CHAPTER XXIV.

PREPARING FOR THE SPRING OF '63.

Burnside's Abortive Moves--The "Mud March"--General Hooker supersedes Burnside--The Confederates strengthen their Position for the Winter--Longstreet ordered to Petersburg--Secretary of War Seddon and the Author talk of General Grant and the Confederate Situation on the Mississippi and in the West-- Longstreet makes a Radical Proposition for Confederate Concentration in Tennessee, thus to compel Grant to abandon Vicksburg--The Skilful Use of Interior Lines the Only Way of equalizing the Contest--Battle of Chancellorsville, Lee's Brilliant Achievement--Criticism--Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--The Resolve to march Northward--The Army reorganized in Three Corps--Ewell and A. P. Hill appointed Lieutenant-Generals 322