The Spirit of the Age from Raleigh, North Carolina • Page 1

L2 Vol. zzrv: JRaleigli, May; 18'1863. 39 T1. J-fc. 1, i movement, on fthe plank road, and Mahone's and Perrys the day: but whenever a chance Presented, the srallant and in treat force The retrogade VY right's brigade -I on the turnpike A McLaws: thretK his force upon 4heW and droveheni was commenced at once road, followed by: Aticrthe firing hadontinned for upwards! into.

ibeir works. And dius Saturday night "c'osed the artillery, mov- 1 bour without any1 decisive results, upon Nothins of interest bad occurred in front in advance on the plank Posey and Mahone, with eneral Jacksonr ordered Wright with his ing dowh the turnpike. 'It may be proper CT below Fredericksburg, except that the indication showed the enemy -were disposed to y' abandon, their position in, front of Early. At davliirht Snndav our arm commenced to state bere that the pianic roaq ana turnpike run parallelthe latter nearest the river, and not more of a mile apart from Chancel lore ville td Mine where they unite, and continue to advancing upoa the enemy from all pointk. We were WAR The Battles 'Around Fredericksburg.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE! E5QWRER. In CaSp Neab' Fredeuicksbukg; I 1 48 Mjy.8tb,1803. f': Having een, as yet, no correct account o( the recent seven days fighting around Fred-j shall endeavor to recite tbjef movements of our own and the ah--kee army, during tose eYentful days. I tihall hot pretend to in detail, the movement or engagements of all the different brigades of our cxllant bat such leading facts as may enable the public to jrm; pometbing like a correct idea of our hard During the night elf Tuesday, the 28th i ult; a considerable number of yankees (about Freiiericksburg, eight mil es. one road.

Just off to toe left of the plank road, and passing well round tothe right 'flank and rear of tha enemy's position to fail upon him there while Posey would continue to push him in front. Wright passed to the left til the track of the Orange; and Fiedericksburgi railroad," (near completed;) he passed Up that road, keeping'in front atron body of hirmishers, until he reached Wi 'ford's iron furnace; two miles south-; westt-f Here be, met Gen.3 Stuart, wbi informed him that the eriemy, in'cpniderible force, were posted in the thick woods" between the furnace and Chancellors-ville, 'and about half a mile from the furnace. Vriglit iiijmediately changed his direction, and being provided with a guide from Gen. Stuart; advanced in 'the direction of Chancellorsville, having now got completely in the reaT of the force which was disputing Posey's advance upon the plank road. Wright's ad- now aimosicotnpieieiy arouna nira, uiu single point of escape being open to bfm, that by Way of the Ely's -fordand tT.S.

ford roads. Soon the roar of artillery was heard in JacksOn's direction, and Anderson moved forward in' Ma on tlie' right; vrith bis right resting on the outn side of the plank road; then Wright Posey and Per-! McLaws with his left on the planlc road, and his fright extending well across the 4 The enemy had dug rifle pits, cut abittH in' front and alonglhis whole while hisv artillery well protected by earthworks, was planted on- every era inence and swell or rising ground so as to get direct and enfilading fife upon all points of bar advancing Klines. Otiour gallant army moved; their ranks play-. an incessant firo of shell, grape and carf- ister from the front, -the risbt and the lefL' our as brigade commenced the move--', meftt a company of one of his regiments, which was on picket at the point where the Ely' Ford and United States Ford reads fork, three; fourth of 'a mile East bf Chancellors- vSle, were rushed upon in the gray tvilight of a misty morning by a body of Yankee cavalry-and the whole of them captured. There wis no fighting at this point un Thursday.

Posey also lost a few who were captured during Wednesday nignt while at work building a bridge-across the Kapidan at Grmanna, Gen. Anderson, with his three brigades, reached the Mine road crossing about eight o'clock A. M- and then inly awaited tbe? Approach -f the best army on Jbe pla- 2a0) crossed the-riTarh in boats in 1 front of lien, liirly a position, and lust below the point where Beep Kuu empties into the river. 1 Owing to the darkness of the! night (it being I very foggy) they were enabled to cross with' out being-discovered, and rushlns upon our vance soon beeame enraped with the rfnem gallant commander pressed through the woods, pver pickets at that pointr captured' nearly all -of themf A large (orce in'readiness on1 jn tbick oods, and throwing forward the fieldsl -utoehillsfunto'the'ery mouth of th whole force, he soon. drOve the enemy from fenemy's1 batteries, arid up tc the-' long line rifle 'the other 'side, with boats and bridges, in a.

net, assured that the three fmaU brigades the woods inti the open fields around Chan fe fid routes the yankees succeeded in then with numbering less than 5,000 ceiior 1 nousc Here encountering a very superior! force- of the enemy, he sent back to; Gen. Staart and procured from the latter his norse artiuery, coming was soon 4 put in position and opened a terrific fire upon the enemy. Wright now advanced his whole soon drove the enemy flying across theeld and up a steep hill; mtothe woods, oh tho opposite side. It' was at this time the gallant Major Price, of Gen. Stuart's staff With a terrible shout thesprang torward, t' and rushing through1 thabatti3the jgiined thV bank in front of the rifle-pits, gave way in great confusion and fted.

