leave of absence through irregular methods;* the service of the outposts was neglected; the bonds of discipline were being loosened; gloom, home-sickness, and a disposition to criticise were becoming daily more and more prevalent among that large body of troops lying torpid amid the mire and rime of the clayish slopes of Stafford county.

But the discouragement which was creeping into the hearts of all was less due to the remembrance of honorable defeats than to the paucity of confidence inspired by the leaders. Consequently, the mere name of Hooker was sufficient to arrest the progress of the evil, and the measures which he adopted for the purpose of suppressing it were soon productive of the best results. The Army of the Potomac resumed all its former habits with that promptness which is the characteristic of troops among whom education has developed the intelligence of the soldier.

The strictest orders were issued to prevent desertions to the interior, and to punish those who were guilty of that crime. Assisted by the President, Hooker got rid of this scourge, more fatal to an army than the most fearful epidemic. Deserters frequently made their escape in citizens' clothes, which their relations sent them or which were sold to them by the inhabitants of the country. All packages coming from the North were strictly scrutinized. Provost - marshals apprehended the farmers who, to their misfortune, resided in the vicinity of the army, and who, driven by want in consequence of the war or yielding to the threats of deserters, became either willingly or by force the accomplices of their flight. On the other hand, intimidation and clemency were both used to induce the culprits to return to their ranks. A proclamation of the President, issued on the 10th of March, held out a promise of complete amnesty to all those who should rejoin their regiments before the 1st of April, and at the same time Mr. Lincoln relinquished his right to review the sentences of courts-martial in favor of army commanders. According to the testimony of a competent writer on such matters, General de Trobriand, this measure produced an effect as prompt as it was salutary. It put an end

* Report of Hooker to Kelton, Asst. Adjutant-General to Halleck, dated Feb. 15, 1863.-ED.

to the long proceedings and appeals to Washington, which Mr. Lincoln's humanity always terminated by a commutation of penalty. The sentences of courts-martial, approved without delay by General Hooker, were immediately executed, and the spectacle of a small number of deserters shot to death in the presence of the troops was sufficient to restrain those who might have been tempted to follow in their footsteps.

At the same time, the officers were brought to a sense of their duty and the respect due to their chiefs by a few severe examples. Finally, Hooker, fully aware that it was necessary to keep an account of the causes which might mitigate the crime of a portion of the fugitives, established a system of regular leaves of absence,* securing to the most deserving the means of revisiting their families for a few days. At that season, all military operations being impracticable, such a system was not attended with any inconvenience. All the regiments were carefully inspected; those favorably reported upon were awarded each the privilege of granting leaves of absence to two officers and one soldier out of fifty. These leaves of absence were generally for ten or fifteen days, and as soon as they had expired the same favor was extended to other officers and soldiers.

The organization of grand divisions, a heavy and useless machinery invented by Burnside, was abolished, and a return was quietly made to that of army corps, which, six in number,† contained each from fifteen to twenty-two thousand men. The three divisions of cavalry, which had hitherto been attached each to one of the three great commands, were united into one single corps and placed under the command of General Stoneman.

Under the management of this excellent officer the Federal cavalry made rapid progress, and was soon in a condition to undertake, in its turn, those great expeditions into the heart of the enemy's country which until then had only been attempted by their adversaries. Finally, in order to neutralize the fatal effects

* General Orders, No. 3, Jan. 30, 1863, Head-qrs. Army of the Potomac.—ED. + General Orders, No. 6, Feb. 5, 1863, Head-qrs. Army of the Potomac, gives seven. But this was caused by the withdrawal of the Ninth corps and the addition of the Eleventh and Twelfth corps. The two latter had not been included in the grand divisions.-ED.

of inaction, Hooker ordered regimental, brigade, and division drills to take place whenever the rigor of winter permitted.

