. The Civil War : the national view . nerals who gain successes can set up as dicta-tors. What I now ask of you is military success, and I willrisk the dictatorship. The government will support youto the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor lessthan it has done and will do for all commanders. I muchfear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into thearmy, of criticising their commander and withholding con-fidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assistyou as far as I can to put it down. Neither you norNapoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out ofan ar
. The Civil War : the national view . nerals who gain successes can set up as dicta-tors. What I now ask of you is military success, and I willrisk the dictatorship. The government will support youto the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor lessthan it has done and will do for all commanders. I muchfear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into thearmy, of criticising their commander and withholding con-fidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assistyou as far as I can to put it down. Neither you norNapoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out ofan army while such a spirit prevails in it; and now bewareof rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleep-less vigilance go forward and give us victories. But Hooker was not Napoleon and the spirit which along series of failures, defeats and bloody losses had infusedinto the army was equivalent to heavy reinforcements toGeneral Lee. Hooker set himself to his task, beginningwith the sentiments of the men under him, and succeeded. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, general, C. S. A, From the painting byJ. A. Elder in the Corcoran Gallery^ IVashington. T THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR 311 in winning a large degree of their confidence—but to themhe was a poor substitute for McClellan. The principal dif-ference between the two generals was that Hooker was afighter. He had an army of 130,000; Lee, but 60,000,occupying the defenses of Fredericksburg. Hooker pur-posed to strike at Richmond and thus compel Lee to pro-tect his communications. On April 30th, Hooker himself,with four corps, reached Chancellorsville, not however,without fighting, and in a boastful order announced expectedvictory to the army. Lee, accurately informed of all theFederal movements, advanced to meet Hooker, who sud-denly fell back. The whole story may be read in GeneralMeades comment: If we cant hold the top of the hillwe certainly cannot hold the bottom of it. Hooker wastaking the defensive. Lee and Jackson, in consu
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