads and woods paths to reach the Union right. Lee, with the remaining 14,000 infantry, would occupy a position more than three miles long and divert Hooker's attention during Jackson's dangerous trek. Once in position, "Stonewall" would smash the Federals with his full strength while Lee cooperated as best he could. The Army of Northern Virginia would thus be fractured into three pieces, counting Early's contingent at Fredericksburg, any one of which might be subject to rout or complete annihilation if the Yankees resumed the offensive due to the superior numbers Hooker's Federals could have at any point..

As requested by Secretary Stephen Mallory, the Confederate Congress enacted legislation "To create a Provisional Navy of the Confederate States. "The object of the act, as explained by Captain Semmes, was . . . without interfering with the rank of the officers in the Regular Navy, to cull out from the navy list, younger and more active men, and put them in the Provisional Navy, with increased rank. The Regular Navy became, thus, a kind of retired list, and the Secretary of the Navy was enabled to accomplish his object of bringing forward younger officers for active service, without wounding the feelings of the older officers, by promoting their juniors over their heads, on the same list.'' At this time the Confederate Congress also provided that: ''. . . all persons serving in the land forces of the Confederate States who shall desire to be transferred to the naval service, and whose transfer as seamen or ordinary seamen shall be applied for by the Secretary of the Navy, shall be transferred from the land to the naval service. . . . " The Confederate Navy suffered from an acute shortage of seamen. Mallory complained that the law was not complied with, and that hundreds of men had applied for naval duty but were not transferred.

A boat expedition from the USS Western World, under Acting Master S. B. Gregory, and the USS Crusader, Acting Master Andrews commanding, destroyed two Confederate schooners aground at Milford Haven, Virginia.

The USS Kanawha, Lieutenant Commander Mayo in charge, captured the schooner Dart, bound from Havana to Mobile.

After having crossed the Mississippi River the previous day, General John Alexander McClernand's Union troops advance on the Southern position at Fort Gibson. Under the command of General John Stevens Bowen, Confederate soldiers march from Grand Gulf, Mississippi in an attempt to divert McClernand's progress, but to no avail. The Federals push steadily forward, resulting in the Southern troops' evacuation of the town of Port Gibson. The way becomes progressively more clear for General Hiram Ulysses Grant's forces to march on and attack Vicksburg.

May 2, 1863

Part two...

Meanwhile the bulk of Jackson's column snaked its way along uncharted trails barely wide enough to accommodate four men abreast. Jackson contributed to Hooker's faith in a Confederate retreat by twice turning away from the Union line - first at Catharine Furnace, then again at the Brock Road. After making the desired impression, Jackson ducked under the Wilderness canopy and continued his march toward Howard's unsuspecting soldiers.

Acting upon a personal reconnaissance recommended by cavalry General Fitzhugh Lee, Jackson kept his column northbound on the Brock Road to the Orange Turnpike where the Confederates would at last be beyond the Union right. The exhausting march, which altogether traversed more, than 12 miles, ended about 3 p.m. when "Old Jack's" warriors began deploying into battle lines astride the Turnpike. Jackson, however, did not authorize an attack for some two hours, providing 11 of his 15 brigades time to take position in the silent forest. The awe-inspiring Confederate front measured nearly two miles across.

Although individual Northern officers and men warned of Jackson's approach, Eleventh Corps headquarters dismissed the reports as frightened exaggerations from alarmists or cowards. Hooker's shortage of cavalry hampered the Federals's ability to penetrate the Wilderness and uncover the Confederate presence with certainty. Only two small regiments and half a New York battery faced west in the direction of Jackson's corps.

Suddenly, a bugle rang out in the afternoon shadows. Bugles everywhere echoed the notes up and down the line. As waves of sweat-soaked soldiers rolled forward, the high defiance of the Rebel Yell pierced the gloomy woods. Jackson's Corps erupted from the trees and sent the astonished Unionists reeling. "Along the road it was pandemonium," recalled a Massachusetts soldier, "and on the side of the road it was chaos."

