ction. Nor had a second appeal better results.
What should and could easily have been done at an earlier moment by
Hooker,--to wit, re-enforce the right centre (where the enemy was all
too plainly using his full strength and making the key of the field),
from the large force of disposable troops on the right and left,--it was
now too late to order.

Before nine A.M., Sickles, having looked in vain for re-enforcements,
deemed it necessary to withdraw his lines back of Fairview crest.
Himself re-formed the divisions, except that portion withdrawn by
Revere, and led them to the rear, where the front line occupied the late
artillery breastworks. Ammunition was at once re-distributed.

We had doubtless inflicted heavy losses upon the Confederates. "Their
formation for attack was entirely broken up, and from my headquarters
they presented to the eye the appearance of a crowd, without definite
formation; and if another corps had been available at the moment to have
relieved me, or even to have supported me, my judgment was that not only
would that attack of the enemy have been triumphantly repulsed, but that
we could have advanced on them, and carried the day." (Sickles.)

On the Chancellorsville open occurred another sanguinary struggle.
Stuart still pressed on with his elated troops, although his men were
beginning to show signs of severe exhaustion. Franklin's and Mott's
brigades, says Sickles, "made stern resistance to the impulsive assaults
of the enemy, and brilliant charges in return worthy of the Old Guard."

But, though jaded and bleeding from this prolonged and
stubbornly-contested battle, Jackson's columns had by no means relaxed
their efforts. The blows they could give were feebler, but they were
continued with the wonderful pertinacity their chief had taught them;
and nothing but the Chancellor clearing, and with it the road to
Fredericksburg, would satisfy their purpose.

And a half-hour later, Sickles, finding himself unsupported on right
and left, though not heavily pressed by the enemy, retired to
Chancellorsville, and re-formed on the right of Hancock, while portions
of three batteries held their ground, half way between Chancellorsville
and Fairview, and fired their last rounds, finally retiring after nearly
all their horses and half their men had been shot, but still without the
loss of a gun.

With characteristic gallantry, Sickles now proposed to regain the
Fairview crest with his corps, attacking t