The Official Records contain
much justification of Jackson's anxiety that Burnside should be
fought on the North Anna, where, if defeated, he might have been
pursued. Although there had been no pursuit after the battle of
Fredericksburg, no harassing marches, no continued retreat, with lack
of supplies, abandoning of wounded, and constant alarms, the Federal
regiments had suffered terribly in morale.
"The winter rains set in," said Hooker, "and all operations were for
a while suspended, the army literally finding itself buried in mud,
from which there was no hope of extrication before spring.
"With this prospect before it, taken in connection with the gloom and
despondency which followed the disaster of Fredericksburg, the army
was in a forlorn, deplorable condition. Reference to the letters from
the army at this time, public and private, affords abundant evidence
of its demoralisation; and these, in their turn, had their effect
upon the friends and relatives of the soldiers at home. At the time
the army was turned over to me desertions were at the rate of about
two hundred a day. So anxious were parents, wives, brothers and
sisters, to relieve their kindred, that they filled the express
trains with packages of citizens' clothing to assist them in escaping
from service.
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