arent recklessness, of
Lee; and, first, the excellent generalship, and then the extraordinary
tissue of military errors, of General Hooker.

Up to the 1st of May, when he emerged from the Chancellorsville
thicket, every thing had succeeded with the Federal commander, and
deserved to succeed. He had successfully brought over his great force,
which he himself described as the "finest army on the planet," and
occupied strong ground east of Chancellorsville, on the road to
Fredericksburg. General Sedgwick was absent at the latter place with a
strong detachment of the army, but the main body covered Banks's Ford,
but twelve miles from the city, and by the afternoon of this day the
whole army might have been concentrated. Then the fate of Lee would
seem to have been decided. He had not only a very small army, but
that army was scattered, and liable to be cut off in detail. General
Sedgwick menaced his right at Fredericksburg--General Hooker was in
front of his left near Chancellorsville--and to crush one of these
wings before the other could come to its assistance seemed a work of
no very great difficulty. General Hooker appears, however, to have
distrusted his ability to effect this result, and, finding that
General Lee was advancing with his main body to attack him, retired,
from his strong position in the open country, to the dense thicket
around Chancellorsville. That this was a grave military error there
can be no doubt, as, by this retrograde movement, General Hooker not
only discouraged his troops, who had been elated by his confident and
inspiring general orders, but lost the great advantage of the open
country, where his large force could be successfully manoeuvred.

Lee took instant advantage of this fault in his adversary, and boldly
pressed the force retiring into the Wilderness, where, on the night
of the 1st of May, General Hooker was shut up with his army. This
unforeseen result presented the adversaries now in an entirely new
light. The Federal army, which had been promised by its commander
a speedy march upon Richmond in pursuit of Lee, had, instead of
advancing, made a backward movement; and Lee, who it had been supposed
would retreat, was now following and offering them battle.

The daring resolution of Lee, to divide his army and attack the
Federal right, followed. It would seem unjust to General Hooker
greatly to blame him for the success of that blow, which could not
have been reasonably anticipated.