The Secret War for the Union by Edwin C. Fishel

The Secret War for the Union by Edwin C. Fishel

Author:Edwin C. Fishel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


In making this change of plan Hooker had not had time to consult with Lincoln. He wrote the President about it on the 27th, after the march of the right wing was under way. The ever-patient Lincoln replied by imploring Hooker not to “waste a moment’s thought on me, to your own hindrance, or discomfort.”34

The march to Kelly’s Ford of the Fifth Corps (Meade), Eleventh (Howard), and Twelfth (Slocum) was to occupy two days, ending in late afternoon of the 28th (Tuesday). If everything went as expected, they were to cross before the day (or night) was over. Once on the south bank, Slocum and Howard would take a southerly route and cross the Rapidan at Germanna Ford; Meade’s course would be on their left, crossing at Ely’s Ford. Roads leading southeast from Germanna and Ely’s would bring the three corps together at Chancellorsville.35 Whether or not the outflanked enemy forces offered resistance, they would have to abandon United States Ford, which would then be available for bringing up reinforcements from Falmouth and Sedgwick’s front by a comparatively short march.

One day after the departure of Meade, Howard, and Slocum, Sedgwick’s wing would begin moving into position to cross the Rappahannock early on the 29th. On the basis of the Confederates’ choice in the December battle, it was expected that they would not resist a crossing, preferring a fight on the heights back from the river to one on the flat ground along the shore. Sedgwick would have his own Sixth Corps and Reynolds’s First, with Sickles’s Third in reserve. If the Confederates remained in their lines at and below Fredericksburg, Sedgwick was to conduct a demonstration and holding action; but if Lee should detach a considerable force toward Chancellorsville or retreat southward, he was to attack with vigor.36



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