; and
three miles to the south, where, as Hooker believed, in pursuit of
Jackson, Sickles and Pleasonton were, the reports of their cannon,
growing fainter and fainter as they pushed further south, betokened
no more than a lively skirmish. The quiet of the Wilderness, save for
those distant sounds, was undisturbed, and men and animals, free from
every care, were enjoying the calm of the summer evening. It was
about half-past six. Suddenly the cannonade swelled to a heavier
roar, and the sound came from a new direction. All were listening
intently, speculating on what this might mean, when a staff-officer,
who had stepped out to the front of the house and was looking down
the plank road with his glass, exclaimed: "My God, here they come!"
Hooker sprang upon his horse; and riding rapidly down the road, met
the stragglers of the Eleventh Corps--men, waggons, and ambulances,
an ever-increasing crowd--rushing in blind terror from the forest,
flying they knew not whither. The whole of the right wing, they said,
overwhelmed by superior numbers, was falling back on
Chancellorsville, and Stonewall Jackson was in hot pursuit.

The situation had changed in the twinkling of an eye. Just now
congratulating himself on the complete success of his manoeuvres, on
the retreat of his enemies, on the flight of Jackson and the
helplessness of Lee, Hooker saw his strong intrenchments taken in
reverse, his army scattered, his reserves far distant, and the most
dreaded of his opponents, followed by his victorious veterans, within
a few hundred yards of his headquarters. His weak point had been
found, and there were no troops at hand wherewith to restore the
fight. The centre was held only by the two brigades of the Twelfth
Corps at the Fairview Cemetery. The works at Hazel Grove were
untenanted, save by a few batteries and a handful of infantry. The
Second and Fifth Corps on the left were fully occupied by McLaws, for
Lee, at the first sound of Jackson's guns, had ordered a vigorous
attack up the pike and the plank road. Sickles, with 20,000 men, was
far away, isolated and perhaps surrounded, and the line of retreat,
the road to United States Ford, was absolutely unprotected.

Messengers were dispatched in hot haste to recall Sickles and
Pleasonton to Hazel Grove. Berry's division, forming the reserve
north-east of the Chancellor House, was summoned to Fairview, and
Hays' brigade of the Second Corps ordered to support it. But what
could thr