Battle of Chancellorsville Letter

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008

A great war-date Pennsylvania soldier's letter, 4pp. 4to., written in ink by William F. Keyes, Stafford county, Va., May 21, 1863 concerning the moral of the Army of the Potomac after the battle of Chancellorsville, in part: "...The order to fall back when it came made me so d_m mad that I didn't care what became of the Army of the Potomac or whether I even heard of it again or not. I could not under stand it then and I must confess that…something else prevents me from understanding it yet. I suppose Old Joe [Hooker] knows best whether he was whipped or not but if he was I can't see it nor the Army at large can't see it. Admitting that he was whipped, whose fault was its undoubtedly his own. Stoneman made…a very great raid, characterized as the most brilliant feat of the war…It helped him towards winning 'Chancellorsville' just about as much as engineering on the Astonville railroad helped him…the rebel cavalry cooperated with their army. All accounts both of our own soldiers and the rebel prisoners agree in this, that the slaughter of the Confeds was awful that we killed and wounded two of them to one of us and in the matter of prisoners stood about square, it is also believed that Lee according to his usual custom put every man in use that he had & whereas our 1st Corps 15000 strong was not engaged at all except in the slight demonstration on the extreme left which I described before. It has been further ascertained that the rebels actually fell back at the same time we did, showing that they consider their position dangerous, in spite of the victory they claim. Our troops fought and behaved splendidly with one exception, Sigel's Dutchmen, though willing enough to fight 'wit Sigel' could not be induced to fight with Howard. Their defection must have been quite a serious affair inasmuch as it rendered the one seventh…of the army worse than useless. There are but 7 Corps in this army now and the aggregate reaches something above a hundred thousand men. These Corps comprised the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 11th, & 12th. The 2nd 3d 5th & 6th did most of the work in the recent engagement. Those who had a chance to know say that the men never fought better and with the exception aforesaid could have been depended upon till the last man fell. There was many a bitter jest passed from loyal lips as the troops returned…despairing[ly] to their old and desolate camps. But they could not nor cannot to this day realize that it was a defeat and their ill feeling soon wore off. Today there is no indication of any remaining effect of the last great failure, except the diminished strength and this is done more to the 'mustering out' by U.S. officers than rebel bullets. The moral of the army is good, but they hope of a 'speedy close' has been quashed. The prevalent opinion is that we must conquer but that it can only be done by steady wear the crushing out system has had its day. We are not on our old camp ground but occupy a new location on the left and about a mile and a half from…Belle Plain. The aspect of the country in this section is more human than in that neighborhood being so near the Picket lines it has escaped wholesale desolation, still it looks hard, very few of the original inhabitants live here now and how they subsist who do God only knows. I pity them form the bottom of my heart. The people of the North think this is a cruel war but let it be brought to their own doors once and then they will know what war is…". Fine.

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