|
|
||
Date published: 8/10/2002
Part 23 of a series on the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville CONFEDERATES heading east in the fading twilight of May 2, 1863, ran roughshod over their foes. An evening full of excitement and victory for Southerners offered no real options for Northerners other than brief resistance followed by flight. Many Federals--probably most of them--made no resistance at all, nor could they reasonably have been expected to do so. Troops never have tolerated surprise attacks from behind. Relative numbers and armaments dwindle in importance in circumstances where an attacker achieves surprise and position. The spectral image of "Stonewall" Jackson heightened the impact. "Jackson was on us," an Ohio soldier wrote, "and fear was on us." An attacker from Alabama professed to know that "Jackson went forth from every Yankee tongue as they broke pellmell." In his official report, a colonel from Massachusetts drolly described his fleeing friends as being "under the influence of an aversion for Stonewall Jackson." Astonished and terrified Yankees "ran some one way and some another." In frightened attempts to hide, a North Carolinian wrote, "some of them ran in the tent and wrapped up in blankets." Capt. J.W. Williams of Greensboro, Ala., described "a moving mass of yankeeshundreds would turn and run to us to be taken prisoners, for it seemed certain death to remain in front." A Northern band must have been among the last Federals to learn of the disaster: their boisterous tooting and thumping covered the noise of the initial onslaught, until a long-range bullet shattered the bass drum and ended the concert. Once the Yankee line broke, disintegration spread inexorably eastward, beyond Wilderness Church and on toward Chancellorsville intersection. A French volunteer at Hooker's headquarters looked west and saw the 11th Corps fugitives in "close-packed ranksrushing like legions of the damned" toward him. The Rebel yell unmanned the foreigner, who reported that "all of the [Confederates] roar like beasts." An Ohio officer described the rout as "a disorderly mass" and "the most terrible sight I have ever witnessed."
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
