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[88] ranks thinning off rapidly, and the ammunition for both infantry and artillery about to give out, have sent him message after message asking for the aid of some of the six divisions which they know to be massed in the neighborhood. They have received no reply: the opportune hour has passed away at last; the moment has arrived when one half of the army will be vanquished by the side of the other half, which is doomed to immobility for the want of a single order issued in time; and the general-in-chief, after having delayed too long issuing such an order, finds himself, by a strange fatality, physically unable to give it at the most critical moment. The wound which he presently receives does not allow us to comment upon his conduct on this occasion as it deserves. He has himself stated that but for this wound he would have adopted proper measures to sustain his lieutenants: he might probably have succeeded in retaining possession of the plateau of Chancellorsville. But when he was wounded it was already almost too late, for he had not yet taken any preliminary step for bringing reinforcements upon the field of battle, and the causes of this strange inaction have never been explained.

The critical moment is drawing near: the Confederate artillery is increasing its fire in order to prepare for a new attack; the guns which Stuart has brought together on the Plank Road sweep the entire plateau of Chancellorsville; the cannon-balls fall among the vehicles and in the groups of officers and soldiers who are hurrying into the clearing; the shells are bursting in every direction; finally, a projectile knocks down one of the wooden columns of the portico of the Chancellor house against which the generalin-chief is leaning. At the shock the latter falls insensible to the ground. Those who are near him believe him to be dead, and crowd around him; he soon returns to consciousness, but is so terribly stunned that he cannot recover his senses. At this moment an aide-de-camp from Sickles, Major Tremaine, arrives at Headquarters to announce that the enemy is returning to the charge along the whole line, and that the Third corps, being without ammunition, will not be able to offer resistance if not immediately reinforced. He finds no one to whom to address this supreme appeal. Hooker, who has scarcely recovered his senses, cannot listen to him; General Butterfield, his chief of staff, who

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Chancellorsville (Virginia, United States) (2)

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Tremaine (1)
J. E. B. Stuart (1)
Daniel E. Sickles (1)
Joseph Hooker (1)
Daniel Butterfield (1)
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