Capt. James Gist, special aide to General Gist, and Dr. Thomas L. Ogier, division surgeon, both died of fever at Morton, lamented by their comrades. Captain Gist and Doctor Ogier were both identified with the brigade of General Gist from its earliest history, and were greatly loved and respected as efficient and faithful officers.
CHAPTER XII.
SOUTH CAROLINIANS IN THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN—SERVICE OF KERSHAW'S AND McGOWAN'S BRIGADES—A GREAT CONFEDERATE VICTORY.
After the defeat of General Burnside's attempt to drive the Confederate army from its position in rear of Fredericksburg, both armies went into winter quarters, and remained inactive until about the middle of April, 1863. In January, General Burnside was removed from command, and Gen. Joseph Hooker, who had commanded the center grand division of Burnside's army, was placed in command of the army of the Potomac, and charged with the task of capturing Richmond. Upon assuming command, General Hooker published his general orders, No. 1, in which he contrasted the merits of his army with those of General Lee's in the following sentences: "In equipment, intelligence and valor the enemy is our inferior. Let us never hesitate to give him battle, wherever we can find him." It is hardly possible that such language could have disparaged the character of General Lee's army in the estimation of the Federal soldiers who had so often felt the force of its "equipment, intelligence and valor."
President Lincoln was not willing to give General Hooker so great a trust without warning and serious admonition, which he embodied in the following letter, under date of January 26, 1863:
General: I have placed you at the head of the army of the Potomac. Of course, I have done this upon what appears to me to be sufficient reasons. And yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which within reasonable bounds does good rather than harm. But I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong both to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can set up as dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear the spirit you have aided to infuse into the army of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of rashness—beware of rashness; but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and gain us victories.
Yours very truly,
A. Lincoln.
How far the anxious President's candid letter influenced the generalship of the new commander may be seen by what follows in description of his unhappy experiences in "finding the enemy" and testing his "inferior equipment, intelligence and valor."
On April 30, 1863, the Federal army under Hooker had 133,708 men "actually available for the line of battle," organized in seven corps; the First under Reynolds, the Second under Couch, the Third under Sickles, the Fifth under Meade, the Sixth under Sedgwick, the Eleventh under Howard, the Twelfth under Slocum. The artillery included 370 guns, of all calibers. The cavalry force outnumbered General Lee's three to one.