May 8, 1863, The New York Herald
The news of General Hooker’s retrograde movement to the north side of the Rappahannock, after sustaining a loss of ten thousand men or more during a contest of three days, created an intense excitement in the city yesterday. Our latest news report the army safe at Falmouth. The artillery, ammunition and trains were brought over without loss. The river had risen ten feet, rendering a pursuit by General Lee next to impossible. The failure of General Sedgwick to support General Hooker, owing to the overwhelming force brought against him by the rebels at Fredericksburg; the absence of Gen. Stoneman’s splendid cavalry force, which was employed on an expedition that now proves to have been quite successful, and the reinforcement of Lee by Longstreet, and the delay in bringing up Heintzelman’s reserves, all combined to render Gen. Hooker position on the other side of the Rappahannock no longer tenable, and his withdrawal became a painful necessity. He crossed by the United States and Banks’ fords in a terrific rain storm, the sudden rising of the waters rendering the use of the pontoon bridges exceedingly precarious.
The success of General Stoneman’s expedition is admitted by the rebels themselves. His forces were divided into three squadrons – one commanded by himself and the others by Generals Averill and Buford. All performed their work gallantly by cutting the railroad communications between Lee’s army and Richmond and destroying all the bridges to within five miles of the rebel capital.
One party of the cavalry went to Louisa Court House, cutting up the railroad there. Another pushed on to Columbia and Goochland, on the James river, breaking the canal at the former point and capturing rebel stores at the latter. A portion of the force are said to have actually got to within a mile and a quarter of Richmond. General Stoneman then pushed on for the peninsula, and it was reported in Washington yesterday that he had got as far as Williamsburg.
The loss of the enemy in the three days’ fights is estimated at fully twenty thousand men, so that their loss is double that of our side.
We give in another column very full accounts from the rebel journals of the battles of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg, and the operations of General Stoneman. In connection with our army correspondents’ descriptions they make a perfect history of the whole affair, and of the most interesting character.
The heavy rain storm which visited General Hooker’s army on its retreat, extended, not only to Washington, where it was very severe, but all along the railroad line from here to the capital. The streams and rivers are swollen and overflowing their banks; the country is flooded, and the track of the New Jersey Railroad, at Trenton, is covered to the depth of two feet for over a hundred yards. The trains yesterday passed safely through however.
We publish today an interesting communication from our correspondent at Richmond, where he was well received by the authorities, a house having been furnished him – we will not call it a prison – and being sent back to our lines under escort and on a special boat.
We learn from the Wheeling Intelligencer of Wednesday that the rebels are still at Weston, in West Virginia, and that they are seven thousand strong, the forces of Jones and Imboden having united. There is another rebel column under Gen. Wilder, numbering about four thousand, hovering in the vicinity of Summerville, along the New river. This latter force is acting in conjunction with Jenkins and threatens Charleston.
By despatches from Cairo yesterday, we ascertain that our troops have positively captured Grand Gulf, taking 500 prisoners, and all the guns, ammunition and stores. The rebel accounts from Jackson, Miss., on the 2d, state that their troops had then fallen back within their intrenchments, and had then repulsed three assaults of the Union forces. Guerilla forces at Greenville, Miss., destroyed the transport Minnesota on Sunday; but the gunboats scattered the enemy soon after. Our gunboats at Grand Gulf stood fire for eight hours, and then passed safely on, with transports and troops.
Our news from Arkansas is interesting. Colonel Phillips encountered and defeated the rebels at Weber Falls on the 24th ult., capturing all their camp equipage.
We have dates from New Orleans to the 30th ult. by the arrival of the Columbia, Captain Barton, yesterday, from Havana. General Banks has been issuing some important general orders. One condemns to death all who supply aid to the enemy; another orders the registered enemies of the United States government to leave the department by the 10th of May, and another forbids sheriff’s and others to conscript slaves for the rebel army, in pursuance of the action of the Louisiana Legislature.
The rebels are busy in the vicinity of Galveston, Texas, where they are erecting batteries, extending from the city to the fort on the point. The Harriet Lane, disguised somewhat, has been recognized by our fleet off the port plying up and down the bay.