“ [82] by friction, knowing that he had unlimited resources to draw from, and we had brought out our last available forces, and the loss of one man to us was equal to three of his, and that was the way he beat us, by constant grinding. Another war? Never, on any issue yet brought forward. The South wants and will have peace, even if it has to fight for it.”After I left the general I could not help thinking of what he said about the burial of our men in the pit of the icehouse, and I asked Buell if he did not detect a tone of exultation in the general's voice. Buell answered, “No, I think not. He is a splendid old fellow, as kind and tender hearted as a woman. He has a fine record as a soldier, which was cut short by his being disabled by wounds.”
The battle of Salem Heights, or Church, being its first real encounter with the enemy, must be vividly called to memory by this full and graphic account of Comrade Beckwith, both in its experiences and its results. And to all the friends of the men who took part in it both living and dead it will show that their ancestry who fought in the Civil War, were the peers of the brave and faithful of any generation.
As to the Chancellorsville Campaign in general-its brilliant beginning, its gradual degeneration and its final disgraceful collapse, several causes have been given. General Hooker himself ascribed its failure to the tardiness of General Sedgwick in obeying his order, and the Congressional Committee on the conduct of the war so reported (after Sedgwick's death). Hooker's friends ascribed it to the effect of a solid shot hitting the pillar against which Hooker was leaning, and that has been generally accepted, and appears in most of the histories of the war, especially the school histories.
