all arms, ambulances, mules, horses
and an enormous amount of valuable stores.

His own losses had been great but far less than those he inflicted on
Rosecrans. He had lost one thousand two hundred and ninety-two killed,
seven thousand nine hundred and forty-five wounded and one thousand
twenty-seven missing.

At Charleston a fleet of iron-clads on the model of the _Monitor_ had
been crushed by the batteries and driven back to sea with heavy loss.
The _Keokuk_ was left a stranded wreck in the harbor.

A second attack on Vicksburg had failed under Sherman. A third attack by
Grant had been repulsed. Farragut's attack on Port Hudson had failed
with the loss of the _Richmond_.

The Federal Government now put forth its grandest effort to crush at a
blow the apparently invincible army of Davis' still lying in its
trenches on the heights behind Fredericksburg.

Hooker's army was raised to an effective force of one hundred and thirty
thousand and his artillery increased to four hundred guns. Lee had been
compelled to detach Longstreet's corps, comprising nearly a third of his
army for service in North Carolina. The force under his command was
barely fifty thousand.

So great was the superiority of the Northern army Hooker divided his
forces for an enveloping movement, each wing of his being still greater
than the whole force under Lee.

Sedgwick's corps crossed the river below Fredericksburg and began a
flanking movement from the south while Hooker threw the main body across
the Rappahannock at three fords seven miles above.

On April thirtieth, he issued an address to his men. His forces were all
safely across the river without firing a shot. He had Lee's little army
caught in a trap between his two grand divisions.

In his proclamation he boldly announced:

"The operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy
must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their defenses and give
us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him."

His enemy was not slow in coming out from behind his defenses. With
quick decision Lee divided his little army by planting ten thousand men
under Early on Marye's Heights to stop Sedgwick's division and moved
swiftly with the remainder to meet Hooker in the dense woods of the
Wilderness near Chancellorsville.

With consummate daring and the strategy of genius he again divided his
army. He detached Jackson's corps and sent his "foot cavalry" on a swift