The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry trudged back to its old camp at Stafford Court-House in a pouring rain. Capt. Dan Oakey noted the sarcasm in the voices of his men as they sang, "Home Again." And who could blame them?
Chaplain Quint summed up the battle of Chancellorsville for the folks at home. "A hundred thousand men, thoroughly organized, admirably equipped, in high spirits,--brave men, and most of them experienced soldiers,--had been baffled by a force now known to have been half their number." Capt. Charles Morse doubted that the army would ever have another chance to fight the rebels "with such odds in our favor as we had last Sunday."
In truth, Lee's victory was even more costly to the South. He may have inflicted over 17,000 casualties upon Hooker's army, but it was at the cost of nearly 13,000 of his own men--men he would not be able to replace as easily as Hooker. And the greatest loss was that of Jackson. New of the wounding and eventual passing of their old adversary brought no expressions of joy from the men of the Second. He had been a for to admire. "No man rejoices at his death," wrote Quint. "He was a good man, though strangely misled by this vagary of state rights; a man of much prayer and Christian experience. A brave, gallant, and chivalric soldier,--no stain of cruelty or even harshness rests upon him. May God pardon his one fault! I wish we had more generals like him."
More like Jackson indeed! Robert Gould Shaw's wish was still unfulfilled. The Army's "great man" was yet to arise. "The less I say about the campaign the better I shall feel," grumbled Henry Comey. "Hooker's plans were good, but he failed in that quality which everyone has always granted him, namely: Dash and endurance. He seems to have lost all confidence in himself and his army after our right was turned." Crowninshield agreed whole heartedly. "We expected to find him a man of dash and found a man as cautious if not more so than McClellan. If you recollect, the one thing that was always flung in McClellan's face was that he was always digging. Now Hooker had no sooner crossed the river than he began to throw up intrenchments." Like Comey, Crowninshield thought that Hooker's plan was a good one, but "as soon as the enemy commenced at act, and he had to form his plans on the spur of the moment, he was nowhere. He seemed to those who saw him to be perfectly muddled."
Morse contended that if the battle proved anything about Hooker, it was that he had "gained his position by merely brag and blow," and when the critical hour loomed, "he was found without the qualities necessary for a general."
As disappointed as he was with Hooker, Morse sang the praises of his corps commander. "You cannot imagine the amount of admiration I have for General Slocum," he wrote, remarking on the "gallant way in which he conducted himself throughout the campaign, and his skillful management of his command." For his part, Slocum was so incensed by Hooker's failure as a leader that he called for his removal from command of the Army of the Potomac.
Without the benfit of all the facts, the regiment was universal in its condemnation of the 11th Corps, that "a rabble of dastardly cowards" as Charles Morse described them. "I have believed almost all the time since Sigel was allowed to have a corps composed of foreigners and soldiers of fortune that when the time of action came they would be found wanting and it has proved so."
Henry Scott sang a similar tune, dismissing Howard's troops as "soldiers of fortune who were serving for what money they could get out of it and didn't care a pin for the cause," and concluding that "one good American soldier" was worth "10 ordinary Dutchmen."
Chaplain Quint found the newspaper accounts of the battle vexing, but hardly surprising. "From one we should judge that only one particular corps appears to have been engaged in the recent battle." He was referring, of course, to the 3rd Corps. Comey was put out to read that "Whipples or Berry's Division of Sickles Corps get all the praise for what Williams Division performed." Fond were his memories of Sickles's men running over him "like a flock of sheep with their backs to the enemy." Oh well, Quint mused, history would have to bring the 12th Corps its due, for "as General Slocum does not carry a special reporter with him, as some others do, the glorification is less."
As far as the men of the 2nd MA were concerned, one needed only study the casualty returns to determine what corps had done the most fighting. Nor had the 12th Corps lost a single piece of artillery (it never would), unlike the 3rd Corps.
When the dust cleared from the battle of Chancellorsville, Henry Comey reported that the Army of the Potomac was far from beaten. "The men are in good spirits & in consequence are healthy and we shall yet win."
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