commander. General Sedgwick, with three corps, in all about twenty-two
thousand men, had crossed just below Fredericksburg on the 29th, and
Lee had promptly directed General Jackson to oppose him there. Line of
battle was accordingly formed in the enemy's front beyond Hamilton's
Crossing; but as, neither on that day nor the next, any further
advance was made by General Sedgwick, the whole movement was seen to
be a feint to cover the real operations above. Lee accordingly turned
his attention in the direction of Chancellorsville. Jackson, as we
have related, was sent up to reenforce General Anderson, and Lee
followed with the rest of the army, with the exception of about six
thousand men, under General Early, whom he left to defend the crossing
at Fredericksburg.

Such were the positions of the opposing forces on the 1st day of May.
Each commander had displayed excellent generalship in the preliminary
movements preceding the actual fighting. At last, however, the
opposing lines were facing each other, and the real struggle was about
to begin.

II.

THE WILDERNESS.

The "Wilderness," as the region around Chancellorsville is called, is
so strange a country, and the character of the ground had so important
a bearing upon the result of the great battle fought there, that a
brief description of the locality will be here presented.

The region is a nearly unbroken expanse of dense thicket pierced only
by narrow and winding roads, over which the traveller rides, mile
after mile, without seeing a single human habitation. It would seem,
indeed, that the whole barren and melancholy tract had been given up
to the owl, the whippoorwill, and the moccasin, its original tenants.
The plaintive cries of the night-birds alone break the gloomy silence
of the desolate region, and the shadowy thicket stretching in
every direction produces a depressing effect upon the feelings.
Chancellorsville is in the centre of this singular territory, on
the main road, or rather roads, running from Orange Court-House to
Fredericksburg, from which latter place it is distant about ten miles.
In spite of its imposing name, Chancellorsville was simply a large
country-house, originally inhabited by a private family, but afterward
used as a roadside inn. A little to the westward the "Old Turnpike"
and Orange Plank-road unite as they approach the spot, where they
again divide, to unite a second time a few miles to the east, where
they form the ma