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486 Battle of Chancellorsville. Death of Jackson, [isea right, and by an impetuous attack threw it into violent disorder. Gradually, during the next four days, the Federal aggressive became changed to the defensive, and the battle was lost. Two important personal incidents marked the occasion. On May 3, while Hooker was standing at his headquarters at Chancellor's house, a column of the portico was struck by a cannon shot and thrown violently against him, the shock rendering him unconscious for half an hour ; and, though he soon became capable of giving directions, he seems not to have regained his full powers of reason and will during the remainder of the action. The other incident was a serious loss to the Confederate army and cause. Stonewall Jackson, conducting the flank movement, rode under the excitement of success a hundred yards in front of his lines, where by accident he came under the fire of both Union and Confederate guns, and received wounds from which he died a few days afterwards. On the evening of May 4 Hooker called a council of war, and, although a majority of his commanders wished to remain and fight the campaign to a finish on the south side of the river, he finally decided to withdraw his army. Hooker's defeat in the battle of Chancellorsville naturally diminished his prestige as a commander, but not nearly so much as the repulse from Fredericksburg had affected that of Burnside. The President and Secretary of War did not lose faith in him; and Hooker's subordinate generals gave as yet no sign of serious discontent. While the army rested and recuperated in its old position, Hooker conceived and sug- gested several new plans, in which the President neither encouraged nor restrained him, but which the general's own confidence was not sufficiently strong to lead him to attempt. During this period of expectancy General Lee once more took the initiative, and for the second time began an invasion of Pennsylvania. It was not alone his recent victories in the two important battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville that moved him to this course. Thus far in the several Virginia campaigns the balance of success and advantage had been very decidedly with the Confederate army. It was now at the point of its largest numbers and greatest efficiency. The Southern Confederacy was in the flush of confidence and hope. For nearly a year the North had made little apparent progress towards a final suppression of the rebellion; while dissension was growing in its politics, and its debt was increasing with frightful rapidity. To fill its armies it had been obliged to enact a conscription law, the enforcement of which was meeting opposition, and might create counter-revolution. Under such conditions, the Confederate government urged a military policy of vigorous aggression, to which General Lee and his army responded with more than ordinary goodwill. About the beginning of June, therefore, the Confederate army began moving northward, leaving a strong rear-guard to occupy the attention