The men stared in silence as the death cart rumbled along the lines. It
halted and the man took his place before the firing squad but a few feet
away.
A white cloth was bound over his eyes. The sergeant dealt out the
specially prepared round of cartridges--all blank save one, that no
soldier might know who did the murder.
In low tones they were ordered to fire straight at the heart of the
blindfolded figure. The muskets flashed and the man crumpled in a heap
on the soft young grass, the blood pouring from his breast in a bright
red pool beside the quivering form.
And then the army moved.
The stratagem of the Commander was executed with skill. But there was an
eagle eye back of those hills of Fredericksburg. Lee was not only a
great stark fighter, he was a past master in the arts of war. He had
divined his opponent's plan from the moment of his first movement.
By April the 30th, Hooker had effected his crossing and slipped into the
rear of Lee's left wing. The Southerner had paid little attention to
Sedgwick's menace on his front. He left but nine thousand men on Marye's
Heights to hold in check this forty thousand, and by a rapid night march
suddenly confronted Hooker in the Wilderness before Chancellorsville.
So strong was the Union General's position he issued an exultant order
to his army in which he declared:
"The enemy must now flee shamefully or come out of his defences to
accept battle on our own ground, to his certain destruction.
Pages:
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408