On April 27 Hooker began an offensive designed to drive Lee out of his entrenched positions and force him either to retreat toward Richmond or fight on open ground. While Union troops prepared to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, Hooker sent three corps on a rapid march upriver. By April 30 his flanking force had crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers and reached Chancellorsville, a crossroads clearing ten miles west of Fredericksburg in the midst of an area of scrub woods and dense undergrowth known as the Wilderness. Lieutenant John Hampden Chamberlayne was a veteran Confederate artillery officer whose battery, like many in Lee’s army, had been bivouacked south of Fredericksburg so as to be nearer supplies of food and forage. By the time his unit reached the front on April 30, Union troops had crossed the river just below the city and taken up positions in front of the high ground held by the Confederates.
Camp near Fredericksbg
April 30th 1863 (within 300
yards of that of Dec 12th 1862)
My dear Mother
Yesterday we received very suddenly an order to the front, distance 25 miles; starting with all the inevitable entanglements & delays about 11½ A.M. we marched some till 3 A.M. this morning, some till long after day; my Battery, as it was in the rear of the column, came in last about sunrise; our provisions followed us into camp about 12 M. today—The march was through mud, mud, mud, & cold north east rain, no sleep, no food—You who naturally think much of my hardships should only have seen the boys of my Battery almost falling asleep as they stumbled through the dark clinging mist, yet falling in at the word into knee-deep slush & mud to play at horses and push the guns up on the fagged out brutes—Some oaths and some grumbling but at bottom a will to do it—These men, the privates marched the 25 miles through rain, mud, & night, carrying on their backs all their worldly goods & about half the time helping the horses along—The continued embarrassment such as I mention is hardly to be avoided in bad roads filled with long drawn columns of Artillery, every pause in front makes a stop in the whole line & every carriage makes the road worse until the horses to the rear carriages become cold from stopping when warm then grow restive & uncertain & finally often “baulk” (or balk), as we say, at nothing at all.
Does this begin to explain how 100 men can be of use with 4 guns? Add that each gun is drawn by six horses, driven by three drivers postilion fashion & is followed by its caisson or carriage for ammunition with three more drivers, then there are several wagoners for the Battery, a forge driver, two or three mechanics as harness makers, smiths &c, then add for each gun a sergeant & a corporal (a bugler & a flag bearer for the battery), thrown in the chances of 10 per cent being always wounded or sick & you find that 25 to a gun does not more than furnish 10 to 13 actual cannoneers, of which class one brings ammunition from the chest to the gun, one sponges & rams, one keeps the vent or touchhole closed when sponged, one primes, one fires, one aims & all assist to run the piece back when it recoils from the place of fire &c &c.
Your welcome letter reached me yesterday just as we were moving; I wrote you a scrawled line in pencil by Harrison Col. W’s servant & sent by him my trunk & key; I have with me all that it is desirable or proper to carry—Please have the things aired &c from time to time—I asked that you would send by Hn the coat &c—, if not it makes little difference Yesterday I did not starve; going by to bid the Woolfolks farewell I was I might say constrained to accept a couple of huge slices of nice bread holding between them ditto meat.
We are all in the utmost spirits & confidence of success—I do not know what to think, whether we will have a battle here or not I hope we will but I am afraid not Yesterday Rhodes’ formerly D. H. Hill’s Divn was skirmishing; today there has been artillery at long intervals, I do not believe we have fired at all—A. P. Hill is in 1st line of reserve supporting (I believe but am not certain) both Trimble & Early, tomorrow he may be in front, if so we will be with him—I rather believe we will move up tonight or tomorrow toward the left flank toward Orange Co Ho—My time is short to write now as you may well believe & I find I must hurry.
I have not seen V. or Mann—Hope to do so shortly—I wrote to Sister on Sunday or Monday—Love to her & to bro—Ed—& Hart—John is well, got a letter from his Mother lately, proud of it—
Give my love to all friends, I have not time to name them
And I am & always will be
Your devoted son
J H Chamberlayne
Address (except by Hn) Care Col. Crutchfield Chief Arty Jackson’s Corps Army N. Va