[192] the winter of 1862, found Gen. Sedgwick at the head of the Sixth Corps, as the commander of which he is known to fame. In May, 1863, he was ordered by Gen. Hooker to carry the heights of Fredericksburg, and form a junction with the main army at Chancellorsville. The town was occupied on Sunday morning, May 3, with little opposition, but the storming of the heights behind it cost the lives of several thousand men. The advance of the Sixth Corps was checked at Salem Heights about four o'clock in the afternoon, by a superior force detached by Gen. Lee, from the main army confronting Hooker. The force opposing Gen. Sedgwick was further strengthened the next morning, May 4, and it was only by great skill and hard fighting that the general was able to hold his ground during the day, and to withdraw at night across the Rappahannock. ... On the evening of June 30, 1863, the Sixth Corps, the right of the army following the movements of Lee, was at Manchester, northwest of Baltimore, thirty-five miles from Gettysburg; the events of the hour demanding the concentration of the army at the last place, the Sixth Corps made the march thither in twenty hours, arriving before two P. M., July 2. The corps participated thenceforth in the action of the 2d and 3d of July. ... Gen. Sedgwick commanded the right of the Army of the Potomac at Rappahannock Station, November 7; also at Mine Run, November 26 to December 7, 1863. ... Gen. Sedgwick was conspicuous in the battles of the Wilderness, and those at Spottsylvania. On the 10th of May, 1864, he was killed by the bullet of a sharpshooter. He was universally beloved. In the Sixth Corps he was known as ‘Uncle John,’ and his death cast a gloom over that command which was never dispelled. A monument wrought of cannon captured by the Sixth Corps, was erected to his memory at West Point.
[192] the winter of 1862, found Gen. Sedgwick at the head of the Sixth Corps, as the commander of which he is known to fame. In May, 1863, he was ordered by Gen. Hooker to carry the heights of Fredericksburg, and form a junction with the main army at Chancellorsville. The town was occupied on Sunday morning, May 3, with little opposition, but the storming of the heights behind it cost the lives of several thousand men. The advance of the Sixth Corps was checked at Salem Heights about four o'clock in the afternoon, by a superior force detached by Gen. Lee, from the main army confronting Hooker. The force opposing Gen. Sedgwick was further strengthened the next morning, May 4, and it was only by great skill and hard fighting that the general was able to hold his ground during the day, and to withdraw at night across the Rappahannock. ... On the evening of June 30, 1863, the Sixth Corps, the right of the army following the movements of Lee, was at Manchester, northwest of Baltimore, thirty-five miles from Gettysburg; the events of the hour demanding the concentration of the army at the last place, the Sixth Corps made the march thither in twenty hours, arriving before two P. M., July 2. The corps participated thenceforth in the action of the 2d and 3d of July. ... Gen. Sedgwick commanded the right of the Army of the Potomac at Rappahannock Station, November 7; also at Mine Run, November 26 to December 7, 1863. ... Gen. Sedgwick was conspicuous in the battles of the Wilderness, and those at Spottsylvania. On the 10th of May, 1864, he was killed by the bullet of a sharpshooter. He was universally beloved. In the Sixth Corps he was known as ‘Uncle John,’ and his death cast a gloom over that command which was never dispelled. A monument wrought of cannon captured by the Sixth Corps, was erected to his memory at West Point.
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