But if he attempted this course, and was beaten, Lee could have
destroyed his corps. And this risk he was bound to weigh, as he did,
with the advantages Hooker could probably derive from his holding on.
Moreover, to demand thus much of Sedgwick, is to hold him to a defence,
which, in this campaign, no other officer of the Army of the Potomac was
able to make.
Not but what, under equally pressing conditions, other generals have,
or himself, if he had not received instructions to withdraw, might have,
accomplished so much. But if we assume, that having an eye to the
numbers and losses of his corps, and to his instructions, as well as to
the character and strength of the enemy opposed to him, Sedgwick was
bound to dispute further the possession of Banks's Ford, in order to
lend a questionable aid to Hooker, how lamentable will appear by
comparison the conduct of the other corps of the Army of the Potomac,
under the general commanding, bottled up behind their defences at
Chancellorsville!
XXXIII.
HOOKER'S FURTHER PLANS.
Hooker states: "Gen. Warren represented to me that Gen. Sedgwick had
said he could do no more; then it was I wanted him to take some position,
and hold it, that I might turn the enemy in my immediate front.
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