May 7, 1863, The New York Herald
Our Special Reports from the Battle Field.
OUR DESPATCHES.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF T.M. COOK.
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
NEAR UNITED STATES FORD,
MONDAY EVENING, May 4, 1863.
I write you in the midst of a lull in operations in this vicinity – perhaps the lull that precedes a storm more violent, if that be possible, than that which has raged with us for the past three days. General Hooker congratulated his army that they had obtained a position that would compel the enemy to come out of his intrenchments and give us battle. The enemy has come out of his intrenchments, and has given us battle. From fifteen to twenty thousand slain and mangled rebels attest the ferocity of that battle. They attacked us first on Friday, though more as if feeling of us than really to fight us. On Saturday we pushed our lines a couple of miles beyond where they had been originally established, when an overwhelming body of the enemy, under the rebel General Hill, fell upon our right flank with a violence that we were unable to withstand. The Eleventh corps, having the extreme right, broke in confusion under this attack and fled from the field in a panic, nearly effecting the total demoralization of the entire army. But for the unsurpassed bravery and coolness of General Sickles, the history of the Army of the Potomac would have terminated with this disaster. On Sunday morning, at daylight, they came upon our left flank as we were changing front, and a battle ensued that has not been surpassed for obstinate fighting and consummate bravery in the history of the rebellion. The horrors of the struggle were intensified by the miseries inflicted upon the wounded, who were shelled and burned in hospitals after their wounds had been dressed – many of whom who would otherwise have recovered thus finding a horrible death. Hundreds, too, of the wounded of that desperate struggle, who were left upon the field, were burned up by the conflagration of the woods, caused by the incessant shelling.
The movement of the Grand Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock, both above and below Fredericksburg, and the position secured by General Hooker – on the attainment of which he congratulated his troops and defied the enemy to assault him – has been fully and graphically described by several of the able correspondents of the HERALD now with the army, who have found opportunity to anticipate me in writing their accounts. I am therefore reluctantly compelled to abandon the idea of giving a detailed narrative of the marching and countermarching of the particular column to which I was especially attached, and will attempt to give your readers a clear and connected narrative of the operations of the entire army since it gained its position at Chancellorsville.
CHANCELLORSVILLE
is one of the many four corner settlements of Virginia that are dignified with a town name, though having nothing but the name to give them that character. Like most similar settlements, it derives its name from the principal landed proprietor in its immediate vicinity. It is situated at the intersection of the Fredericksburg and Orange Court House plank road – the principal line of communication between Fredericksburg and Gordonsville – and what is know as the Wilderness road – an old turnpike leading from Fredericksburg to the village of Wilderness. There is also a road leading from this point, starting off in a northeasterly direction, to Banks’ Ford, and directly north to the United States Ford – five miles distant – and, by branches from both the Wilderness and Banks’ Ford road, two additional routes to the United States Ford.
The place itself, as above intimated, amounts simply to nothing. At the time of our occupation of it contained but a single building – that a large brick house, which Gen. Hooker took possession of for his headquarters. This house, which stands immediately at the confluence of the system of roads above mentioned is upon an elevated, cleared and cultivated plain, about a mile’s square, somewhat extended and broken in shape on its southwesterly corner, at which point alone it is joined, through a narrow neck, with other cultivated fields.
THE COUNTRY ABOUT.
In all directions, excepting on the southwest corner, the point is entirely surrounded by heavy timber. On the east, south and southwest the land falls off into the bed of Scott creek, which surrounds the plain on those sides. On all sides, after leaving the immediate vicinity of Chancellorsville, the land is rough and broken, cut up with numerous deep and crooked ravines having various directions though on the east uniformly leading in a northeasterly course to the Rappahannock river. The timber that covers these hills and ravines is filled with tangled masses of under brush, thus completing a […..] ensemble of the most undesirable character of ground for military operations.
ADVANTAGES OF THE POSITION.
By the possession of this point General Hooker obtained signal advantages over the rebels. His operations under General Sedgwick, on the left, had interrupted, to a great extent, the enemy’s communication with Bowling Green and Richmond, either by turnpike or railroad. This left them only the plank road leading through Chancellorsville and Orange Court House to Gordonsville, and thence by rail to Richmond, to move up their supplies upon. By getting possession of Chancellorsville General Hooker broke this line of communication, throwing the rebels upon an indifferent system of wretchedly poor crossroad and byways by which to reach their bases of supplies. Holding this position and at the same time commanding their routes on the east of Fredericksburg, we therefore compelled the enemy to the alternative of starving in his intrenchments or coming out to attack us in the place of our choice. In the latter event Chancellorsville was, of all others, the most desirable position we could have. Its elevation enabled its possessor to command the country on all sides, while no accessible point was left upon which the enemy could bring artillery to bear upon it. It could only be taken by direct assault; and from this species of attack General Hooker felt confident he had nothing to fear.
THE FEDERAL APPROACH.
Having described the roads centering at Chancellorsville, the reader will have no difficulty in comprehending the routes by which General Hooker reached Chancellorsville with his immense army. Making a powerful demonstration on the right of the enemy, he called their attention that direction, and then made a sudden cavalry dash at the fords above, gaining possession of Kelly’s Ford, above the confluence of the Rapidan, throwing the Eleventh and Twelfth corps across at that point. These troops moved with the utmost rapidity to Ely and the Germania fords across the Rapidan, where they surprised and captured a body of workmen engaged in constructing a bridge for J. E. B. Stuart, who was preparing for a raid into our lines; thence pushed on to Wilderness, whence a force was detached to get possession of the United States Ford, at which place the enemy were fortifying. The precipitancy of our advance took the rebels by surprise, causing them to retire from this position without a struggle, leaving a number of prisoners and some guns in our hands, and yielding us undisputed possession of this important crossing.
Meantime the remainder of the Eleventh and Twelfth corps pushed on by the direct Wilderness road, and took possession of Chancellorsville without opposition. The Fifth corps was immediately thrown across the river at the United States Ford, and moved up to join the others at Chancellorsville by the direct road.