William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

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[433] he knew he had no infantry in that quarter, he again supposed it to be Longstreet, and took measures to meet him.¹ But the reported column of infantry proved to be a body of several hundred Union convalescents, who had come to the front by way of Chancellorsville, and were now following the route of the Second Corps around by Todd's Tavern. Thus it was that the suspicion, continually reawakened, that Longstreet was moving to turn Hancock's left flank, resulted in paralyzing a large number of his best troops—troops that would otherwise have gone into action at the time when the disruption of Hill's force opened a rare opportunity for a decisive blow.

The contest that signalized Longstreet's arrival on Hancock's front, and restored the integrity of the shattered Confederate right, now died away; and for some hours, up to nearly noon, there was a lull. During this time, Longstreet's troops continued to arrive; and when, at length, his line had acquired breadth and weight by the incoming force, it was advanced, and Hancock's troops, which had first halted, now began to feel a heavy pressure. The attack first fell on the left of the advanced line, held by the brigade of Frank. This force Longstreet's troops fairly overran; and, brushing it away, they struck the left of Mott's division, which was, in turn, swept back in confusion; and though Hancock endeavored, by swinging back his left, and forming line along the plankroad, to secure the advanced position still held by his right, it was found impossible to do so, and he had to content himself with rallying and re-forming the troops on the original line, along the Brock road, from which they had advanced in the morning. Wadsworth, on the right of Hancock, opposed the most heroic efforts to the onset of the enemy; but after several ineffectual charges, his troops broke into the retreat; and while striving to rally them, that patriotic and highsouled