When  McClellan  passed  off  the  scene  Lee  played

23


GETTYSBURG

with  Burnside  in  a  tragic  way  at  Fredericksbtlt-g,  and
made  Ijim  and  his  great  army  the  laughing-stock  of
the  Confederate  forces.  Then  he  measuted  swords
with  Hooker  at  Chancellorsville,  and  showed  so  Httle
respect  for  him  and  his  forces  that  in  ftill  light  of  day,
having  not  half  as  many  men  as  his  opponeilt,  he  di-
vided his  little  army  in  two,  sent  Jackson  on  his  flank
movement,  breaking  to  pieces  thereby  in  his  audacity
all  the  scientific  canons  of  strategy  and  tactics  as
laid  down  by  the  masters  of  war  for  centuries,  to  fall
on  the  Utiion  right  flank  and  beat  it  to  fragments;
then  he  tmited  the  two  wings  of  his  army  and  forced
Hooker  back  into  his  entrenchments ;  and  finally  he
turned  to  smite  the  struggling  Sixth  Corps  at  Salem,
while  Hooker,  in  seeming  imbecility,  with  thousands
of  men  eager  to  pitch  in,  was  left  to  occupy  the  woods
and  listen  to  the  guns  which  testified  that  the  chief
part  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  concen-
trated on  Sedgwick.  Such  Utter  contempt  had  he
for  Hooker  that,  before  Hooker  finally  withdrew  from
Chancellorsville  Lee  had  made  his  plans,  with  his  de-
pleted force,  to  attack  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  its
strongly  fortified  position  in  the  woods,  with  the
avowed  piupose  of  driving  the  Union  Army  in  dism&y
into  the  swollen  river  in  its  rear.