This was on our ex treme left, under. Jackson and thit portion of. our centre, where Wright, Posey Perry The enemyjstill held their position on that portion -of our centre' in front 'of Mah0rie.j- Soon; however; McXjaws pressing them; vigorously t'they gave way in his front; and the eh tirff 0e lihfl of the enemy's works were-in 6ur I shalV not attempt to describe this terrible and 'gallant charge of our men. I will merely say that I have never during the whole war Feci so strong a position carried so quickly and with so little loss. The chargo of our men was like terrible! avalanch, which bore laying down two pontoons, and by the time the fog lifted in the morning sufficiently, for -us.

to discern their movements, they 1 had effected the crossing of over twelve" thousand men, with several pieces of artillery, and continued to pour upon us their heavy cor umn until they had crossed, about twenty thousand of all arms. As soon as their movement was discovered (and considerable blame has been attached to our force on picket at that point, whethe justly Or not, I can- Dot say;) Gen. Early jbade aptire and vigor-. ous preparations to give the Vandals a pro-' per reception. Gen.

Lee ordered up our ar men, would" good account of 'them- selves their friends and' the country should I the Yankees have the iemerity to rush, upon tRem in this, strong position thqy then occu- pied. slowly and cautious-' ly, throwing forward a strong force of ry, with several batteries of strong- ly supported by infantry, hile. his mainv body was collected inland around Chancel- lOrsville. To fully understand the subse-, quent movements of our ownafmy and that of Hooker, it- may be necessary to explain the position of Chancellorsvillo and its approaches. Chancellorsville is not a town, unless a sin- gle large two-story brick residence, formerly kept as a he such.

This buildihgHs' situated on the' Orange and Fredericksburg plank. toad, 15 miles above Fredericksburg, was! killed, and -not at Sootsvlvania Court HfoseY He 'was stattdi8g by Stuart's artil-lery kiine the necessary orderis. when a fragment of shell struck him upon the leg and horribly mutilatms his entire tillery which bad been for some time in the i limb. But to return 'to Posey and the-y every thing away wjth it without, feeling the" Tesist- kees on the plank road. As soon as Wright' ance.

The- enemy had "now concentrated a' heavy fire in their inner works; close around the house "at about' Chesterfield Station and Hanover Junction, for the purpose of recruiting their broken down and starved horses, and all the troops the different corps were promptly placed! under mnd ready to- move to I such points as the movements of enemy Chancellorsville, and, witH their artillery; commenced began his furious attack Upon; the enemy right flank and rear, the yankees upon the plank and roads, in Posey's and Mahone's front, began to give" way, and by nkht bad been pressed back to. Chancellors- a turious tare across the OD.en neld. and upon our and about four miles south west of the Bap. luan river, uuu. just wueru me mam roaa shouldj require.

About Tilo'clock, the fog. from Ely Ford falls into the plank road. liiilirJUae.if baviuUfted, aHtUe, JarJj with and my great vigor effect, 'efFectually from the plank road, and, after for pemg aavanceu aown Dotn oi tne roaas some-eight hundred one thousand. yardsT After dark Wright was ordered back to the plank road at a point where the road from the fur-j five miles over a succession; of bills, falls again into the plank rbad at the crossing of the Old Hide road, ten miles above Freder- jcksburg, five miles north east from Chancel-lorsville; on the Rappahannock, miles be- low. the confluence with the Rapidan is the preventing his columns from deploying, formed from the valley.

The firin continued with increased fury until ten or eleven O'clock, when the yankees apparently, became satisfied thiat any further advancewithout a much larger force, was not at all 'practicable, and gradually fell back towards 'and near the nace falls into the former. Here the mam body of our af-my slept during Fridayf nigM. Early Saturday morning, with A. Hill's and Rhodes' divisions passed up tojthe left by the way of the iron furnace, arid passing on, inclining to 1 the north, struck the plank road some where near Wilderness Anderson's di uuikuu omies irum iuis wr.u, in a. southernly direction, runs the Old Mine road which crosses at a distance of hvc miles from the river the plank road at the point already described, ten iles above Fredericksburg, and five miles below- Chancellorsville.1 One and a half miles' above Chancellorsville.

