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| Ruins of Chancellorsville.1 |
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Lee's Headquarters were now near Lewis's Creek, southwest of Chancellorsville, from which he issued orders for his united army to make a general advance.
Sickles and Slocum were both forced back by an overwhelming pressure.
Presently the line gave way, and the division of Hancock, and a portion of Slocum's corps, under General Geary, alone held the point of the line in front of Chancellor's house.
These troops gradually fell back, and fought gallantly at the angle of the roads.
This line, too, soon began to bend.
The Confederates fell furiously upon it, and broke it, and at ten o'clock in the morning, after a struggle for six hours, they took possession of Chancellorsville.
The mansion had been beaten into a ghastly ruin by the Confederate artillery.
Couch had withdrawn the army to a position northward of it, where he formed a new line, of V or redan shape, along the
roads leading to Elly's and United States Fords, the right resting on the Rapid Anna, the left on the Rappahannock, and the apex at Bullock's house.
On this line were the fresh troops of Meade and Reynolds, which had not been called into the severe struggle during the morning.
Hooker recovered, and resumed command at noon.
Lee's army was now united, and Hooker's was yet divided, Sedgwick and Gibbon, with an aggregate force of about thirty thousand men, being still near Fredericksburg.
Hooker had vainly hoped for the appearance of these on Lee's flank and rear during the early morning struggle, and now they were separated from him by an army elated by victory.
Lee, confident that he might capture or disperse the forces of his antagonist, was about to follow up his triumph by attacking Hooker in his new position, when news came from Fredericksburg which instantly arrested his operations in that direction.
Sedgwick was seriously menacing his flank and rear.
So early as Saturday morning, Sedgwick had thrown his corps over the Rappahannock, at Franklin's crossing-place, and, after some skirmishing, had lain quietly until near midnight, when he received the order, already mentioned, to join the main army at Chancellorsville.
He began the movement at
1 this is a view of the ruins of the Chancellor House (called Chancellor's Villa, or Chancellorsville), as it appeared when the writer sketched it, in June, 1866.
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