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Hooker.

The position of both armies shortly after daybreak was substantially
that to which the operation of Saturday had led.

The crest at Fairview was crowned by eight batteries of the Third and
Twelfth Corps, supported by Whipple's Second brigade (Bowman's), in
front to the left, forming, as it were, a third line of infantry.

In advance of the artillery some five hundred yards, (a good half-mile
from the Chancellor House,) lay the Federal line of battle, on a crest
less high than Fairview, but still commanding the tangled woods in
its front to a limited distance, and with lower ground in its rear,
deepening to a ravine on the south of the plank road. Berry's division
held this line north of the plank road, occupying the ground it had
fought over since dusk of the evening before. Supporting it somewhat
later was Whipple's First brigade (Franklin's). Berdan's sharpshooters
formed a movable skirmish-line; while another, and heavier, was thrown
out by Berry from his own troops.

A section of Dimick's battery was trained down the road.

Williams's division of the Twelfth Corps was to the south of the plank
road, both he and Berry substantially in one line, and perpendicular to
it; while Mott's brigade was massed in rear of Williams's right.

Near Williams's left flank, but almost at right angles to it, came
Geary's division, in the same intrenched line he had defended the
day before; and on his left again, the Second Corps, which had not
materially changed its position since Friday.

The angle thus formed by Geary and Williams, looked out towards cleared
fields, and rising ground, surmounted by some farm-buildings on a high
crest, about six hundred yards from Fairview.

At this farm, called Hazel Grove, during the night, and until just
before daybreak, holding a position which could have been utilized as
an almost impregnable point d'appui, and which, so long as it was held,
practically prevented, in the approaching battle, a junction of Lee's
severed wings, had lain Birney's and Whipple's divisions. This point
they had occupied, (as already described,) late the evening before,
after Sickles and Pleasonton had finished their brush with Jackson's
right brigades. But Hooker was blind to the fact that the possession
of this height would enable either himself or his enemy to enfilade the
other's lines; and before daybreak the entire force was ordered to move
back to Chancellorsville. In order to do this, the inte