the vision (except Wilcox's brigade; left at Banks' orU) occupiea tne centre oi our line witn Wright's brigade, on the left of the plank road. Mahone, Posey and Perry on the right where thev connected with the left, -o'f Mc road from Germanna falls into the plank road at or near Wilderness Church. It was by this tatter road, and by the road from Ely's Ford thai Hooker made his advance upon Law's, who had come up inhe night, land was Chancellorsville. Xet us-now return to the operation of our men, who? having gained thejhorth side of thejr oui- ter line of breast wprkswere iconipletelysedVto tthtf" TQnfPwyig flrpf hirVw r.nnrH'yinn Ti rpur ranks, cohsequeiit upon the difculty cxperienc-Secl by our raen in picking their way through? the fallen timber in front of the enemy's line of rifle pita, and some tiaJs elapsed before the different brigades ccould be reformed. During this time the enemy kept up a murderohs fire upon us, killing and 'wounding a great many.

5 rTghts brigade being limCbttrj: right at this point; was ordered by jGcnexal 1 Anderson to move forward arid dislodge the enemy froo histrbng position around thev house. 'But one of his regiments having as yet formed, (the third Georgia,) he ordered it forward and, supported 'by Posey, swept across the field arid up to th trenches arburid thVbouse.j,;Jast as Wright commepced this last movement, acloud of smoke was seen to rise the houso and it then became apparent that' the Tandals had fiired it prep-, aratory to leaving. WrightJ flew across "the. field the Yankees' gave way and fled, utterly routed; down theEly's ford rroad. atthis motoent Stuart came up left (nowjin command J-bf Jackson's-corps,) arid the, wbole fieldWalpui'is'jini we oaptured great a many Anderson's division alone taking continued topush the flying Yarilwei downj the Ely's-ford' road, until his advance "skirlnlshers 4 be- -came engaged with a heavy body of the erieroy; posted in the woods on both sides of the road, 'strongly supported by artillery; Here bis skirmishers were-forced to fall backhand then pushing two-com pariies further to the right, he directed them to push through the woods and" endeavor jtd get into the enemy's rear.

Very soon tnesettwo cbmpanics (of the 3d became engaged with a Yankee regiment, and, after an exchange of a few rounds, succeeded iri'capturing the entire regiment wi th their Colonel; 1 Bostick, Lieut. Col. Merwin, Mafor and Adjutant, and abjut 700 'trien. This was the aTth ConnecUcuttV i The skirmishers were now baited, r. ari; Lee coming upon the field, ordered our army to form on the plankxoad above Chancellorsville; extending bur line in a south easterly direction down 1 the turnpike belo'k Chancellorsville, with our centre resting about' the latter point i x'4 Just then we iearried that during the morning the enemy had, taking advantage of our very weak force, army.

JJurmg tne aay ivinursaay)f all was comparatively quiet in front of and it- river. In the engagement our troops behaved 1 handsomelyr repelling a force nearly doubjo I their own and inflicting serious' injury upon -the Our own loss was hot consider-! though some of Early's brigades suffer-- -ted Vjfy ft-' Assooh. as the enemy's movements oppo- site Early" were ascertained, Wright's: brigade of Georgians were ordered up from Massa-; I ponaX Church, seven miles distant, to the support of Early's left This brigade, moved and in an. hour and a half frorii the-receipt of thefrorder were in ijdiately to the left of Hamilton's Crossing; their right resting upon Early's left. They i "were not engaged, as Early succeeded In 1 thrashing the yankees" before they got into position.

1 At One o'clock alt was 'quiet along Early's front, except the occasional firing of skirmishers, the enemy being constantly reinforcing, by the addition of a heavy column, -which we saw. crossing! on both their porn toons. 5 Our artillery not having come up; it was not deemed.prudent to push" them fur-- ther, and consequently theu crossmg entirely Unmolested. 1 was evenithought that a portion of the ne then with his centre Lon the turnpite roaa, with his right extending across in the direc-tipn of the United States -Ford; and his left, as just connecting with Anderson's fight. This left a long interval between Anderson's left and Jackson's right; enemy perceiving was enabled to take advantage of, and about 2, P.

threw down a strong column and took possession of the iron thus cutting off our.corinection with Jackson, and capturinit "several ambulances my force had recrossed the About-the middle of the afternoon, the enemy's ad Vance line of skirmishers had advanced down the turnpike, until having "fallen upon Ma- hone's skirmishers, a "brisk firing began, which continued during the afternoon with little effect on either side; the' enemy being very' reluctant to engage 6s in our ftrong position and our owntlorce being too weak to make an aggressive movement. About noon mformition wds received (hat the Yankees, in considerable force, had crpss-- ed the Rappahannock at Kelley's and Ellis's Fordsj and were pressing forward, towards Germanna and Ely's' Ford," on the Rapidan and wagons' belonging to Jackson's train, and, it isl said; taking "prisoners nearly an' entire Carolina regiment. A soon as this movement of the enemy was discovered by Gen. Anderson, he despatchedJPbsey to meet the enemy, and; if possible, retake the posi-tion at the Posey's advance soon engaged the enemy, wbo appearing in overwhelming: numbers, Gen. P.

