The next morning Lee himself, with the three remaining brigades of Anderson, arrived upon the scene.  Sedgwick, who had lost 5000 men the preceding day, May had fortified a position covering Banks’ Ford, and occupied it with over 20,000 muskets.  Lee, with the divisions of McLaws, Anderson, and Early, was slightly stronger.  The attack was delayed, for the Federals held strong ground, difficult to reconnoitre; but once begun the issue was soon decided.  Assailed in front and flanks, with no help coming from Hooker, and only a single bridge at Banks’ Ford in rear, the Federals rapidly gave ground.

Darkness, however, intensified by a thick fog, made pursuit difficult, and Sedgwick re-crossed the river with many casualties but in good order.  During these operations, that is, from four o’clock on Sunday afternoon until after midnight on Monday, Hooker had not moved a single man to his subordinate’s assistance.* (* It is but fair, however, to state that Hooker, during the cannonade which preceded the final assault at Chancellorsville, had been severely bruised by a fall of masonry.) So extraordinary a situation has seldom been seen in war:  an army of 60,000 men, strongly fortified, was held in check for six-and-thirty hours by 20,000; while not seven miles away raged a battle on which the whole fate of the campaign depended.

Lee and Jackson had made no false estimate of Hooker’s incapacity.  Sedgwick’s army corps had suffered so severely in men and in moral that it was not available for immediate service, even had it been transferred to Chancellorsville; and Lee was now free to concentrate his whole force against the main body of the Federal army.  His men, notwithstanding their extraordinary exertions, were confident of victory.

May 5.

“As I sheltered myself,” says an eye-witness, “in a little farmhouse on the plank road the brigades of Anderson’s division came splashing through the mud, in wild tumultuous spirits, singing, shouting, jesting, heedless of soaking rags, drenched to the skin, and burning again to mingle in the mad revelry of battle."* (* Hon. Francis Lawley, the Times, June 16, 1863.) But it was impossible to push forward, for a violent rain-storm burst upon the Wilderness, and the spongy soil, saturated with the deluge, absolutely precluded all movement across country.  Hooker, who had already made preparations for retreat, took advantage of the weather, and as soon as darkness set in put his army in motion for the bridges.

May 6.

By eight o’clock on the morning of the 6th the whole force had crossed; and when the Confederate patrols pushed forward, Lee found that his victim had escaped.