Shortly after midnight Sedgwick began his march against Marye's Heights that was fraught with peril and death. At the foot of the slope were the stone wall and the sunken road, which was the battleground of a few months before in the battle of Fredericksburg. The crest and slopes bristled with Confederate cannon and musket. Sedgwick made his attack directly upon the stone wall in the face of a terrible storm of artillery and musketry. The first assault failed, but the second met with more success, as they succeeded in driving the Confederates from their strong position at the point of the bayonet by their overwhelming numbers. Sedgwick pushed on to attack Lee in the rear, but Lee was aware of his advance and dispatched General Early with a strong force to hold him in check and thus prevent his juncture with Hooker's army at Chancellorsville. Lee's army and that of Hooker's had been engaged since early morning in deadly combat. While this engagement was at its height General Hooker, while leaning against a pillar on the porch of the Chancellor House, was stunned and felled to the ground and for some time it was thought that he was killed. This was done by a cannon ball, which shattered the pillar against which he was leaning. This injury incapacitated Hooker from active service the balance of the day and he gave orders for his army to retire, which was reluctantly done by his subordinate officers. When his columns began to retire from the field the Confederates increased their artillery fire, which played upon the retreating columns in blue. This fire marked the doom of the old Chancellor House, where Hooker had headquarters. The brick walls were pierced through by cannon balls and shells exploded in the upper rooms, setting the building on fire. Fragments of the demolished chimneys rained down upon the wounded in the lower rooms. During the entire day's battle there were nineteen women and children, including some slaves, in the cellar where they had taken refuge. They were all removed before the complete destruction of the house by fire. The long, deep trenches, full of Federal and Confederate dead, told the awful story of Chancellorsville. This scene will never be forgotten by the survivors of the battle. This was one of the greatest battles yet fought on the American Continent, and has gone down in history as being one of the greatest of modern times. The Union loss was about 17,000, while that of the Confederates was about 13,000.