was obliged to retire. Wright, with three of his was ordered to Posey's support, and soon the eriumy gave way. across the run that flows at the foot of the hill on which the furnace is situated. 'j Lato in the evening the enemy made an advance down the plank road, with two brigades, iio-. doubt baving-discovered that Anderson had withdrawn most of the troops from that" poinC This advance was, meit in the woods by the 3d Georgia regi ment, of Wright's which had been advanced all uar well to the' front as sktr- I During the night of Lee ordered Jackson, with A.

P. Hill's and Rhodes' (formerly D. H. Hill's) division to the support of General Andeson, where they arrived about 8 o'clock on Friday morning. This left Early alone with division on-, our right, and McLaw's with brigade.

of Anderson's division, in front of Fredericksburg. As jsopn i as General Jackson reached our position, he ordered -an' advance upon the enemy-rWright's brigade Two jbrigades of Anderspn's division Po-sey's and Mahone's; numbering aboiit gOOO men ana one oawery or iour guns were, and and id been for several weeks, stationed in in advance upon- the rdad, su ported crossed at reuencKsourg; ana anving oarasuaic, wku the. neighborhqod of Ely's Ford and Uni ted great loss; from t.he townha advanced poand by Posey Mahorie- iq advance upon the turn pike, supported by and Rhodes' division being held as reservo to be States Ford, on the Rappahannock, guarding the approaches to Fredericksburg in that di-i ection: It was 'apparent that this" small nieces of ther Washington! Artillery fGeni McLaws was ordered to move down at once to the' support of mishers: They checked the Yankee advance, force would be entirely inadequate to arrest he approach of Hooker's heavy column, and Wright's brigade was ordered un to their i-upport At daylight on Thursday morning me head of Wright's brigade reached Chan thrown nponjiny point where the' develop-ments of the day might demand. Soon after cdmmencmg the movement our advance line of skirmishers became engaged with the enemy, and hotly pursuing drove them back. until within two miles of.

Chancellorsville, where we came upon the main body, strongly posted in admirable position along a line of heaf timber, in rear of a large clearing, and suported hy a number of cannon, which ana unaiiy, alter, two. nours uaru uguuug, drove the enemy, (two brigades) back to their line of entren'cjiments around Chancellors- viiie. bout sunset, or a little before, Jackson hav-ine cot his men in position upon the enemy's cellorsville, at which point Posey and" Ma- hone! bad concentrated tbeif forces with Barksdale and Wilcox, the latter being; pressed back' his position at Banks' Ford, had fallen back as far as Salem miles above Fredericksburg. living rapidly, with biswn divUioh, and 1 Mahone's rigade, of Anderson's di reached the church late in the: and just time tar save Wilcox, who was being heavily pressed. an over- whelming force.

an hour or- more the yankees pressed McLaws heavily bi4 men were almost ex- bausted by the forced march of over- ten tniles, the constant fightng of. the entire naming i around ymtg gallant llbore themselves like veterans, as they are, atfd soon (he vieyr of making a stand. Gen, Ander- riuht flank and oberied upon him, and son having also arrived in the latter part of the night, and having optained lurtner mationjof the number of the Yankee forces, a terrific-fight ensued, lasting until after dark-The enemy were driven from every position, and with immense loss, until their right bad planted by and in rear of a dwelling ands upon consultation with his brigade comman doubled in on their centre at and immediate der, determined to fall back from Chancel- lorsville, in the direction of Fredericksburg, Darn on tne plane Troaa. nere the action became general'alqng tmrfwhole front, ex tending from a fevrf hundred yards to the left and south of the plank Toad, across that-road to the and to the north or yankeea gave way, when, springing forward with a five i miles, to "Sa point where the Old Mine road leadiqg from the Uuited States Ford ly around Chancellorsville: This was oheof the most brilliant engagement of the whole week's fighting and contributed largely tp the complete ictory wbicb we gained on Sunday Tha enemy 'on our flight right side of the latter road, for nearly a balf; crosses the Oran ge. and Fredericksburg tun Buy, urj ut i tuv hwvvs wwa stauu- ter.

Indeed; this most hate been the most sanguinary fight of the: judging 3 from i5 te of dead and wounded left upon the field. Our own loss at this point was considerable, but McLawa kmue. j.ne uoops maimy eugagea attnis I point were Wright's and Pesey's brigades pike, and plank road. The advance of the Yankee army was reperted within a few miles, I (their left) were comparatively quiet during.