Hooker had 132,000 men and Lee only 55,000, and after "Fighting Joe" had successfully crossed the river and had gotten 90,000 of his forces strongly intrenched at Chancellorsville, on Lee's flank, while Sedgwick was at Fredericksburg with 42,000 men to move on Lee's rear, there did seem reason in his proud boast that "the enemy will now be compelled to ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defenses and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." Yet Lee did not "ingloriously fly," but boldly advancing on Hooker, he sent Stonewall Jackson on his famous flank movement, and by a series of brilliant attacks, forced Hooker to recross the river, under cover of a stormy night, to prevent the utter destruction of "the finest army on the planet," as a few days before he had, with pardonable pride, called his well-equipped command. At Gettysburg General Meade had 105,000 men opposed to Lee's 60,000, but there is a reasonable belief that the splendid Confederate victory of the first day would have been followed by the crushing defeat of the Federal army and the capture of Washington and Baltimore, had not Lee's plans miscarried by unfortunate misconception of, if not disobedience to, his orders.
The campaign of 1864 was a still more striking example of the ability of Lee and the prowess of his resolute veterans. Grant had under his control over 275,000 men, reckoning together his immediate force, the army in the Shenandoah valley, the division that came through the mountain passes of southwestern Virginia, and the wing under Butler that moved up the James, all of which were to converge on and capture Richmond. Counting with these the reinforcements he received from the Rapidan to Petersburg, over 275,000 men were in his command, while Lee had a total to meet this vast host of only 73,000 men. The disparity in arms, equipment, supplies of every description, transportation and all appliances to increase the efficiency of an army, was even greater.
