“My God! It is horrible—horrible; and to think of it, 130,000 magnificent soldiers so cut the pieces by less than 60,000 half-starved ragamuffins!” – Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Tribune
Of all the Civil War battles fought, and of all the victories achieved by Robert E. Lee at the command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, the Battle of Chancellorsville is considered the most tactically complex and ultimately the most brilliant Confederate victory of the war.
In early May 1863, the Army of the Potomac was at the height of its power as it bore down on Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near Fredericksburg, where the Confederates had defeated them the previous December. The Union behemoth had spent most of the winter season being reorganized and drilled by “Fighting Joe” Hooker, an aggressive commander who had fought hard at places like Antietam. With an army nearing 130,000 men, Hooker’s Army of the Potomac was twice the size of the Army of Northern Virginia.
With that advantage, Hooker proposed a daring and aggressive two pronged attack that aimed to keep Lee’s army occupied in front of Fredericksburg while marching around its left. Meanwhile a cavalry raid well in the rear was intended to cut Lee’s lines of supplies and possibly retreat. Hooker’s plan initially worked perfectly, with the division of his army surprising Lee. At the end of May 1, Lee was outnumbered 2-1 and now had to worry about threats on two fronts.
Incredibly, Lee once again decided to divide his forces in the face of the enemy, sending Stonewall Jackson to turn the Union army’s right flank while the rest of the army maintained positions near Fredericksburg. The Battle of Chancellorsville is one of the most famous of the Civil War, and the most famous part of the battle was Stonewall Jackson’s daring march across the Army of the Potomac’s flank, surprising the XI Corps with an attack on May 2, 1863. Having ignored warnings of Jackson’s march, the XI Corps was quickly routed. The surprise was a costly success, however, as Jackson was mortally wounded after being mistakenly fired upon by his own men.
Having seized the initiative, half of Lee’s army launched desperate attacks on Hooker’s forces near the Wilderness over the next 2 days, while simultaneously defending against Union attacks around Fredericksburg that pushed the other half of his army back several miles on May 3. Ultimately, Hooker, who may have suffered a concussion during the battle, decided to pull both parts of his army back across the Rappahannock River on May 4, requiring a careful extrication over the next few days as Lee’s army tried to destroy them while they were still on the southern bank of the river.
Lee’s heavily outnumbered army had just won the most stunning victory of the war, but it cost them Stonewall Jackson. Moreover, the reorganization of the armies and the battle itself played an influential role in the way the Pennsylvania Campaign and the Battle of Gettysburg unfolded later that summer.
The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Battle of Chancellorsville comprehensively covers the campaign and the events that led up to the battle, the fighting itself, and the aftermath of the battle. Accounts of the battle by important participants are also included, along with maps of the battle and pictures of important people, places, and events. You will learn about the Battle of Chancellorsville like you never have before, in no time at all.
