Introduction
May 1863:
Robert Edward Lee was at the pinnacle of his career. In four days of fighting beginning on May 1st, he had defeated another thrust by a federal army that was attempting to capture the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. It was his most impressive victory to date. His Army of Northern Virginia had found itself outnumbered and outflanked by the Army of the Potomac under the boastful Major General Joseph ‘Fighting Joe’ Hooker. Hooker had come up with a brilliant plan that saw him take 75,000 men and march north and west in order to cross the Rappahannock River at Kelly’s Ford. This move was made in order to outflank Lee’s army and force it to fight in the open instead of behind the fortifications that it had been occupying since the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13th, 1862.
In that battle, the Army of the Potomac then under Major General Ambrose Burnside, made suicidal frontal assaults against the Confederate stronghold of Marye’s Heights which saw the federals suffer 12,000 casualties against 5,000 confederates. Hooker had been in that battle and had seen firsthand what happens when flesh and blood goes up against a fortified position. When Hooker took command of the AOP, he decided on a different strategy that would allow the federals to engage Lee in open ground where the federal’s weight of numbers and superior firepower would allow them to defeat Lee once and for all.
So, beginning in late April, Hooker put his plan in motion. In order to convince Lee that his army was still in front of Fredericksburg, he left a force of over 20,000men under Major General John Sedgwick with orders to demonstrate in order to keep Lee from realizing what was going on. So successful was Sedgwick that Lee did not realize what was happening until April 30th, when word was brought to him informing him of Hooker’s movement. To Lee, this was bad news not only because he was outflanked, but also because he was missing two divisions under Lieutant General James Longstreet that was down and around Richmond gathering supplies and also to protect the capital from a supposed thrust by a federal force located on the Peninsular around Fortress Monroe.
This supposed threat came to nothing and Lee had to fight Hooker without these troops. It did not matter. On May 1st, Hooker’s forces in and around Chancellorsville started to move out of an area that was called the Wilderness. Just as his lead troops emerged, they came across rebel troops under the legendary Lieutant General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Ever the aggressor, Jackson launched his men in an effort to push the federals back. He need not have worried. Toward the middle of the day, Hooker, for some unknown reasons, ordered his troops back to Chancellorsville to dig in. Many of his corps commanders were outraged. “By God!” exclaimed 5th corps commander Maj. General George Gordon Meade, “If we can’t hold the top of the hill, we certainly can’t hold the bottom!”
With that, Hooker surrendered the initiative to Robert E. Lee who promptly took a hold of it and never let go of it. By the evening of May 1st, Hooker’s army was digging in around Chancellorsville and was preparing for the next day’s fighting. Later, it would be deduced that Hooker wanted to have a reverse Fredericksburg in which Lee crippled his army trying to drive off the federals. If this was so, Lee was going to disappoint Hooker. Lee was known for many things, but as a commanding general, he was known to also to be bold and daring and that was what Lee did. After receiving reports by his chief cavalry officer, Major General J.E.B. Stuart that the federals left was in the ‘air’ (meaning that it was not fortified and thus exposed to attack) Lee allows Jackson to take his entire corps, some 28,000men in all, (which would leave Lee with 14,000men), and go on a flanking march to get in the federal rear and attack him there.
Starting on May 2nd, Jackson marched his men around the federal line and come up on its flank. Several times it seemed that the federals would find out what was going on (after all, it’s hard to conceal that many men who make a lot of noise) and attack Jackson before he could carry out his plan. Fate however, seemed to smile on the rebels. Hooker, who got numerous reports about the movement (which were giving the march as south and west) decided that Lee was retreating, but also decided that just in case that wasn’t true, he gave orders (supposedly) to all corps commanders to fortify their line. If this was true, then the orders did not reach the commanding general of the XI corps, Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard whose corps was in the air.
At 5:00pm on May 2nd, 1863, Stonewall Jackson had his men ready to begin the attack. Leading the attack was Brig. Gen. Robert Rodes’s division, followed by Brig. Gen. Raleigh Colston’s division, and finally, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill’s famed “Light” division. The Federals were totally unprepared for the attack and for the next few hours, they struggled to form a solid battle line against Jackson’s overwhelming attack. Finally, around nightfall, the federals were able to form a decent battle line and stave off total disaster. This was due in part to the fact that Jackson’s attack had run out of steam. Around nine o’clock that night, Jackson goes out on a scouting party to fine the federal lines. When he comes back, nervous pickets open fire on Jackson and his party, mistaking them for Federal cavalry.
