been sufficient, and from the moment that Averell marched against the enemy with his whole division he should not have been satisfied with an incomplete victory; even if his plan had been different, he should have taken advantage of the opportunity to crush Lee's brigade and push at least as far as Culpeper. Be that as it may, it is at the ford visited by this brigade on the 17th of March that the Federal cavalry is about to open a passage to the advancing columns of the Army of the Potomac. The latter, in fact, is preparing to resume the offensive. Hooker has gathered the fruit of his excellent administration, the soldiers salute him cordially whenever they see him in their midst, the chiefs do him justice and are ready to give him their confidence on the first occasion he shall show himself as commander-in-chief. The favorable season approaches, and the green attire in which the beautiful forests watered by the Rappahannock array themselves reminds the combatants that the moment has arrived for taking the field once more. We are now in the second week of April. Hooker has formed a plan concerning which he has kept the most profound silence. The authorities at Washington, we are happy to say it to their credit, have been wise enough to respect his secret. The cavalry is the first to take up the line of march, and on the 13th of April it moves toward the Upper Rappahannock. But no one in either army knows whether it is a feint to divert the attention of the enemy or a movement intended to cover that of the heavy columns of infantry. Notwithstanding the approach of the mild season, the roads are not yet passable for those columns followed by numerous wagons, while the rivers, being still swollen, render the crossings difficult; but we have stated the reasons which will not allow Hooker to remain any longer inactive. In the first instance, the term of service of forty regiments is about to expire, and the battle must be fought previous to their discharge. On the other hand, Longstreet has just been sent to the south, with three fine divisions detached from Lee's army, to take advantage of the truce imposed upon the combatants on the Rappahannock by the bad season. It is therefore probable that the return of fine weather will bring him back near his chief; he must be forestalled. The Federal cavalry is under the command of an experienced leader. Always master of himself, although very zealous, endowed with a clear and discriminating mind, prompt and just in his decisions, General Stoneman in uniting three strong divisions under his own management has placed them in a condition to render important services to the army. Hooker directs him to move toward the Upper Rappahannock, as if he intended, by marching north-westward, to reach the Valley of Virginia, cross the river above Rappahannock Station, and then to strike at the Gordonsville Railway, destroying it, dispersing the enemy's cavalry, and cutting off its communications.* As soon as the weather will permit Hooker proposes to cross the Rappahannock with his army below Falmouth, and to attack Lee on the side of Skinker's Neck and Hamilton's Crossing, or, better still, to surprise him on his retreat; for he is convinced that Stoneman's manœuvre will suffice to make him abandon the positions which Burnside has not been able to carry in front. By separating his whole cavalry from the main body of his army on the eve of a decisive combat, and by relying upon a simple detachment for the purpose of compelling the enemy to retire -a result which all his forces combined could scarcely have achieved he committed a double error, which he repeated a few days later, the disastrous consequences of which will be seen presently. The unpropitious weather interrupted Stoneman's movement. On the 17th and 18th of April, after some little skirmishing with Stuart's cavalry, he had taken possession of the principal crossings of the Upper Rappahannock, when the rain fell down in torrents, swelling the river, submerging the fords, and rendering all the roads absolutely impassable. One division, which occupied the right side of the river, and had advanced as far as the vicinity of Brandy Station, had the greatest difficulty in crossing the swollen waters of the Rappahannock in order to reach the left bank. Stoneman was ordered to wait for the first falling of the current in the positions he occupied: he waited for fifteen days; the waters did not regain their level until the 27th of April. Under the influence of a burning sun, however, the roads dried up rapidly there was nothing to further oppose the long marches *Hooker's instructions of April 12.-ED. and the great movements of the troops across the fields of Virginia. Hooker took advantage of this to modify his plan of campaign, and, giving up the idea of going to seek his adversary in the latter's own positions, he decided to manœuvre so as to compel him to abandon them and to fight in the open country. This new plan was involved in as much secrecy as the preceding one. It was necessary that it should be executed quickly, because several regiments, by reason of expiration of term of service, had already gone home, and a few days more of delay would deprive the Army of the Potomac of more combatants than a pitched battle. The ground on which the two armies were about to measure strength had long since been examined by both parties; the river behind which Burnside had so unfortunately stationed himself in November, 1862, still separated those two armies; the Federals had tried in vain to cross it at Fredericksburg and above and below that city; as we have already stated, their adversaries had lined the banks with works which rendered its defence easy from its confluence with the Rapidan as far as the point where it becomes a real arm of the sea. Hooker understood that the positions thus protected in front must be