Certainly, the new commander was not troubled with Burnside's
self-distrust. His confidence in himself and in his plans was
unbounded, and there was no little justification for his hopes,
for his campaign was well thought out and he had a force of over
130,000 men under his orders--fully 70,000 more than his adversary
could bring into the field.

Lee still lay intrenched on the hills behind Fredericksburg, and
there Hooker ordered General Sedgwick to hold him with part of the
army while he himself, with another and more powerful part, crossed
the Rappahannock River by a ford twenty-seven miles above. By this
move he hoped to get behind Lee and then crush him, as nut-crackers
would crush a nut, by closing in on him with a front and rear
attack.

This was not a strikingly original plan. It was in fact merely
a flanking movement on a huge scale, but compared to Burnside's
performance it was highly scientific and the vast superiority of
the Union forces almost insured its success. Hooker was certainly
convinced that he had at last solved the great problem of the war
and that Lee was practically in his power. Indeed, as his flanking
army forded the river, he issued an address of congratulation
in which he informed his troops that they had the Confederates in
a position from which they must either "ingloriously fly" or come
out in the open where certain defeat awaited them. But "Fighting
Joe" was soon to learn the folly of crowing until one is out of the
woods, for as he emerged from the forests sheltering the fords,
he discovered that Lee's army had not remained tamely in its
intrenchments, but had quietly slipped away and planted itself