s by a certain time, to withdraw;
that they did withdraw about eleven o'clock on Saturday night, but met
re-enforcements coming up, and turned back and re-occupied the works.
The statement may have been false, or may have been true." It was
clearly Early's march under his mistaken instructions, which the
prisoners referred to. "If true, it would show that a bold movement
of Gen. Sedgwick's command on Saturday night, would have taken Marye's
heights, and put him well on the road towards Gen. Hooker before
daylight." To the question whether the order could have been actually
carried out: "There was a force of the enemy there, but in my judgment
not sufficient to have prevented the movement, if made with a determined
attack. Night attacks are dangerous, and should be made only with very
disciplined troops. But it seemed to me at the time that the order could
have been executed."

Gibbon, on the contrary, is of opinion that the strict execution of the
order was impracticable, but that probably an assault could have been
made at daylight instead of at eleven A.M. He recollects being very
impatient that morning about the delay,--not, however, being more
specific in his testimony.

XXVIII. SEDGWICK MARCHES TOWARDS HOOKER.

So soon as Sedgwick had reduced the only formidable works in his front,
he made dispositions to push out on the plank road. Gibbon was left in
Fredericksburg to prevent the enemy from crossing to the north side of
the river, and to shield the bridges.

"Gen. Brooks's division was now given the advance, and he was farthest
in the rear, not having got moved from the crossing-place." Brooks had
so extensive a force in his front, that he was constrained to withdraw
with extreme caution. "This necessarily consumed a considerable
time, and before it was completed the sound of the cannonading at
Chancellorsville had ceased." (Warren.)

This postponement of an immediate advance might well, under the
stringency of the orders, have been avoided, by pushing on with the then
leading division. Not that it would have been of any ultimate assistance
to Hooker at Chancellorsville. At the time the storming columns
assaulted Marye's heights, Hooker had already been driven into his
lines at White House. And though none of his strictures upon Sedgwick's
tardiness, as affecting his own situation, will bear the test of
examination, time will not be considered wholly ill-spent in determining
where Sedgwick might have