Chancellorsville

About ten days after the battle of Chancellorsville my father and I went with my brother Alfred over the route of the Florida Brigade (with which Alfred served on the staff) in that battle in the direct assault of Anderson's Division on the works in front of Chancellorsville house, in concert with Jackson's Corps on the flank under Jeb Stuart the second day, May 3, all under the eye and personal direction of General Lee himself.

The first signs of fighting I noticed were dark greasy bloodstains in the grass all over the plateau at the Catherine Furnace, where Jackson's flanking column the first day had come in sight of the Federal front, and the road turned away at right angles a short distance as if in retreat. Whence Hooker's report to Washington that the enemy were on the run and he pushed out a brigade or so to hurry them up. Jackson simply threw a segment of Georgia infantry back at them as a tub to the whale and hurried on for Hooker's right flank and rear, while this gallant Georgia regiment covered his movement singlehanded with the loss of most of their number. It was the good red blood of these game Georgians killed and wounded there, as my brother explained to me, that showed this plain marking of the field even after the usual rain following a battle.

From this old Catherine Furnace position we rode on through the pines towards the Chancellorsville clearing till we came to the strong front line of breastworks and chevaux de frise that had been carried by the Florida brigade skirmish line in one charge after a single volley from the Federals, who also had the credit of being under an enfilade fire of artillery at the same time directed by General Lee in person, which meant a little something to them, of course.

When we got inside the breastworks a horrible sight and odor greeted us, of dead men hastily buried or only partially covered with earth in trenches or shallow graves, with feet, hands, and heads exposed, blackened in the sun and covered with green flies, etc. No wonder our army had moved miles away from there for a camp.

Passing beyond the timber to the plateau around the Chancellorsville tavern there were lots of dead horses and other debris of wagons and artillery that had been parked there. The whole field had been ploughed up with the plunging fire of Confederate artillery till it looked as if numberless hogs had been rooting all over it.

But the most ghastly sight was the ruins of the old brick tavern itself where General Hooker had established his headquarters till shelled out of it. Later a field hospital had been improvised, it seemed, for mixed with the charred timbers and blackened bricks in the ruins were to be seen the burned skeletons of helpless men caught in the building and destroyed with it. On Jackson's front the woods caught fire and burned many wounded Federals to death before being rescued by the Confederates, who worked hard saving these wounded.