CHAPTER I.
THE OPENING OF 1863 .-- HOOKER'S PLANS.
After the great disaster of Fredericksburg, General Burnside, the Commander of the Union Army, was superseded by Major-General Joseph Hooker, a graduate of West Point, who having formerly held a high position on the staff of General Gideon J.Pillow in the war with Mexico, was supposed to be well acquainted with military operations on a large scale.

He had subsequently left the army, and had been engaged in civil pursuits for several years.

He was a man of fine presence, of great personal magnetism, and had the reputation of being one of our most efficient and successful corps commanders.
When the campaign of Chancellorsville commenced, the Army of the Potomac was posted on the left bank of the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, among the Stafford hills, in a position which was considered almost impregnable.

It rested upon the Potomac River, and as all of its supplies came by water, they were not subject to delay or interruption of any kind; nor were they endangered by the movements of the enemy.
At the period referred to, General Hooker had under him a force of about 124,500 men of all arms, 11,500 of which were cavalry.
On the opposite side of the river, the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Robert E.Lee, numbered, according to their official reports, about sixty-two thousand men, three thousand of which were cavalry;* but the difference was amply compensated by the wide river in front of the enemy, and the fact that every available point and ford was well fortified and guarded.

General Thomas J.
Jackson, commonly called Stonewall Jackson, held the line below Hamilton's crossing to Port Royal.