Most of Howard's men fought bravely, drawing three additional battle lines across Jackson's path. But the overmatched Federals occupied an untenable position. The screaming gray legions overwhelmed each Union stand and eventually drove the Eleventh Corps completely from the field.

Sunset and the inevitable intermingling of the brigades compelled Jackson to call a reluctant halt to the advance about 7:15. He summoned Major General A.P. Hill's division to the front and, typically, determined to renew his attack despite the darkness. Jackson hoped to maneuver between Hooker and his escape routes across the rivers and then, with Lee's help, grind the Army of the Potomac into oblivion.

While Hill brought his brigades forward, Jackson rode ahead of his men to reconnoiter. When he attempted to return, a North Carolina regiment mistook his small party for Union cavalry. Two volleys burst forth in the blackness and Jackson tottered in his saddle, suffering from three wounds. Shortly thereafter a Federal shell struck Hill, incapacitating him, and direction of the corps devolved upon Stuart. The cavalryman wisely canceled Jackson's plans for a night attack.

Despite his misfortune on May 2, Hooker still held the advantage at Chancellorsville. He received reinforcements during the night and the Third Corps moved back from Catharine Furnace to reoccupy Hazel Grove. Sickles' troops thus divided the Confederates into separate wings controlled by Stuart and Lee. Hooker, if he chose, could still defeat each fraction of his out manned enemy in detail.

Captain John Rodgers wrote Secretary Gideon Welles relative to the April attack on Charleston: "The punishment which the monitors are able to stand is wonderful but it cannot be denied that their gun gear is more liable to accident than was foreseen. Battles are won by two qualities, ability to endure, and ability to injure. The first we possess in an unrivalled degree the latter one more sparingly. No vessels have ever been under such a fire as that of Charleston before, since the guns are new inventions only perfected since the Crimean War. When a man is in a tight place, he is to do the best he can-that best is often not a pleasant choice. Still if it is the best he can do, it is a great want of wisdom not to do the best he can. Experiment before the most formidable modern artillery has demonstrated that the monitors are more liable to lose their power of shooting than was foreseen but it does not appear that these deficiencies are irremediable even in the present monitors. . . . the vessels were fast getting hors de combat. No one can say what would have been the result of a renewal of the fight but if after a renewal we had been driven out, and left a single monitor to fall into the enemy's hands then the whole character of the war would have changed the wooden blockade would have been at an end as far at least as Charleston is concerned, as far indeed as she could get along the coast. Seeing the damage we received and not knowing the in jury we were doing, the Admiral did not choose to risk the chances of a combat a' l'outrance which if it went against us would entail such momentous consequences. It was not fair game. In losing a couple of monitors to them we should receive far more injury than the taking of Charleston would advance our cause."

Two boat crews from USS Roebuck, Acting Master John Sherrill, seized blockade running British schooner Emma Amelia off St. Joseph's Bay, Florida, with a cargo including flour and wine.

The USS Perry, Acting Master William D. Urann, captured blockade running schooner Alma, bound from Bermuda to Beaufort, South Carolina, with cargo of salt and liquor.

The USS Sacramento, Captain Charles S. Boggs, seized blockade running British schooner Wanderer off Murrell's Inlet, North Carolina, with a cargo of salt and herring.

The Union cavalry force, under Colonel Grierson, arrived at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today, after a raid of fifteen days through the State of Mississippi. They had several skirmishes with parties of Rebels. They destroyed bridges, camps, equipages, etc.; swam several rivers, captured a number of prisoners and horses, and obtained a large amount of important information concerning the Southern resources.

A reconnaissance in force was this day made to the river Nansemond, Virginia, by a large body of Union troops, under the command of General Getty, supported by the gunboat Smith Briggs. The Confederates were discovered in strong force, and an artillery fight was kept up all day, but without any material results.