upied it with over 20,000 muskets. Lee, with the divisions of
McLaws, Anderson, and Early, was slightly stronger. The attack was
delayed, for the Federals held strong ground, difficult to
reconnoitre; but once begun the issue was soon decided. Assailed in
front and flanks, with no help coming from Hooker, and only a single
bridge at Banks' Ford in rear, the Federals rapidly gave ground.

Darkness, however, intensified by a thick fog, made pursuit
difficult, and Sedgwick re-crossed the river with many casualties but
in good order. During these operations, that is, from four o'clock on
Sunday afternoon until after midnight on Monday, Hooker had not moved
a single man to his subordinate's assistance.* (* It is but fair,
however, to state that Hooker, during the cannonade which preceded
the final assault at Chancellorsville, had been severely bruised by a
fall of masonry.) So extraordinary a situation has seldom been seen
in war: an army of 60,000 men, strongly fortified, was held in check
for six-and-thirty hours by 20,000; while not seven miles away raged
a battle on which the whole fate of the campaign depended.

Lee and Jackson had made no false estimate of Hooker's incapacity.
Sedgwick's army corps had suffered so severely in men and in moral
that it was not available for immediate service, even had it been
transferred to Chancellorsville; and Lee was now free to concentrate
his whole force against the main body of the Federal army. His men,
notwithstanding their extraordinary exertions, were confident of
victory.

May 5.

"As I sheltered myself," says an eye-witness, "in a little farmhouse
on the plank road the brigades of Anderson's division came splashing
through the mud, in wild tumultuous spirits, singing, shouting,
jesting, heedless of soaking rags, drenched to the skin, and burning
again to mingle in the mad revelry of battle."* (* Hon. Francis
Lawley, the Times, June 16, 1863.) But it was impossible to push
forward, for a violent rain-storm burst upon the Wilderness, and the
spongy soil, saturated with the deluge, absolutely precluded all
movement across country. Hooker, who had already made preparations
for retreat, took advantage of the weather, and as soon as darkness
set in put his army in motion for the bridges.

May 6.

By eight o'clock on the morning of the 6th the whole force had
crossed; and when the Confederate patrols pushed forward, Lee found
that his victim had escaped.

The Army of the P