The Campaign of Chancellorsville | Page 7

which, being few and difficult, were easily guarded.
Continuous lines of infantry parapets, broken by battery epaulements
located for sweeping the wide approaches from the river, extended the
whole distance; while abattis strengthened every place which the nature
of the ground allowed an attacking column to pass.
The roads by which the various detachments of the army could
intercommunicate for concentration upon any given point were
numerous and well kept up, and were familiar to all commanding and
staff officers.
Lee's forces numbered about sixty thousand men, for duty, distributed
in the following organizations. As the brigades nearly equalled our
divisions in size, they are given by name.
{ Mahone's brigade. } { Posey's " } { Anderson's { Wilcox's " }
{ division. { Perry's " } { { Wright's " } Part of Longstreet's { } 17,000
1st Corps { { Kershaw's " } { McLaws' { Semmes's " } { division.
{ Wofford's " } { Barksdale's " }
{ Heth's " } { Pender's " } { A. P. Hill's { Archer's " } 11,000 { division.
{ McGowan's " } { { Lane's " } { { Thomas's " } { { { Ramseur's " }
{ D. H. Hill's { Rodes's " } { division. { Dole's " } 9,000 { { Iverson's " }
{ { Colquitt's " } Jackson's 2d Corps. { { { Colston's " } { Trimble's
{ Jones's " } 6,000 { division. { Nichols's " } { { Paxton's " }
{ { { Gordon's " } { Early's { Hays's " } 7,400 { division. { Smith's " }
{ { Hoke's " }
Stuart's Cavalry { Fitz Hugh Lee's brigade . . 1,800 division { W. H. F.
Lee's " . . . 900

Artillery, 170 pieces. . . . . . . . 5,000 ------ Total . . . . . . . . . 58,100
Hotchkiss and Allan state that there may have been three to five
thousand more men in line at the time of Hooker's attack.
As will be noticed from the table, only part of Longstreet's corps was
present. The main body had been sent, about Feb. 1, under command of
its chief, to operate in the region between Petersburg and Suffolk,
where our forces under Peck were making a demonstration. This detail
reduced Lee's army by nearly one-quarter.
During the winter, Lee's forces had been distributed as follows:--
The old battle-ground of Dec. 13 was occupied by the First Corps;
while Jackson with his Second Corps held Hamilton's Crossing, and
extended his lines down to Port Royal. Stuart's cavalry division
prolonged the left to Beverly Ford on the upper Rappahannock, and
scoured the country as far as the Pamunkey region. Hampton's brigade
of cavalry had been sent to the rear to recruit, and Fitz Lee's had taken
its place at Culpeper, from which point it extended so as to touch Lee's
left flank at Banks's Ford. The brigade of W. H. F. Lee was on the
Confederate right. Stuart retained command of the entire force, but had
his headquarters at Culpeper.
The supplies of the army were received by the Fredericksburg and
Richmond Railroad from the capital, and from the depots on the
Virginia Central. Lee had been assiduous in re-organizing his forces, in
collecting an abundance of supplies, in checking desertions, and in
procuring re-enforcements. And the vigor with which the conscription
was pushed swelled his strength so materially that in three months
Jackson's corps alone shows an increase from a force of twenty-five
thousand up to thirty-three thousand men "for duty." The staff of the
army was created a separate organization. The cavalry had already been
successfully consolidated. And now the artillery was embodied in a
special organization under Gen. Pendleton, and an engineer regiment
put on foot.
The morale of the Army of Northern Virginia could not be finer. The
forced retreat of McClellan from before Richmond; the driving of Pope
from his vaunted positions in its front; the Maryland campaign with its
deliberate withdrawal from an army of twice its strength; finally the
bloody check to Burnside,--had furnished a succession of triumphs
which would lend any troops self-confidence and high courage. But, in

addition to all this, the average of the men of this army were older and
more hardened soldiers than those of the Army of the Potomac. The
early conscription acts of the Confederacy had made it difficult for men
once inured to the steady bearing and rough life of the soldier, and to
the hard fare of camp-life, to withdraw from the ranks.
In Hooker's testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War
occurs this tribute to the Confederate infantry: "Our artillery had
always been superior to that of the rebels, as was