THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
the movement of the enemy toward our right flank, and instructing him to take measures to resist an attack from that quarter. At once I called up General Howard, read the despatch aloud to him and put it into his hands. We had exchanged only a few words about the matter when another courier, a young officer, arrived with a second despatch of the same tenor. At a later period I saw the document in print and recognized it clearly as the one I had read and delivered to General Howard on that eventful day. It runs thus:
Headquarters, Army of the Potomac
Chancellorsville, May 2d, 1863, 9:30 a. m.
Major Generals Slocum and Howard:
I am directed by the Major General commanding to say that the
disposition you have made of your corps has been with a view to a front attack
of the enemy. If he should throw himself upon your flank, he wished you
to examine the ground and determine upon the position you will take in that
event, in order that you may be prepared for him in whatever direction he
advances. He suggests that you have heavy reserves well in hand to meet this
contingency. The right of your line does not appear to be strong enough.
No artificial defenses worth naming have been thrown up, and there
appears to be a scarcity of troops at that point, and not,
in the general's opinion,
as favorably posted as might be. We have good reason to suppose that the
enemy is moving to our right. Please advance your pickets as far as may be
safe, in order to obtain timely information of their approach.
J. H. Van Alen,
Brig. Gen. and Aide-de-Camp.
To my utter astonishment I found, many years later, in a paper on “The Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville,” written by General Howard for the Century Magazine, the following sentence: “General Hooker's circular order to Slocum and Howard neither reached me nor, to my knowledge, Colonel Meysenburg, my adjutant general.” How he could have forgotten that I had read and delivered to him that identical despatch I find it difficult to understand, especially as it
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