turned by ascending the course of the river. The confluence of the Rappahannock with the Rapidan occurs at a little less than ten miles in a straight line above Falmouth. Between these two points the Rappahannock, wide, rapid, and of extreme depth, presents an obstacle which the Federals could not venture to surmount, because, contrary to the conformation of the ground below Falmouth, the right bank is the highest and commands all the approaches to the river; the latter had but two fordable crossings during the dry season; at this period they were the only points where bridges could be thrown across, owing to the roads leading to them and the depth of water, which affords anchorage for boats. These are Banks' Ford, two and two-thirds miles, and United States Ford,* eight miles and a quarter, in a direct line above Falmouth. The first pass was commanded by the left extremity of the line of works with which Lee had covered his whole front since the battle of Fredericksburg. The * By way of abbreviation of "United States Mine Ford," the ford being near the United States Mine, a gold-mine formerly worked by the government. second, very difficult of approach along the right bank, led to a vast and impenetrable forest, destined to become, within the space of one year, the scene of two of the most terrible battles fought on the American continent. This forest, called the Wilderness (or Wild Place), covers a surface of from twenty to thirty thousand acres, and is easily distinguished by its vegetation from the surrounding woods. It occupies an elevated pebbly plateau; its soil is sterile, but rich in oxide of iron, deeply guttered by numerous small streams which descend at the north toward the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, and which at the south form the Po and the Ny, two of the sources of the Mattapony. From the early days of colonization, under the government of Spotswood, who gave his name to the county of Spotsylvania, the iron ores of this locality have been worked openly, the soil has been ripped up by repeated excavations, while the trees of the forests have been recklessly cut down for the purpose of supplying the upper furnaces with fuel. From this destruction the lofty trees of the forest have given place to a stunted though very thick vegetation, consisting of dwarfed oaks, thorny plants, and juniper trees, among which vines and creepers of every description are intertwined, thus forming an impenetrable thicket, across which sinuous paths are winding-a perfect labyrinth, known only to the few inhabitants of that miserable region. The forest is bounded at the north by the right bank of the Rapidan, then of the Rappahannock after their confluence, from Ely's Ford as far as United States Ford; at the west, by a tolerably fertile valley watered by the Wilderness Run; at the south, by the slopes which reach down to the Mattapony; at the east, by a well-cultivated district, where the woods are intersected by large and numerous clearings dotted with farms and dwellings. The southern portion of the forest is traversed from west to east by a large highway, being the road from Orange Court-house to Fredericksburg. The old route, or the Old Turnpike, and the new road, called the Plank Road, by following a parallel direction penetrate into the forest after crossing Wilderness Run, the former at the Old Wilderness Tavern, the latter two miles and twothirds farther south, at Parker's Store; then they draw near again through the forest, and meet upon a barren plateau, where the church of the Wilderness and the inn called Dowdall's Tavern stand; then, plunging into a ravine, the only road ascends the heights of Fairview and crosses a new clearing, where stands a beautiful edifice called Chancellorsville, after the name of its proprietor. At this point the road becomes once more divided; the old route, which still pursues a northerly direction, and the Plank Road, emerge from the forest at a distance of about two and a half miles beyond Chancellorsville, and become at first separated, the former crossing the streams which descend into the Rappahannock, the latter following, in a general sense, the ridge which divides the waters between this river and the Mattapony; then they draw near again at the entrance of a cultivated plateau, and passing, one close to the church called Zoan Church and the other near an abandoned edifice called Tabernacle Church, they meet again finally at the other extremity of the plateau. The route-which retains the name of the Plank Road—then follows a narrow ridge commanding Banks' Ford at the north, which it approaches within a distance of a little over one mile, and the valley of Hazel Run at the south—that same stream which flows at the foot of Marye's Hill, and which played so important a part at the battle of Fredericksburg. At a distance of about four miles from the last-mentioned city, and six and a quarter miles from Chancellorsville, one meets Salem Church, located upon a spot where the ridge is particularly narrow; a little farther on, at two miles and two-thirds from Fredericksburg, this ridge widens again, forming an open plateau which terminates above the city. The slopes of this plateau are known by the name of Marye's Hill at the south-east, and that of Taylor's Hill at the north-west. We have stated that the pass of United States Ford gave access to the forest called the Wilderness a little below the confluence of the Rappahannock and the Rapidan. Among the various fords which are to be met higher up along this last-mentioned river during summer, two only are easy of access and practicable for an army: these were Ely's Ford, situated at three and onethird miles, and Germanna Ford, at nine and one-third miles, in a straight line above the confluence. A good road leads to the Old Wilderness Tavern, south-west of Germanna Ford, where it crosses |