In retiring from the Chancellor clearing, Sickles states that he took,
instead of losing, prisoners and material. This appears to be true,
and shows how Stuart had fought his columns to the utmost of their
strength, in driving us from our morning's position. He says: "At the
conclusion of the battle of Sunday, Capt. Seeley's battery, which was
the last battery that fired a shot in the battle of Chancellorsville,
had forty-five horses killed, and in the neighborhood of forty men
killed and wounded;" but "he withdrew so entirely at his leisure,
that he carried off all the harness from his dead horses, loading his
cannoneers with it." "As I said before, if another corps, or even ten
thousand men, had been available at the close of the battle of
Chancellorsville, on that part of the field where I was engaged, I
believe the battle would have resulted in our favor." Such is the
testimony of Hooker's warmest supporter. And there is abundant evidence
on the Confederate side to confirm this assumption.
The losses of the Third Corps in the battle of Sunday seem to have been
the bulk of that day's casualties.
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