[4] he was in the presence of sixty thousand. To divide his army into two parts, and place the whole Federal army between them, was extremely hazardous. But it was impossible to attack the Federal position in front without terrible loss. The very boldness of the proposed movement, if executed with secrecy and dispatch, was an earnest of success. Jackson was directed to carry out the plan.
The orders for the march were immediately given. Rodes, in command of D. H. Hill's division, was placed in advance. A. P. Hill brought up the rear.The foregoing was undoubtedly written by Hotchkiss, for subsequently he gave a similar account of what passed between Lee and Jackson, and claimed that he was present and heard what was said, as will be seen from the following extract from Henderson's ‘Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War,’ published in 1897: “About daylight on May 2nd,” says Major Hotchkiss, ‘General Jackson awakened me, and requested that I would at once go down to Catherine Furnace, which is quite near, and where a Colonel Welford lived, and ascertain if there was any road by which he could secretly pass around Chancellorsville to the vicinity of the old Wilderness Tavern. I had a map, which our engineers had prepared from actual surveys, of the surrounding country, showing all the public roads, but with few details of the intermediate topography. Reaching Mr. Welford's, I aroused him from his bed, and soon learned that he himself had recently opened a road through the woods in that direction for the purpose of hauling cord wood and iron ore to the furnace. This I located on the map, and having asked Mr. Welford if he would act as a guide if it became necessary to march over that road, I returned to headquarters. When I reached there I found Generals Lee and Jackson in conference, each seated on a cracker box, from a pile which had been left there by the Federals the day before. In response to General Jackson's request for my report, I put another cracker box between the two generals, on which I spread the map, showed them the road I had ascertained, and indicated, so far as I knew it, the position of the Federal army. General Lee then said, ’