Considerable changes were also made in the composition of the army and the personnel of its chiefs. On the 10th of February the Ninth corps, which had been under Burnside during the preceding summer, was removed from the banks of the Rappahannock, and the largest portion of it was sent to Suffolk, a place which the Confederates were preparing to attack in considerable force. Two new corps, the Eleventh and Twelfth, took its place. The Eleventh, formed of the three divisions of Devens, Steinwehr, and Carl Schurz, passed for a German corps, but out of the twelve or thirteen thousand men composing it scarcely six thousand really belonged to that nationality: it is true that a large number of the other seven thousand were of the same origin, and even yet spoke German. These troops had made the campaign of Manassas in Pope's army, under Sigel. But in the month of March, 1863, the latter, having taken an unlimited leave of absence, was replaced by Howard,* who had recovered from the serious wound which had cost him an arm at the battle of Fair Oaks. The Twelfth, composed only of the two divisions of Williams and Geary, was Banks' old corps, at the head of which Mansfield was killed in September, 1862; it was now commanded by Slocum. These troops had passed the autumn in the Valley of Virginia, where, at the beginning of 1863, they were replaced by new levies. Distinctive badgest were adopted for the soldiers of each corps, varying in color according to the division to which those who wore them belonged. These badges not only prevented much confusion in battle, but likewise developed a salutary emulation among the soldiers, who found themselves thus united by one common symbol, and the army corps constituted during the remainder of the war a grand military unity. General Sickles, who had always distinguished himself by his bravery, was placed in command of the Third corps in place of Stoneman. Butterfield, who commanded the Fifth, a very able officer and an excellent organizer, was selected by Hooker as chief of the general staff, while Meade, who had * Assumed command April 2.—ED.

† Circular March 21, 1863, Head-quarters Army of the Potomac.--ED

particularly distinguished himself at Fredericksburg, took his place. The Sixth corps was taken away from Smith, who was too great a friend of McClellan not to be made to suffer disgrace, and was given to Sedgwick, a brave and good manoeuvrer, although somewhat slow. Finally, one of the most important branches of the general staff, that of inspection, was reorganized and considerably increased.

While the army was regaining confidence and courage for the hard battles it was about to fight, its effective force was not only augmented by the return of deserters, but also by the addition of some ten thousand men. Unfortunately, there were in its ranks nearly twenty-three thousand men whose term of service expired in the month of May. These consisted of thirty-three New York regiments and two from Maine, which, out of a total of 20,842 men, numbered 16,472 who had enlisted for two years at the breaking out of hostilities in April, 1861; also eight regiments of Pennsylvania, mustered into service for nine months only by the call for troops which followed Pope's disaster in August, 1862, and which numbered 6421 officers and men under arms. The soldiers appertaining to the first category, trained up to the hardships of war by two years of campaigning, were about to leave a great void in the Army of the Potomac, but the law was explicit they were to be set free on the 1st of May, 1863, and if the Federal general desired to make use of them, he had to fight before that time. A large number of these soldiers were undoubtedly disposed to re-enlist, but they wanted to avail themselves of the expiration of their term of service in order, first of all, to enjoy a little vacation, and then to obtain the bounties by re-enlistment which were offered both by the States and the government to the newly-enlisted recruits.

The Confederate army had no need of recuperation from the shock of Fredericksburg, for it had obtained an easy victory; its losses were not great and its morale was excellent. Inured to all kinds of fatigue and privations, accustomed to dangers of every description by two years of desperate struggles, full of confidence in the chiefs who had so frequently led them to victory, and so perfectly certain of seeing it always perch on their banners that they even reckoned the battles of South Mountain

and Antietam as successes,-trained, in. short, to a strict discipline, the soldiers of the Confederate infantry were more formidable then than they had ever been before. But from the day when they had crossed the Potomac for the purpose of invading Maryland their ranks had been thinned by musket-balls and sickness, their equipments had become worn out, their very arms bore evidence of the service to which they had been put. Moreover, discipline had not been able to suppress among them the evil which had so much weakened the Federal army-desertion to the interior. Many stragglers left in the rear of the army during its last marches, invalids who had been sent on leave of absence to their families, had not reappeared in the ranks. Finally, a considerable detachment taken from it was the means of depriving the army of some of its best soldiers. On the 1st of February, Longstreet was sent with three divisions of his corps into South-eastern Virginia, where we shall find him at a later period laying siege to Suffolk. There, as we have stated, the Ninth corps came for a while to hold him in check, but only to be replaced by other troops which we shall soon see at work. The cavalry was exhausted, the horses lame, wounded, or foundered. The artillery, always inferior to that of the Federals, had also much need of reorganization. In order to place the Confederate army once more in condition to undertake an active campaign, the officers should have had time to work and the soldiers to rest. The season allowed them three months yet for preparation, and they availed themselves of it. The generals and the government at Richmond set to work with that energy of which they had already given so many proofs.

The new conscription law was applied with the utmost rigor, while leaves of absence were wisely granted to soldiers whose terms of service were about to expire and who renewed their engagements. Patrols overran the whole country for the purpose of picking up deserters; the ranks of the army were rapidly swollen by the arrival of new regiments and the additions made to the old ones. The former were distributed among the various brigades, which were made to undergo a complete reorganization. Two brigades were added to Jackson's corps, while the others received one or two new regiments each.