Chancellorsville and Gettysburg

and Gettysburg, by Abner
Doubleday

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Title: Chancellorsville and Gettysburg Campaigns of the Civil War - VI
Author: Abner Doubleday
Release Date: March 7, 2007 [EBook #20762]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG ***

Produced by Ed Ferris

CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG
CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR.--VI.
CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG

BY ABNER DOUBLEDAY BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.A.,
AND LATE MAJOR-GENERAL U.S.V.; COMMANDING THE
FIRST CORPS AT GETTYSBURG.
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743 AND 745
BROADWAY 1882
COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1882
TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 210-213
East 12th Street
NEW YORK

PREFACE.
In writing ths narrative, which relates to the decisive campaign which
freed the Northern States from invasion, it may not be out of place to
state what facilities I have had for observation in the fulfilment of so
important a task. I can only say that I was, to a considerable extent, an
actor in the scenes I describe, and knew the principal leaders on both
sides, in consequence of my association with them at West Point, and,
subsequently, in the regular army. Indeed, several of them, including
Stonewall Jackson and A. P. Hill, were, prior to the war, officers in the
regiment to which I belonged. As commander of the Defences of
Washington in the spring of 1862, I was, owing to the nature of my
duties, brought into intimate relations with the statesmen who
controlled the Government at the time, and became well acquainted
with President Lincoln. I was present, too, after the Battle of
Gettysburg, at a very interesting Cabinet Council, in which the pursuit
of Lee was fully discussed; so that, in one way and another, I have had
better opportunities to judge of men and measures than usually fall to
the lot of others who have written on the same subject.
I have always felt it to be the duty of every one who held a prominent
position in the great war to give to posterity the benefit of his personal
recollections; for no dry official statement can ever convey an adequate

idea to those who come after us of the sufferings and sacrifices through
which the country has passed. Thousands of men--the flower of our
Northern youth--have gone down to their graves unheralded and
unknown, and their achievements and devotion to the cause have
already been forgotten. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us, who were
their comrades in the field, to do all in our power to preserve their
deeds from oblivion.
And yet it is no easy task to relate contemporaneous events. Whoever
attempts it must be prepared for severe criticism and the exhibition of
much personal feeling. Some of this may be avoided, it is true, by
writing a colorless history, praising everybody, and attributing all
disasters to dispensations of Providence, for which no one is to blame. I
cannot, however, consent to fulfill my allotted task in this way, for the
great lessons of the war are too valuable to be ignored or misstated. It is
not my desire to assail any of the patriotic men who were engaged in
the contest, but each of us is responsible for our actions in this world,
and for the consequences which flow from them; and where great
disasters have occurred, it is due both to the living and the dead that the
causes and circumstances be justly and properly stated.
Richelieu once exclaimed, upon giving away a high appointment:
"Now I have made one ingrate and a thousand enemies." Every one
who writes the history of the Great Rebellion will often have occasion
to reiterate the statement: For the military critic must necessarily
describe facts which imply praise or censure. Those who have
contributed to great successes think much more might have been said
on the subject, and those who have caused reverses and defeats are
bitter in their denunciations.
Nevertheless, the history of the war should be written before the facts
have faded from the memory of living men, and have become mere
matters of tradition.
In a narrative of this kind, resting upon a great number of voluminous
details, I cannot hope to have wholly escaped error, and wherever I
have misconceived or misstated a fact, it will give me pleasure to
correct the record.

A. D. NEW YORK, January, 1882.

CONTENTS.
LIST OF MAPS
CHANCELLORSVILLE
CHAPTER I.
THE OPENING OF 1863--HOOKER'S PLANS
CHAPTER II.
FRIDAY, THE FIRST OF MAY
CHAPTER III.
THE DISASTROUS SECOND