Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[41] as bearing upon the progress of the war, was of very little consequence.¹ The damages to the railways were repaired by the time the raiders had recrossed the Rappahannock. Had Stoneman's. forces been concentrated, and their destructive energies been applied to the single object of Lee's direct communications, the Confederate army might, after its success at Chancellorsville, have fallen into the hands of the Nationals, for at that time its supplies came from Richmond, and it had not more than a few days' rations ahead at any time.

Let us now turn for a moment and view events of the greatest importance, which were occurring in Southeastern Virginia, at the time of the struggle at Chancellorsville.

We have observed (page 21) that Lee had sent Longstreet to command the troops operating against General John J. Peck, at Suffolk. Ever since the Confederates lost Norfolk,² and with it the mouth of the James River and the region bordering on the Nansemond and the Dismal Swamp, they had been devising measures for recapturing it, and the territory they had lost. To prevent this, and to establish a base for operations against the Weldon and Petersburg railway, a strong body of National soldiers was stationed at Suffolk, at the head of the Nansemond River, and upon a railroad branching to Weldon and Petersburg. This was an important military position, and became the center of stirring scenes in 1862 and 1863.

In September, 1862, Major-General John J. Peck was placed in command of nine thousand men at Suffolk, and at the same time Generals Pettigrew and French, with about fifteen thousand Confederates, were on the line of the Blackwater, menacing that post. Peck comprehended the great importance of his position, and immediately commenced the construction of a system of defenses for its protection.³ The authorities at Richmond, believing he was preparing a base of operations for a grand movement against that city, in co-operation with the Army of the Potomac, caused the adoption of countervailing measures. A series of fortifications were erected from the line of the Blackwater to Fort Powhatan, on the James River, and late in February, 1863, General Longstreet was placed in command of all the Confederate troops in that region. He had then full thirty thousand troops, including those already on the line of the Blackwater, so posted that he could concentrate them all near Suffolk in the course of twenty-four hours.

Early in April, Longstreet prepared to make a sudden descent upon Peck. He determined to march with an overwhelming force, cross the Nansemond, capture or disperse the National garrison, and then, without further difficulty, seize Portsmouth and Norfolk, and seriously menace, if not actually