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for him. We were unable last evening to dislodge him. I am now swinging around to my left to come up in his rear.
I learn, from prisoners taken, that Heintzelman's troops from Washington are here, and the enemy seems to have concentrated his strength for this effort.
If I had with me all my command, and could keep it supplied with provisions and forage, I should feel easy, but, as far as I can judge, the advantage of numbers and position is greatly in favor of the enemy.
This letter, which is in the
Official Records, precludes the idea of a letter the night of May 1st, such as
Colonel Marshall says was dictated by
General Lee to
Mr. Davis, ‘giving him fully the situation,’ unless
General Lee had forgotten what he wrote the night before.
It is evident that
Dr. Dabney corrected his manuscript with
General Lee's letter to
Mrs. Jackson before him, for he omitted the statement that
General Lee proposed to attack
General Hooker's position at
Chancellorsville in front, and adopted almost the exact language of
General Lee in stating what it was decided to do, but he used the word ‘proposed,’ which was not
General Lee's, probably through inadvertence, or on the supposition that it expressed
General Lee's true meaning as well or better than ‘undertook.’
What
General Lee did say was, that
General Jackson ‘undertook to throw his command entirely in
Hooker's rear,’ but
Dr. Dabney says that
General Jackson ‘proposed to throw his command entirely into
Hooker's rear,’ and further controversy on the question is practically narrowed down to the meaning of the word ‘undertook,’ as used by
General Lee in his letter to
Mrs. Jackson.
What
General Lee wrote to
Mrs. Jackson should be taken in connection with his official report and his letter to
Dr. Bledsoe, thus:
In the operations around Chancellorsville I overtook General Jackson, who had been placed in command of the advance as the skirmishers of the approaching armies met, advanced with the troops to the Federal line of defenses, and was on the field until their whole army recrossed the Rappahannock.
There is
