" "In one word," he wrote, "I would
not take any risk of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped
half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear, without
a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other." Yet, very soon, when
the attenuation of Lee's line became certain, Lincoln sent to Hooker one
of his famous dispatches: "If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg,
and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not
break him?" But the "animal" was moving rapidly, and the breaking
process did not take place.
Hooker now conceived a plan seductive by its audacity and its possible
results. He proposed by a sudden movement to capture Richmond,
presumably garrisoned very scantily, and to get back before Lee could
make any serious impression at the North. It _might_ have been done,
and, if done, it would more than offset all the dreary past; yet the
risk was great, and Mr. Lincoln could not sanction it. He wrote: "I
think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is your sure objective point. If he
comes towards the Upper Potomac, follow on his flank and on his inside
track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his; fight him, too,
when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, _fret him, and fret
him_."
This was good strategy and was adopted for the campaign.
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