Now, I desire to compare with Hooker's recorded words, and the
utterances of Fast Day, the actual performance, and see what "loyalty to
Hooker," as voted in Music Hall, means. Chancellorsville bristles with
points of criticism, and there are some few points of possible
disagreement. Of the latter the principal ones upon which Hooker's
formal apologists rely, are the destruction of the Eleventh Corps
through Howard's alleged carelessness, and the failure of Sedgwick to
perform the herculean task assigned to him in coming to Hooker's
support. Allowing, for the moment, that Howard and Sedgwick were
entirely at fault, and eliminating these two questions entirely from the
issue, let us see what Hooker himself did, bearing in mind that he has
officially acknowledged that he knew, substantially, the number of Lee's
army, and bearing also in mind that the following are facts which can be
disputed only by denying the truth and accuracy of all the reports,
Federal and Confederate, taken as a body; and these happen to dovetail
into each other in one so consistent whole, that they leave to the
careful student none but entirely insignificant items open to doubt.
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