The troopers from Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s division were fortifying their positions and awaiting the blue onslaught. While they were frantically digging in, a puzzled Robert E. Lee watched in amazement as Union infantry scampered ashore from the Union bridgehead at Fredericksburg. Lee was still unsure as to Hooker’s main thrust. He sent word to President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, saying: “[They are] certainly crossing in large force here…[and] below Kelley’s Ford, where General Howard has crossed with his division, said to be 14,000, six pieces of artillery, and some cavalry.”

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Lee was depending on day-old intelligence from Stuart and did not realize that Slocum’s and Meade’s men had accompanied Howard’s XI Corps as well. Never one to become nervous in tense situations, Lee coolly waited to hear from his trusted “eyes and ears,” Stuart, before making any decision. Lee knew that he must have more detailed information to determine where the main effort of the Yankee army would be.

While Lee was observing Hooker’s left wing, his most accomplished subordinate, Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, was shoring up Confederate defenses around Fredericksburg. Brigadier General Robert E. Rodes’ division linked up with Early’s right flank, while Brig. Gen. Stephen Ramseur’s graycoats dug in along Massaponax Creek. Jackson’s two other divisions, under Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill and Brig. Gen. Raleigh E. Colston, were kept in reserve. Early anxiously watched as the Yankees deployed along a four-mile front. “The question was whether they were ostentatiously displayed as a feint, or whether they were massed for crossing,” he later wrote.

Finally, the word came that Lee had been eagerly awaiting. One of Stuart’s horsemen rode up at dusk and informed Lee that Howard’s corps was part of a larger force then traversing the Rapidan. Lee immediately telegraphed Davis: “Their intention, I presume, is to turn our left, and probably get into our rear. Our scattered condition favors their operations.”

Without hesitating, Lee sent for his artillery, which was camped at Bowling Green and Chesterfield Station. However, with the exception of a few smaller infantry units in the area, he could expect no other reinforcements. Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s corps (less Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaw’s division already with Lee) was at Suffolk, Maj. Gen. Samuel French was stationed at Petersburg, and Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill was back in North Carolina with his division. It was crystal clear to Lee that he would have to defeat the Union masses with what he had in hand–no more.

At 11 a.m. on April 30, Union General Meade, riding with Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin’s division, was the first senior Union officer to reach the Chancellor farmhouse. Brusquely ushering the Chancellor family into one of the back rooms of the house, the crusty corps commander awaited the arrival of the remainder of the troops. About 2 that afternoon, Slocum galloped up with the forward elements of his corps.

“This is splendid, Slocum!” remarked a jubilant Meade. “Hurrah for old Joe! We’re on Lee’s flank, and he doesn’t know it. You take the Plank Road towards Fredericksburg, and I’ll take the Pike, or vice versa, as you prefer, and we will get out of this Wilderness.” Slocum, however, had discouraging news for Meade. Hooker had given directions to “take up a line of battle…and not to move forward without further orders.” This was extremely bleak news to Meade, but Slocum was in command and he had no choice but to follow orders. As the units approached Chancellorsville, Slocum put them into line: Howard’s corps blocked the road to the west, Meade was to his rear, Couch’s two divisions were anchored on the northeast, while Slocum’s own XII Corps was formed in a half circle of sorts to the south and west near a plateau named Hazel Grove.

At dusk, Hooker himself arrived on the scene. Amid a flurry of congratulations, he issued his grandiloquent General Order No. 47, which read in part: “The operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defenses and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him.”

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