Luckily for the south, Jackson sustained a wound to the shoulder and the fall he suffered latter on as his aides were trying to stabilize him on a stretcher due to federal artillery fire broke his left arm (although not badly). For the rest of the battle, Jackson would be sidelined as he is carried back to Lexington, Virginia to regain his strength. It is worthy to note that had Jackson received a more horrendous wound than he actually did, the south might have lost a valuable leader that it could not have replaced. Also, it would have altered the path the civil war would take for the rest of the year and beyond it.
Meanwhile, the fighting continued as Lee pressed his advantage. Giving command of Jackson’s corps to his leading cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, Lee attacked Hooker on May 3rd. The fighting that ensued was the fiercest yet seen in the war. Hooker’s forces were behind fortifications and Lee and Stuart’s men threw themselves upon the federal works. Hooker might have salvaged the situation if not for two things. 1st, he gave up the high ground around Catherine’s Furnace which gave the rebels an excellent artillery platform, and 2nd, while he was watching the fighting from the Chancellors House, a cannonball struck the pillar on which he was leading and split it. Unfortunately for Hooker, a small piece broke off and embedded itself in Hooker’s shoulder, wounding him. This caused the federal high command to panic for a time because they thought Hooker had been killed. This was not the case.
By the time Hooker regained his senses, the situation was becoming critical. Lee’s forces were pressing the attack all along the line and were not letting up either. Hooker, still dazed over his wounding, decided to turn over command to the commander of the II corps, Maj. Gen. Darius Couch. If Hooker had either died right there or passed out before he could issue a command, then history might have been rewritten because as it was found out later, Couch was preparing to go over to the attack and push Lee back.
Had this happened, then the entire course of the war would have been altered. Lee would have been forced to withdraw from Chancellorsville and fall back to a position in order to concentrate his army. From there, the new federal command (whoever it might be) would be able to make Lee dance to his tune. Alas, this was not to be. Before he blacked out, Hooker ordered Couch to save the army and withdraw it back across the river. This was the moment that Hooker could have saved his reputation by ordering Couch to attack instead of retreat. What followed was an all-day slugfest that saw rebel troops gradually push the federals back toward the river.
Out of this can perhaps the most spectacular event of the battle. Robert E. Lee was informed of the capture of Chancellorsville and he rode to the clearing and surrounded by a burning house and the carnage of war, Lee rode among his men who cheered their commander. It was Lee’s finest hour. Brig. Gen. Paxton of the Stonewall brigade would later say of this, “No one can describe the way the men cheered themselves hoarse at the sight of their beloved leader who had given them this awesome victory.” While this was certainly true, by the end of May 3rd, Lee was again faced with a threat to his rear: Maj. Gen. Sedgwick had broken the line at Fredericksburg and was marching to the relief of Hooker.
Sedgwick had been left behind by Hooker in order to draw Lee’s attention away from Hooker’s movement. However, Hooker later ordered Sedgwick to breakthrough the defenses at Fredericksburg and march west in order to trap Lee’s army between the two union forces. On May 3rd, while Lee was having his supreme moment at Chancellorsville, the federal forces around Fredericksburg launched an assault on Marye’s Heights. Back in December of 1862, they (union) had tried it and had failed, but this time they overran the heights and pushed back Maj. Gen. Jubal Early’s men that were defending the heights. The road to Lee’s rear was now wide open.
But luck was in store for Lee. Sedgwick took his time reorganizing his forces and did not move out until later in the day. This gave Lee enough time to move Maj. Gen. Mclaws’s division from Chancellorsville and move it east to intercept Sedgwick’s forces. Thus on May 4th, Sedgwick ran right into Mclaw’s division at Salem Church and was stopped cold. This was the last grasp of the union forces during the Chancellorsville Campaign. For there on out, the ball was in Lee’s possession and stayed that way for the rest of the campaign. The following days saw the beaten federal forces withdraw across the river and by the end of the week the Chancellorsville Campaign had come to a close.
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