y-four hours one of Stuart's horsemen
brought the news that Hooker had crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's
Ford and the Rapidan at Ely's Ford. Lee at once left one division to
face General Sedgwick, and ordered the three others to join General
Anderson, who with 8000 men had fallen back before Hooker's advance, and
taken his post at Tabernacle Church, about halfway between
Fredericksburg and Tabernacle. Lee himself rode forward at once and
joined Anderson.

Jackson led the force from Fredericksburg, and pressed the enemy back
toward Chancellorsville until he approached the tremendous lines of
fortifications, and then fell back to communicate with Lee. That night a
council of war was held, and it was agreed that an attack upon the front
of the enemy's position was absolutely impossible. Hooker himself was so
positive that his position was impregnable that he issued a general
order of congratulation to his troops, saying that "the enemy must now
ingloriously fly or give us battle on our own ground, where certain
destruction awaits him."

Jackson then suggested that he should work right round the Wilderness in
front of the enemy's position, march down until well on its flank, and
attack it there, where they would be unprepared for an assault. The
movement was one of extraordinary peril. Lee would be left with but one
division in face of an immensely superior force; Jackson would have to
perform an arduous march, exposed to an attack by the whole force of the
enemy; and both might be destroyed separately without being able to
render the slightest assistance to each other. At daybreak on the 2d of
May Jackson mustered his troops for the advance. He had in the course of
the night caught a severe cold. In the hasty march he had left his
blankets behind him. One of his staff threw a heavy cape over him as he
lay on the wet ground. During the night Jackson woke, and thinking that
the young officer might himself be suffering from the want of his cape,
rose quietly, spread the cape over him, and lay down without it. The
consequence was a severe cold, which terminated in an attack of
pneumonia that, occurring at a time when he was enfeebled by his wounds,
resulted in his death. If he had not thrown that cape over the officer
it is probable that he would have survived his wounds.

At daybreak the column commenced its march. It had to traverse a narrow
and unfrequented road through dense thickets, occasionally crossing
ground in s