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General Lee's army was numerically not as strong as at the battle of Fredericksburg, Longstreet having been sent south of the James with the divisions of Hood and Pickett, and Hampton's cavalry brigade having been sent into the interior to recruit its horses.
Lee's army confronting Hooker numbered of all arms, on the 1st of April, 53,303, with 170 pieces of artillery.
McLaws and Anderson commanded the divisions of Longstreet's corps present, and Early, A. P. Hill, Rodes and Colston commanded Jackson's divisions; W. H. F. Lee and Fitzhugh Lee commanded the two brigades of cavalry under Stuart, and General Pendleton the artillery battalions of Alexander, Crutchfield, R. L. Walker, Brown, Carter, Andrews and McIntosh.
McGowan's brigade, on April 29th, occupied the same position it held in the battle of December 13th.
By the 29th of April, three of Hooker's corps, the Fifth, Eleventh and Twelfth, had marched up the Rappahannock, crossed at Kelly's ford, and were marching for Germanna and Ely's fords on the Rapidan, on Lee's left flank.
The Second corps crossed at the United States ford on the 30th, and at night Hooker was at Chancellorsville with four corps of his army, covering all approaches to that position.
On the same day he ordered up the Third from in front of Fredericksburg, and by noon on May 1st he was in position around Chancellorsville with five army corps. General Sedgwick, with the remaining two corps, the First and Sixth, had crossed below Fredericksburg, and was demonstrating as if for attack.
General Hooker was so much elated by the success of this concentration, that he published a field order congratulating his army on its ‘brilliant achievements,’ and declared that General Lee must ‘ingloriously fly’ before such a combination, else ‘certain destruction awaits him, should he give us battle on our own ground.’
Nous verrons.
On the 29th of April, General Lee had decided that
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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