The Commanders of Chancellorsville by Edward Longacre

Author:Edward Longacre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The corps leader found, however, that he could not disengage until other troops who had advanced far enough to become involved in heavy skirmishing pulled back first; these included the men of Slocum’s corps, who had moved up on Couch’s right. Sykes’s division was the first to withdraw, fighting as it went, followed by Hancock’s, and then by Slocum’s troops. As the last segment of his command began to move to the rear, Couch received a message from Hooker urging him to hold his position for three hours longer. The vacillation conveyed in the message—undoubtedly the result of the storm of protest Hooker’s original directive had created—prompted Couch to reply “with warmth unbecoming a subordinate.” He added that it was too late for holding the line: “I am in full retreat.”23

The position to which the army returned offered none of the advantages of that it had given up. According to General Walker, “the new line was drawn through low and largely wooded ground, commanded here, enfiladed there, by the batteries which the advancing enemy were already establishing on the high ground which had been abandoned in obedience to the fatal orders.” Hastily laid out by Warren and his subordinates, the perimeter described a semicircle running north, east, and south of Chancellorsville. Most of the troops of the Second, Third, and Fifth Corps were positioned above the Orange Turnpike. Slocum’s men had dug in below the pike, separated by a quarter-mile from Howard’s corps, which extended the line westward. The Confederates commanded almost every portion of this line. Above the turnpike, a mix of McLaws’s and Anderson’s units faced the Union left, while Jackson’s corps, supported closely by two of Anderson’s brigades and one of McLaws’s, opposed the Union right between the turnpike and the plank road. The nature of the terrain they occupied appeared to give the Confederates a decided advantage. Referring to the high ground he had been forced to hand over to the enemy, General Meade was heard to exclaim: “My God, if we can’t hold the top of a hill, we certainly cannot hold the bottom of it!”24

Couch had not finished his critique of Hooker’s generalship. After falling back, he galloped to the Chancellor house and confronted his superior. He had barely begun his tirade when Hooker, who had regained at least a portion of his earlier aplomb, stopped him with the assurance that “it is all right, Couch, I have got Lee just where I want him. He must fight me on my own ground.” Couch was stunned into silence. He turned on his heel and stalked off without another word. Later he explained that “the retrograde movement had prepared me for something of the kind, but to hear from his own lips that the advantages gained by the successful marches of his lieutenants were to culminate in fighting a defensive battle in that nest of thickets was too much, and I retired from his presence with the belief that my commanding general was a whipped man.

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