often caused them to deem
themselves invincible, must have been crushed by the blows inflicted.

But there is nothing at all, on this day, in the remotest degree
resembling tactical combination. And, long before the resistance of our
brave troops had ceased, all chances of successful parrying of Lee's
skilful thrusts had passed away.

Hooker's testimony is to the effect that he was merely lighting on
Sunday morning to retain possession of the road by which Sedgwick was
to join him, and that his retiring to the lines at Bullock's was
predetermined.

The following extract from the records of the Committee on the Conduct
of the War, illustrates both this statement, and Hooker's method of
exculpating himself by crimination of subordinates. "Question to Gen.
Hooker.--Then I understand you to say, that, not hearing from Gen.
Sedgwick by eleven o'clock, you withdrew your troops from the position
they held at the time you ordered Gen. Sedgwick to join you.

"Answer.--Yes, sir; not wishing to hold it longer at the disadvantage
I was under. I may add here, that there is a vast difference in
corps-commanders, and that it is the commander that gives tone and
character to his corps. Some of our corps-commanders, and also officers
of other rank, appear to be unwilling to go into a fight."

But, apart from the innuendo, all this bears the stamp of an
after-thought. If an army was ever driven from its position by fair
fighting, our troops were driven from Chancellorsville. And it would
seem, that, if there was any reasonable doubt on Saturday night that
the Army of the Potomac could hold its own next day, it would have been
wiser to have at once withdrawn to the new lines, while waiting for the
arrival of Sedgwick. For here the position was almost unassailable, and
the troops better massed; and, if Lee had made an unsuccessful assault,
Hooker would have been in better condition to make a sortie upon the
arrival of the Sixth Corps in his vicinity, than after the bloody and
disheartening work at Fairview.

Still the inactivity of Hooker, when Sedgwick did eventually arrive
within serviceable distance, is so entire a puzzle to the student of
this campaign, that speculation upon what he did then actually assume
as facts, or how he might have acted under any other given conditions,
becomes almost fruitless.

XXVI. SEDGWICK'S CHANGE OF ORDERS.

Let us return to the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, where
operations n