M. He recollects being very
impatient that morning about the delay,--not, however, being more
specific in his testimony.
XXVIII.
SEDGWICK MARCHES TOWARDS HOOKER.
So soon as Sedgwick had reduced the only formidable works in his front,
he made dispositions to push out on the plank road. Gibbon was left in
Fredericksburg to prevent the enemy from crossing to the north side of
the river, and to shield the bridges.
"Gen. Brooks's division was now given the advance, and he was farthest
in the rear, not having got moved from the crossing-place." Brooks had
so extensive a force in his front, that he was constrained to withdraw
with extreme caution. "This necessarily consumed a considerable time,
and before it was completed the sound of the cannonading at
Chancellorsville had ceased." (Warren.)
This postponement of an immediate advance might well, under the
stringency of the orders, have been avoided, by pushing on with the then
leading division. Not that it would have been of any ultimate
assistance to Hooker at Chancellorsville. At the time the storming
columns assaulted Marye's heights, Hooker had already been driven into
his lines at White House.
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