Sickles, with his ten thousand men heaped up at Hazel Grove, was still cut off from the main body and could only communicate with Hooker's headquarters by means of bypaths and at great risk. The last orders he received, at 5 P.M., had been to attack Jackson's right flank and check his advance. He determined to do this and force his way back, and with the co-operation of Williams' and Berry's divisions, retake the Plank Road with the bayonet. Ward's brigade was posted in the front line and Hayman's and Graham's brigades a hundred yards in rear. A special column, under Colonel Egan of the 40th New York, was formed on the extreme left. The muskets were uncapped and at midnight the command moved silently against the enemy, and in spite of a terrific outburst of musketry and artillery from the open space at Dowdall's, the Plank Road and the works which Buschbeck had defended were regained. Berry at once moved forward his line to hold them. Many guns and caissons taken from Howard's corps, and Whipple's ammunition train of pack mules were also recovered. The confusion into which the enemy were thrown by this assault against their right, enabled Berry to easily repulse the attack on him, and he continued to hold the position. The result of this brilliant movement was the reoccupation of a great part of the works Howard had lost, and the capture of two guns and three caissons from the enemy. It is said that in this conflict some of Sickles' men, in consequence of the thickets and confusion, finding themselves surrounded, surrendered as they supposed to the enemy, but to their delight found themselves in Berry's division, among their old comrades.
Soon after this fight was over Mott's brigade of the Third Corps, which had been on duty at the Ford, rejoined the main body.
Both sides now rested on their arms and prepared to renew the struggle at daylight. Hooker, in view of a possible defeat, directed his engineer officers to lay out a new and stronger line, to cover his bridges, to which he could retreat in case of necessity.
At sunset the First Corps went into bivouac on the south side of United States Ford, about four miles and a half from Chancellorsville. The men were glad enough to rest after their tedious march on a hot day, loaded down with eight days' rations. General Reynolds left me temporarily in charge of the corps, while he rode on to confer with Hooker. We heard afar off the roar of the battle caused by Jackson's attack, and saw the evening sky reddened with the fires of combat, but knowing Hooker had a large force, we felt no anxiety as to the result, and took it for granted that we would not be wanted until the next day. I was preparing a piece of india- rubber cloth as a couch when I saw one of Reynolds' aids, Captain Wadsworth, coming down the road at full speed. He brought the startling news that the Eleventh Corps had fled, and if we did not go forward at once, the army would be hopelessly defeated. We were soon on the road, somewhat oppressed by the news, but not dismayed. We marched through the thickening twilight of the woods amid a silence at first only broken by the plaintive song of the whip-poor- will, until the full moon rose in all its splendor. As we proceeded we came upon crowds of Eleventh Corps fugitives still hastening to the rear. They seemed to be wholly disheartened. We halted for a time, in order that our position in line of battle might be selected, and then moved on. As we approached the field a midnight battle commenced, and the shells seemed to burst in sparkles in the trees above our heads, but not near enough to reach us. It was Sickles fighting his way home again. When we came nearer and filed to the right to take position on the Elley's Ford road, the men struck up John Brown's song, and gave the chorus with a will. Their cheerful demeanor and proud bearing renewed the confidence of the army, who felt that the arrival of Reynolds' corps, with its historic record, was no ordinary reinforcement.
We were now on the extreme right of the other forces, on the Elley's
Ford road, with the right flank thrown back behind Hunting Creek.
Hooker was very much discouraged by the rout of the Eleventh Corps. An occurrence of this kind always has a tendency to demoralize an army and render it less trustworthy; for the real strength of an armed force is much more in opinion than it is in numbers. A small body of men, if made to believe the enemy are giving way, will do and dare anything; but when they think the struggle is hopeless, they will not resist even a weak attack, for each thinks he is to be sacrificed to save the rest. Hence Hooker did not feel the same reliance on his men as he did before the disaster. He determined, nevertheless, to continue the battle, but contract his lines by bringing them nearer to Chancellorsville. The real key of the battle-field now was the eminence at Hazel Grove. So long as we held it the enemy could not advance without presenting his right flank to our batteries. If he obtained possession of it he could plant guns which would enfilade Slocum's line and fire directly into our forces below. Birney's division at this time was posted in advance of Best's guns on the left, Berry was on the right, with Williams' division of the Twelfth Corps behind Birney, and Whipple's division in rear of Berry.
The position of Hazel Grove commanded Chancellorsville, where all the roads met, and which it was vital to Hooker to hold. For if he lost that, he could not advance in any direction, and only his line of retreat to the Ford would remain open to him. Pleasonton spent the night in fortifying this hill, and placed forty guns in position there; but it was of no avail, for it was outside of the new line Sickles was directed to occupy at daylight, and Hooker was not aware of its importance. A request was sent to the latter to obtain his consent to hold it, but he was asleep, and the staff- officer in charge, who had had no experience whatever in military matters, positively refused to awaken him until daylight, and then it was too late, for that was the time set for the troops to fall back to the new line.
At 9 P.M., Hooker sent an order to Sedgwick, who was supposed to be at Falmouth and to have 26,000 men, to throw bridges over, cross, drive away Early's 9,000, who held the heights of Fredericksburg, and then to come forward on the Plank Road, and be ready at daylight on the 3d to take Lee's force in reverse, while Hooker attacked it in front.
This order was given under the impression that Sedgwick had not crossed with his main body, but only with Howe's division, whereas he was at the bridge heads, three miles below Fredericksburg, on the south side of the river. Hooker probably forgot that he had ordered a demonstration to be made against the Bowling Green road on the 1st, and that Sedgwick went over to make it.