Reports
Report of Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, U.S. Army, commanding First Division
May 19, 1863.
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following summary of the operations of my division during the late engagements with the enemy:
At 7 a.m. on April 27, the Second Brigade (Meagher's) marched to Banks' and the United States Fords, the command at Banks' Ford being under the direction of Col. Patrick Kelly, Eighty-eighth New York, consisting of the Eighty-eighth and Sixty-third Regiments New York Volunteers, Brigadier General Meagher, with the Sixty-ninth New York, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, and One hundred and sixteenth Battalion Pennsylvania Volunteers being posted at the United States Ford.
On April 28, the remainder of the division marched to Banks' Ford. On April 29, the division moved from near Banks' Ford, and encamped that evening within 1½ miles of the United States Ford, leaving one company, of 60 men, at Banks' Ford.
At 10:30 a.m., April 30, the command marched, arriving at General Couch's headquarters at 11 a.m., and from thence proceeded, at 4 p.m., the delay being caused in building the bridges, to the United States Ford. At 8 p.m. the entire division had crossed the pontoon bridges at that point. It immediately proceeded through the Wilderness, and encamped within half a mile of Chancellorsville at 10 p.m.
The Fifth New Hampshire, Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers, under command of Col. E. E. Cross, Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, were left to serve as a rear guard to the ammunition train of the corps until it had crossed the United States Ford. By direction of General Couch, four regiments of the Irish Brigade, under command of Col. R. Byrnes, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts Volunteers, were posted on a road leading from the main road toward Banks' Ford.
On May 1, at 1.30 p.m., that portion of the division not heretofore mentioned as detached marched in the direction of Chancellorsville, and from thence proceeded, on the old turnpike road, toward Fredericksburg, to the assistance of Major-General Sykes, who was then engaged with the enemy, about 1½ miles from Chancellorsville.
Having arrived on the ground, orders were received to withdraw all the troops. The division took post, in order to allow General Sykes' command to be relieved. After that command had retired, I commenced withdrawing the division.
Some artillery shots were exchanged with the enemy, and during the time I remained in that position the skirmishers on my right flank, under command of Colonel Miles, Sixty-first New York Volunteers, and Colonel Frank, Fifty-second New York Volunteers, became engaged, and lost some men. With this exception, the command was retired safely, it being threatened in flank and rear during its march by the same command of the enemy which had engaged the skirmishers.
Just as the rear of the column had passed the left of General Sykes' command, which was then massed on the side of the road from which the enemy was advancing, the enemy appeared and attacked General Sykes, but was immediately repulsed by a portion of his command.
I immediately commenced forming my division on the right of General Sykes, in order to meet the enemy, when I received an order, in person, from General Hooker, to form on his left, on the other side of the road, with my right resting on the road, and facing toward Fredericksburg. I formed the division in three lines of battle, Colonel Brooke, commanding Fourth Brigade, occupying the right, Brigadier-General Caldwell, commanding First Brigade, on the left, their reserves forming the second line, and Brigadier-General Zook's brigade forming the third line. Colonel Cross, with the Fifth New Hampshire, Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers arriving shortly afterward, I placed them in reserve, along the turnpike.
The combat was not renewed, except by the fire of artillery down the turnpike, from the position we had abandoned, and we bivouacked for the night. A rifle-pit was dug along our entire line and an abatis felled in front.
At 1.30 a.m. on May 2, General Sykes' command was withdrawn. I was ordered to withdraw immediately afterward. I formed a new line, with my right resting on General Geary's left, near the Plank road, diagonally to the front until it struck the old turnpike leading to Fredericksburg; thence toward the United States Ford to the front of and nearly parallel to the road leading to that point from the Chancellor house. All my troops present were disposed on this line in one line of battle. General French connected with me and extended the line on my left.
A rifle-pit was dug along my line and an abatis made. General Sykes' troops the night previous had felled an abatis on their front connecting with the abatis and rifle-pits of my line first referred to. This abatis and rifle-pit I filled with skirmishers about 3 paces apart. They were supported by reserves.
Skirmishers were also thrown in front of my main line of battle, connecting on the right and left with those of the advance line, the whole under the command of Colonel Miles, Sixty-first New York Volunteers. A section of artillery was placed on the turnpike, where my line of battle crossed it, and one piece in a woods road nearly parallel to it, and about 200 yards to the left.
The troops were disposed and commanded as follows: On the right, under the immediate command of Colonel Cross, the Fifth New Hampshire, Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers; next, under the command of Brigadier-General Caldwell, the Sixty-sixth New York, One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania, and Sixty-first New York Volunteers; on his left, Col. J. R. Brooke, commanding the Second Delaware, One hundred and forty-fifth Pennsylvania, Twenty-seventh Connecticut, Sixty-fourth New York, and Fifty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers; on the left of Colonel Brooke, Brigadier-General Zook, commanding the One hundred and fortieth Pennsylvania, Fifty-seventh and Fifty-second New York Volunteers. The Sixty sixth New York, of General Zook's brigade, was placed under the command of Brigadier-General Caldwell, in order to fill a vacant space near the turnpike between the Eighty-eighth New York and One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Brigadier-General Meagher, with the Sixty-ninth and Sixty-third New York, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, and the battalion of the One hundred and sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, did not return from detached service until the morning of May 3, and did not report to me until the action was nearly decided--about 10.30 p.m.
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