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.
This was the gap which enabled Jackson to push his advance to within a
few hundred yards of Chancellorsville before he could be arrested.
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