If not, an advance at all hazards
was to be made, and a position on the plank road which would uncover
Banks's Ford to be secured. If the enemy were in strong force, Slocum
was to select a position, and compel his attack. Not a moment was to be
lost until the troops were concentrated at Chancellorsville. "From that
moment all will be ours," said Hooker.
The inconsistency of these orders can be explained only by marked
ignorance of the country. To secure a position which would uncover
Banks's Ford was certainly a great desideratum; but the possession of
Chancellorsville was far from accomplishing this end, as we shall see.
So admirably planned and executed were all orders up to this time,
that on Thursday, by two P.M., three corps of nearly forty thousand men
were concentrated on Lee's flank, while the latter was still unaware of
the presence of any considerable Federal force in this vicinity.
On Monday Couch had been ordered to march two divisions of his (Second)
corps to Banks' Ford, but to keep back from the river, and to show no
more than the usual pickets. One brigade and a battery to be sent to
United-States Ford, there to relieve an equal detail of the Eleventh
Corps, which would rejoin its command.
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