avor
to drive them in disorder beyond the Rappahannock.

The order to advance upon the enemy was about to be given, when a
messenger from Fredericksburg arrived at full gallop, and communicated
intelligence which arrested the order just as it was on Lee's lips.

A considerable force of the enemy was advancing up the turnpike from
Fredericksburg, to fall upon his right flank, and upon his rear in
case he moved beyond Chancellorsville. The column was that of General
Sedgwick. This officer, it will be remembered, had been detached to
make a heavy demonstration at Fredericksburg, and was still at that
point, with his troops drawn up on the southern bank, three miles
below the city, on Saturday night, while Jackson was fighting. On that
morning General Hooker had sent for Reynolds's corps, but, even in
the absence of this force, General Sedgwick retained under him about
twenty-two thousand men; and this column was now ordered to storm the
heights at Fredericksburg, march up the turnpike, and attack Lee in
flank.

General Sedgwick received the order at eleven o'clock on Saturday
night, about the time when Jackson was carried wounded to the rear. He
immediately made his preparations to obey, and at daylight moved up
from below the city to storm the ridge at Marye's, and march straight
upon Chancellorsville. In the first assaults he failed, suffering
considerable loss from the fire of the Southern troops under General
Barksdale, commanding the line at that point; but, subsequently
forming an assaulting column for a straight rush at the hill, he went
forward with impetuosity; drove the Southern advanced line from behind
the "stone wall," which Generals Sumner and Hooker had failed in
reaching, and, about eleven in the morning, stormed Marye's Hill, and
killed, captured, or dispersed, the entire Southern force there. The
Confederates fought hand to hand over their guns with the enemy for
the possession of the crest, but their numbers were inadequate; the
entire surviving force fell back over the Telegraph road southward,
and General Sedgwick promptly advanced up the turnpike leading from
Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville, to assail General Lee.

It was the intelligence of this threatening movement which now reached
Lee, and induced him to defer further attack at the moment upon
General Hooker. He determined promptly to send a force against General
Sedgwick, and this resolution seems to have been based upon sound
military ju