le as at midnight, did two hundred
thousand men in blue and gray clutch each other--bloodiest and
weirdest of encounters. War had had nothing like it. The genius of
destruction, tired apparently of the old commonplace killing, had
invented the 'unseen death.' At five in the morning, the opponents
closed in, breast to breast, in the thicket. Each had thrown up here
and there slight, temporary breastworks of saplings and dirt; beyond
this, they were unprotected. The question now was, which would succeed
in driving his adversary from these defences, almost within a few
yards of each other, and from behind which crackled the musketry.
Never was sight more curious. On the low line of these works, dimly
seen in the thicket, rested the muzzles spouting flame; from the
depths rose cheers; charges were made and repulsed, the lines scarcely
seeing each other; men fell and writhed, and died unseen--their
bodies lost in the bushes, their death-groans drowned in the steady,
continuous, never-ceasing crash."

These sentences convey a not incorrect idea of the general character
of this remarkable engagement, which had no precedent in the war. We
shall now proceed to speak of General Lee's plans and objects, and to
indicate where they failed or succeeded. The commanders of both armies
labored under great embarrassments. General Grant's was the singular
character of the country, with which he was wholly unacquainted; and
General Lee's, the delay in the arrival of Longstreet. Owing to the
distance of the camps of the last-named officer, he had not, at dawn,
reached the field of battle. As his presence was indispensable to a
general assault, this delay in his appearance threatened to result in
unfortunate consequences, as it was nearly certain that General Grant
would make an early and resolute attack. Under these circumstances,
Lee resolved to commence the action, and did so, counting, doubtless,
on his ability, with the thirty thousand men at his command, to at
least maintain his ground. His plan seems to have been to make a heavy
demonstration against the Federal right, and, when Longstreet arrived,
throw the weight of his whole centre and right against the Federal
left, with the view of seizing the Brock Road, running southward,
and forcing back the enemy's left wing into the thickets around
Chancellorsville. This brilliant conception, which, if carried out,
would have arrested General Grant in the beginning of his campaign,
was very