During the early part of the attack, Colquitt's brigade ran across the
pickets of Devens's and Schurz's south front, which there had been no
time to call in. Instead of joining in the advance, Colquitt remained
to engage these latter, deeming it essential to protect Jackson's right.
This was the nucleus of one of the many detached engagements of this
day. Several bodies of Union troops thus isolated were captured en
masse.
The reports of the officers concerned, as a rule, possess the merit of
frankness. As an instance, Col. Hartung, of the Seventy-Fourth New York,
relates that he had no opportunity to fire a shot until after he arrived
behind the Buschbeck intrenchments. The facts would appear to be given
in an even-handed way, in all the reports rendered.
Little remains to be said. The Eleventh Corps was panic-stricken, and
did run, instead of retreating. It was a mere disorganized mass in a
half-hour from the beginning of the attack, with but a few isolated
regiments, and one brigade, retaining a semblance of orderliness.
But was it so much the misbehavior of the troops as the faultiness of
the position they occupied?
The corps was got together again before Sunday morning, in a condition
to do good service. Had it been tested, it would, in all probability,
have fought well.
The loss of the corps was one-quarter of its effective.
Some time after the battle of Chancellorsville, a motion was made to
break up the Eleventh Corps, and distribute its regiments among the
others; but it was not done. Hooker then remarked that he would yet
make that corps fight, and be proud of its name. And it subsequently did
sterling service. Gen. Thomas remarked, in congratulating Hooker on
his victory at Lookout Mountain, that "the bayonet-charge of Howard's
troops, made up the side of a steep and difficult hill, over two hundred
feet high, completely routing and driving the enemy from his barricades
on its top,... will rank with the most distinguished feats of arms of
this war." And it is asserted that this encomium was well earned, and
that no portion of it need be set down to encouragement.
In their evidence before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, Hooker
and Sickles both testify that the panic of the Eleventh Corps produced
a gap in the line, and that this was the main cause of disaster on this
field. But the fatal gap was made long before the Eleventh Corps was
attacked. It was Hooker's giddy blunder in ordering away, two miles in
their front, the entire line from Dowdall's to Chancellorsville, that
made it.
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