after month, in view of
the blue army.

At the end of January Burnside was superseded. The Army of the Potomac
came under the command of Fighting Joe Hooker. In February Longstreet,
with the divisions of Pickett and Hood, marched away from the
Rappahannock to the south bank of the James. In mid-March was fought the
cavalry battle of Kelly's Ford--Averell against Fitz Lee. Averell
crossed, but when the battle rested, he was back upon the northern
shore. At Kelly's Ford fell John Pelham, "the battle-cry on his lips,
and the light of victory beaming from his eye."

April came with soft skies and greening trees. North and south and east
and west, there were now gathered against the fortress with the stars
and bars above it some hundreds of thousands under arms. Likewise a
great navy beat against the side which gave upon the sea. The fortress
was under arms indeed, but she had no navy to speak of. Arkansas and
Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina, vast lengths of the Mississippi
River, Fortress Monroe in Virginia and Suffolk south of the
James--entrance had been made into all these courts of the fortress.
Blue forces held them stubbornly; smaller grey forces held as stubbornly
the next bastion. On the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, within fifty
miles of the imperilled Capital, were gathered by May one hundred and
thirty thousand men in blue. Longstreet gone, there opposed them
sixty-two thousand in grey.

Late in April Fighting Joe Hooker put in motion "the finest army on the
planet." There were various passes and feints. Sedgwick attempted a
crossing below Fredericksburg. Stonewall Jackson sent an aide to Lee
with the information. Lee received it with a smile. "I thought it was
time for one of you lazy young fellows to come and tell me what that
firing was about! Tell your good general that he knows what to do with
the enemy just as well as I do."

Flourish and passado executed, Hooker, with suddenness, moved up the
Rappahannock, crossed at Richard's Ford, moved up the Rapidan, crossed
at Ely and Germanna Fords, turned east and south and came into the
Wilderness. He meant to pass through and, with three great columns,
checkmate Lee at Fredericksburg. Before he could do so Lee shook himself
free, left to watch the Rappahannock, and Sedgwick, ten thousand pawns
and an able knight, and himself crossed to the Wilderness.

CHAPTER XLVII

THE WILDERNESS

Fifteen by twenty miles stretched the Wilderness. Out of