CHAPTER X.
AFTER the battle at Fredericksburg, General Lee’s army went into winter quarters along the southside of the Rappahannock, and the Federal army made itself comfortable on the north side of the same river. It was a rigorous winter, and many of the Confederates suffered severely from lack of proper uniforms and shoes, and from want of proper food. In April, General Hooker, who had succeeded Burnside in command of the Federal army, began a demonstration against the Confederate front and right, and under cover of this movement, marched the Eleventh, Twelfth and Fifth corps up the Rappahannock, crossed at Kelly’s ford, and concentrated at Chancellorsville on Thursday afternoon, the 30th of April. The Second corps crossed at United States ford, and the Third was ordered to follow by the same route. Four corps were thus massed on Lee’s left flank, and a fifth was nearly in position, with "scarcely a man lost. The initial success was certainly with Hooker, and a continuation of this vigorous offensive would have "desperately compromised" the army of Northern Virginia. But Hooker s energy seemed to expend itself in the movement. "Lee had not been." says Dodge, "unaware of what the Federals had been doing, but he had been largely misled by the feint below the town, and had so little anticipated Hooker s movement by the right, that less than 3,000 of his cavalry were on hand to observe the crossing of the Rappahannock and the Rapidan. Stuart had not until Thursday fully gauged
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