orce of
about 124,500 men of all arms, 11,500 of which were cavalry.

On the opposite side of the river, the Army of Northern Virginia,
under General Robert E. Lee, numbered, according to their official
reports, about sixty-two thousand men, three thousand of which were
cavalry;* but the difference was amply compensated by the wide
river in front of the enemy, and the fact that every available
point and ford was well fortified and guarded. General Thomas J.
Jackson, commonly called Stonewall Jackson, held the line below
Hamilton's crossing to Port Royal. Two out of four divisions of
Longstreet's corps were absent. The fourth, under Major-General
Lafayette McLaws, was posted from Hamilton's crossing to Banks'
Ford. Still farther up and beyond the front of either army, the
crossing-places were watched by the rebel cavalry under Major-
General J. E. B. Stuart, supported by the Third Division of
Longstreet's corps, that of Anderson.

[* Napoleon says 100,000 men on the rolls are only equivalent to
about 80,000 muskets in action. It is doubtful if Hooker had over
113,000 men for actual combat. Lieut.-Colonel W. T. Forbes,
Assistant Adjutant General, who has had access to the records,
after a careful estimate, places the number as follows. First
Corps, 16,000; Second Corps, 16,000; Third Corps, 18,000; Fifth
Corps, 15,000; Sixth Corps, 22,000; Eleventh Corps, 15,000; Twelfth
Corps, 11,000; total infantry and artillery, 113,000; Pleasanton's
cavalry, 1,500; total effective force, 114,500. He estimates Lee's
army at 62,000, which the Confederate authorities, Hotchkiss and
Allan, place as follows: Anderson's and McLaws' divisions of
Longstreet's Corps, 17,000; Jackson's Corps, 33,500; Stuart's
Cavalry, 2,700; Artillery, 5,000; add 4,000 on engineer, hospital
duty, etc. This estimate is exclusive of Stoneman's force.]

Both armies had spent the winter in much needed rest, after the
toilsome and exhausting marches and bloody battles which terminated
Lee's first invasion of Maryland. The discipline of our army was
excellent, and it would have been hard to find a finer body of men,
or better fighting material than that assembled on this occasion,
in readiness to open the spring campaign. Hooker was justly popular
with his troops. They had confidence in his ability as a general,
and he had gained their good will by anticipating their wants, and
by generously grating furloughs to those who were pining from home-
sick