The 3d corps had been fighting since 5 o'clock in the morning. It was now near 10, when victory was almost in our grasp, as the enemy had been punished severely, and a fresh brigade would have decided the battle in our favor. General Sickles had repeatedly called for reenforcements, which could have been spared from the large body of troops which were unemployed in the rear, but General Couch, who was in temporary command of the army, refused to take the responsibility of weakening any other part of the line to reenforce Sickles. General Hooker, while standing near a large pillar of the Chancellor house which was hit by a shell, was struck by some of the flying fragments. He was disabled for several hours, during which time the command devolved on General Couch, who was the senior general on the field. About 2 o'clock our army took up a new line a short distance in the rear, which covered the roads leading to Ely's and United States fords. The open ground around the Chancellor house was abandoned to the enemy, who by this time were nearly exhausted, and much reduced by the severe losses they had met with. While the fighting was going on at Chancellorsville, General Sedgwick had crossed at Fredericksburg and drove the enemy from the heights in the rear of the town and then advanced up the river to assist Hooker. But several miles out of Fredericksburg the rebels encountered him at Salem church, where after severe fighting Sedgwick's corps (the 6th) was repulsed and recrossed the river at Bank's ford. Our new line at Chancellorsville was one of great strength, and could almost be defended by the artillery alone, which in large batteries had been posted at advantageous points commanding the approaches of the enemy. They made several attempts against our line during the 4th, but were always repulsed by the artillery, which was ably handled. In the evening that part of the line held by our brigade was heavily shelled by the enemy, but most of their shells passed over us and burst in the woods in our rear. On the 5th it began to rain and rained all night, raising the Rappahannock so high that our pontoon bridges were in danger of being swept away. One of them had to be taken up to splice out the other two, and it was only by the unremitting labor of the engineer corps that the bridges were held in position. On the morning of the 6th, after daylight, we commenced our retreat unmolested by the enemy, and recrossed the river at United States ford, and, after plodding all day through the mud and rain, we regained our old camps about 6 o'clock in the evening. The losses of the two armies were nearly equal, though the rebel loss in killed was greater than ours. The Union loss was 1,612 killed, 9,591 wounded. The rebel loss was 1,665 killed and 9,081 wounded. A severe loss to the enemy was the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson. The losses in the 3d corps were very heavy, among them two general officers, Generals Berry and Whipple, killed.