he gained his name of Stonewall from the firmness with
which he kept his men to their work and repulsed the attack of the Union
troops. From that time until his death, less than two years afterwards,
his career was one of brilliant and almost uninterrupted success,
whether serving with an independent command in the Valley, or acting
under Lee as his right arm in the pitched battles with McClellan, Pope,
and Burnside. Few generals as great as Lee have ever had as great a
lieutenant as Jackson. He was a master of strategy and tactics, fearless
of responsibility, able to instil into his men his own intense ardor of
battle; and so quick in his movements, so ready to march as well as
fight, that his troops were known to the rest of the army as the "fool
cavalry."

In the spring of 1863 Hooker had command of the Army of the Potomac.
Like McClellan, he was able to perfect the discipline of his forces and
to organize them, and as a division commander he was better than
McClellan; but he failed even more signally when given a great
independent command. He had under him 120,000 men when, toward the end
of April, he prepared to attack Lee's army, which was but half as
strong.

The Union army lay opposite Fredericksburg, looking at the fortified
heights where they had received so bloody a repulse at the beginning of
the winter. Hooker decided to distract the attention of the Confederates
by letting a small portion of his force, under General Sedgwick, attack
Fredericksburg, while he himself took the bulk of the army across the
river to the right hand so as to crush Lee by an attack on his flank.
All went well at the beginning, and on the 1st of May Hooker found
himself at Chancellorsville face to face with the bulk of Lee's forces;
and Sedgwick, crossing the river and charging with the utmost
determination, had driven out of Fredericksburg the Confederate division
of Early; but when Hooker found himself face to face with Lee he
hesitated, faltered instead of pushing on, and allowed the consummate
general to whom he was opposed to himself take the initiative.

Lee fully realized his danger, and saw that his only chance was to
attempt, first to beat back Hooker, and then to turn and overwhelm
Sedgwick, who was in his rear. He consulted with Jackson, and Jackson
begged to be allowed to make one of his favorite flank attacks upon the
Union army; attacks which could have been successfully delivered only by
a skilled and resolute gene