In a congratulatory order to his troops, he declared that they occupied now a position so strong that “the enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defences and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him.”

Such were the joyful anticipations of General Hooker, who seems to have regarded the campaign as virtually ended by the successful passage of the river.  His expressions and his general order would seem to indicate an irrepressible joy, but it is doubtful if the skilful soldiers under him shared this somewhat juvenile enthusiasm.  The gray cavalier at Fredericksburg was not reported to be retiring, as was expected.  On the contrary, the Southern troops seemed to be moving forward with the design of accepting battle.

Lee had determined promptly upon that course as soon as Stuart sent him information of the enemy’s movements.  Chancellorsville was at once seen to be the point for which General Hooker was aiming, and Lee’s dispositions were made for confronting him there and fighting a pitched battle.  The brigades of Posey and Mahone, of Anderson’s Division, had been in front of Banks’s and Ely’s Fords, and this force of about eight thousand men was promptly ordered to fall back on Chancellorsville.  At the same time Wright’s brigade was sent up to reenforce this column; but the enemy continuing to advance in great force, General Anderson, commanding the whole, fell back from Chancellorsville to Tabernacle Church, on the road to Fredericksburg, where he was joined on the next day by Jackson, whom Lee had sent forward to his assistance.

The ruse at Fredericksburg had not long deceived the Confederate commander.  General Sedgwick, with three corps, in all about twenty-two thousand men, had crossed just below Fredericksburg on the 29th, and Lee had promptly directed General Jackson to oppose him there.  Line of battle was accordingly formed in the enemy’s front beyond Hamilton’s Crossing; but as, neither on that day nor the next, any further advance was made by General Sedgwick, the whole movement was seen to be a feint to cover the real operations above.  Lee accordingly turned his attention in the direction of Chancellorsville.  Jackson, as we have related, was sent up to reenforce General Anderson, and Lee followed with the rest of the army, with the exception of about six thousand men, under General Early, whom he left to defend the crossing at Fredericksburg.

Such were the positions of the opposing forces on the 1st day of May.  Each commander had displayed excellent generalship in the preliminary movements preceding the actual fighting.  At last, however, the opposing lines were facing each other, and the real struggle was about to begin.

II.

THE WILDERNESS.

The “Wilderness,” as the region around Chancellorsville is called, is so strange a country, and the character of the ground had so important a bearing upon the result of the great battle fought there, that a brief description of the locality will be here presented.