CHAPTER IX. PREPARATIONS TO RENEW THE CONFLICT.
The close of the battle of Chancellorsville found the Union army still strong in numbers, defeated, but not disheartened, and ready, as soon as reinforcements and supplies arrived, and a brief period of rest and recuperation ensued, to take the field again. To resist the effects of this defeat and recruit our armies required, however, great determination and serious effort on the part of the Administration; for a large and powerful party still clogged and impeded its efforts, and were allowed full liberty to chill the patriotism of the masses, and oppose, with tongue and pen and every species of indirection, all efficient action which looked to national defence. This opposition was so strong and active that the President almost preferred the risk of losing another battle to the commotion which would be excited by attempts to enforce the draft; for hitherto we had relied entirely on voluntary enlistments to increase our strength in the field. Men are chilled by disaster and do not readily enlist after a defeat; yet the terms of service of thirty thousand of the two years' and nine months' men were expiring, and something had to be done. Our army, however, at the end of May was still formidable in numbers, and too strongly posted to be effectually assailed; especially as it had full and free communication with Washington and the North, and could be assisted in case of need by the loyal militia of the free States.
The rebels had obtained a triumph, rather than a substantial victory, at Chancellorsville. It was gained, too, at a ruinous expense of life, and when the battle was over they found themselves too weak to follow up our retreating forces. While the whole South was exulting, their great commander, General Lee, was profoundly depressed. The resources of the Davis Government in men and means were limited, and it was evident that without a foreign alliance, prolonged defensive warfare by an army so far from its base, would ultimately exhaust the seceding States, without accomplishing their independence. It became necessary, therefore, for General Lee to chose one of two plans of campaign: Either to fall back on the centre of his supplies at Richmond, and stand a siege there, or to invade the North. By retiring on Richmond he would save the great labor of transporting food and war material to the frontier, and would remove the Northern army still further from its sources of supply and its principal depots. One circumstance, however, would probably in any event, have impelled him to take the bolder course. The situation in Vicksburg was becoming alarming. It was evident the town must fall and with its surrender the Federal fleet would soon regain possession of the Mississippi. The fall of Vicksburg, supplemented by the retreat of Lee's army on Richmond, would dishearten the Southern people, and stimulate the North to renewed efforts. It was essential, therefore, to counterbalance the impending disaster in the West by some brilliant exploit in the East.
There was perhaps another reason for this great forward movement, founded on the relation of the Confederacy to the principal European powers. England still made a pretence of neutrality, but the aristocracy and ruling classes sided with the South, and a large association of their most influential men was established at Manchester to aid the slaveholding oligarchy. The rebels were fighting us with English guns and war material, furnished by blockade runners; while English Shenandoahs and Alabamas, manned by British seamen, under the Confederate flag, burned our merchant vessels and swept our commercial marine from the ocean. The French Government was equally hostile to us, and there was hardly a kingdom in Europe which did not sympathize with the South, allied as they were by their feudal customs to the deplorable system of Southern slavery. Russia alone favored our cause, and stood ready, if need be, to assist us with her fleet; probably more from antagonism to England and France, than from any other motive. The agents of the Confederate Government stated in their official despatches that if General Lee could establish his army firmly on Northern soil England would at once acknowledge the independence of the South; in which case ample loans could not only be obtained on Southern securities, but a foreign alliance might be formed, and perhaps a fleet furnished to re-open the Southern ports.
While thus elated by hopes of foreign intervention, the Confederate spies and sympathizers who thronged the North greatly encouraged the Davis Government by their glowing accounts of the disaffection there, in consequence of the heavy taxation, rendered necessary by the war, and by the unpopularity of the draft, which would soon have to be enforced as a defensive measure. They overrated the influence of the Copperhead or anti-war party, and prophesied that a rebel invasion would be followed by outbreaks in the principal cities, which would paralyze every effort to reinforce the Federal forces in the field.
