General Hooker. 53 



reviled much by his enemies, who treated him most unjustly 

 and shamefully. 



I mentioned that heavy fighting was expected to take place 

 soon when my husband's regiment and himself were disbanded. 

 These expectations were more than fulfilled by ' Fighting Joe/ 

 as General Hooker was called, who crossed the Rappahanoc 

 at Kelley's Ford above Fredericksburg, and took up a position 

 near Chancellorsville. 



Hooker, whose design was said to be to attack the rebels in 

 flank and rear, was attacked himself on the 2nd May, 1863, 

 by Stonewall Jackson, who appeared on his right flank. The 

 right wing, consisting of the nth Corps, composed only of 

 German regiments, was rolled up like a sheet of paper. Fight- 

 ing was continued the following days with no better success, 

 and Hooker, profiting by an opportune storm of heavy rain, 

 recrossed the river on the 8th of May at night, having lost in 

 these days above twenty thousand men. 



Hooker was a great favourite with the Americans, and as 

 they did not like to lay the fault of this great disaster on his 

 shoulders, the poor Germans had to serve as a scapegoat. 

 They were accused of cowardice, and everybody was wroth 

 against them except those who understood things better. 

 These said that neither Napoleon's Old Guard nor the best 

 Prussian troops would have been able to resist this flank attack 

 of Stonewall Jackson, placed as badly as they were. 



I am no military critic, and only repeat what I heard from 

 some who were supposed to understand war, and also from 

 German officers who took part in that battle. 



Some of these feeling uneasy at the position of their corps, 

 had reconnoitred on their own account, and discovered in 

 time the approach of Jackson's army on their flank. Seeing 

 the imminent danger, they reported it at once to General 

 Howard, a very devout man and zealous abolitionist, with only 

 one arm and no military head ; but the general treated their 

 news with contempt, arid answered — like a Chinese — ' that he 

 expected to be attacked in front.', 



Lee's victorious army advanced rapidly, again with the de- 

 cided intention of transferring the war to the territory of the 

 Union ; part of his forces crossed the Potomac on June i4di, 

 and entered Maryland — just as they had done a year before ; 

 and towards the end of the month Lee took his head-quarters 



