Exultingly confident, Hooker ordered an advance that day from near Chancellorsville toward Fredericksburg. Hardly had he started when he learned that Lee was moving against him; he, therefore, paused and threw up defenses. His aim was to flank Lee, and, to prevent it, the Confederate commander took desperate chances. Keeping up a rattling demonstration in front he sent Stonewall Jackson with 30,000 men around the right of the Union army. Had Hooker known of this daring movement, he could easily have crushed each division in detail. STONEWALL JACKSON'S FLANK MOVEMENT. Jackson carried out his programme with fearful completeness. Without his purpose being suspected, he traveled fifteen miles, reaching the road leading from Orange to Fredericksburg, on the southern side of the Rapidan. He was thus within two miles of General Howard's Eleventh Corps. The men were preparing supper with no thought of danger, when the air was suddenly split by thousands of "rebel yells," and the graybacks rushed out of the woods and swept everything before them. The whole Eleventh Corps broke into a wild panic, and ran for their lives toward Chancellorsville. The German division especially, under the command of Carl Schurz, were irrestrainable in their terror. The majority, however, stood their ground bravely, and their commanders put forth every effort to stop the wild stampede. A partial success was attained, and the artillery poured in a fire which checked the pursuit. Fortunately night was at hand, and the fighting soon ceased. The position of the Union army was critical in the extreme. It was squeezed in between Chancellorsville and the fork of the two rivers. What fate awaited it on the morrow? [Illustration: THOMAS J. ("STONEWALL") JACKSON.] At this juncture, the Confederate cause received the severest blow in its history. That remarkable man, Stonewall Jackson, was confident that the destruction of the Union army was at hand, and he was impatient for the morrow that he might complete the fearful work. In the dusk of early evening he rode forward, accompanied by several of his staff, to reconnoitre the Union position. Passing beyond the outer line of skirmishers, the party halted in the gloom and peered toward the Federal lines. Dimly discerned by a South Carolina regiment, they were mistaken for the enemy, and a volley was fired at them. One of the staff was killed and two wounded. Comprehending the blunder, Jackson wheeled and galloped into the woods, but before the shelter could be reached, the South Carolinians fired a second time.