These reasons would have been quite sufficient of themselves to induce Lee to make the movement, but he himself gives an additional one. He hoped by this advance to draw Hooker out, where he could strike him a decisive blow, and thus ensure the permanent triumph of the Confederacy. He was weary of all this marching, campaigning, and bloodshed, and was strongly desirous of settling the whole matter at once. Having been reinforced after the battle of Chancellorsville by Longstreet's two divisions and a large body of conscripts, he determined to advance. On May 31st, his force, according to rebel statements, amounted to 88,754, of which 68,352 were ready for duty. Recruits, too, were constantly coming in from the draft, which was rigidly enforced in the Southern States.
Hooker having learned from his spies that there was much talk of an invasion, wrote to the President on May 28th, that the enemy was undoubtedly about to make a movement of some kind. On June 3d, McLaws' and Hood's divisions of Longstreet's corps started for the general rendezvous at Culpeper. A change in the encampment on the opposite side of the river was noted by the vigilant Union commander, who at once ordered Sedgwick to lay two bridges at the old crossing place, three miles below Fredericksburg, pass over with a division, and press the enemy to ascertain if their main body was still there. Fresh indications occurred on the 4th, for Ewell's corps followed that of Longstreet. The bridges being completed on the 5th, Howe's division of the Sixth Corps was thrown over and Hill's corps came out of their intrenchments to meet it. Some skirmishing ensued, and Sedgwick reported, as his opinion, that the greater portion of the enemy's force still held their old positions. Hooker, however, was determined to be prepared for all contingencies, and therefore, on the same day, detached the Fifth Corps to be in readiness to meet the enemy should they attempt to force a passage anywhere between United States Ford and Banks' Ford. Resolved to obtain certain information at all hazards, on the 7th of June he ordered Pleasonton to make a forced reconnoissance with all the available cavalry of the army, in the direction of Culpeper, to ascertain whether the Confederate forces were really concentrating there, with a view to an invasion of the North.
Should this prove to be the case, Hooker desired to cross the river, to envelop and destroy Hill's corps, and then follow up the main body as they proceeded northward, thus intercepting their communications with Richmond. The authorities at Washington, however, did not look with much equanimity upon the possibility of finding Lee's army interposed between them and the Army of the Potomac, so they refused to sanction the plan and it was abandoned.
Nevertheless, in my opinion it was about the best method that could have been devised to check the invasion, provided that Hooker did not lose his water-base; for Lee always showed himself very sensitive whenever his communications with Richmond was threatened. If that was severed no more ammunition or military supplies would reach him. The amount of cartridges on hand was necessarily limited. It would soon be expended in constant skirmishes and engagements, and then he would be helpless and at the mercy of his antagonist. Consequently, the moment he heard that a portion of the Sixth Corps had crossed and confronted Hill, he directed Ewell and Longstreet to halt at Locust Grove, near Chancellorsville, and be in readiness to return to Fredericksburg to assist Hill in case there was any danger of his being overpowered. Finding Sedgwick's advance was a mere reconnoissance, the two rebel corps resumed their march to Culpeper.
Hooker deemed it essential to success, that all troops connected with the theatre of invasion should be placed under his command, so that they could act in unison. In his opinion most of their strength was wasted in discordant expeditions, which were useless as regards the general result. He referred more particularly to General Dix's command at Old Point Comfort, General Heintzelman's command in Washington, and General Schenck's troops posted at Baltimore, along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and in the Valley of the Shenandoah. This request was reasonable and should have been granted. Hooker's demands, however, were not considered favorably. There was no very good feeling between General Halleck, who was commander of the army, and himself; and as he felt that his efforts were neither seconded nor approved at headquarters, he soon after resigned the command.
The main body of the Union cavalry at this time was at Warrenton and Catlett's Station. Hooker, having been dissatisfied with the result of the cavalry operations during the Chancellorsville campaign, had displaced Stoneman in favor of Major-General Alfred Pleasonton.