Battle of Chancellorsville

Battle of Chancellorsville
Part of the American Civil War
Battle of Chancellorsville by Kurz and Allison
Date April 30 – May 6, 1863 Location Spotsylvania County, Virginia Result Confederate victory
Combatants
United States of America	Confederate States of America
Commanders
Joseph Hooker	Robert E. Lee Stonewall Jackson†
Strength
133,868	60,892
Casualties
17,197 (1,606 killed, 9,672 wounded, 5,919 missing)	12,764 (1,665 killed, 9,081 wounded, 2,018 missing)

The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, fought near the village of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, from April 30 to May 6, 1863. Called Gen. Robert E. Lee's "perfect battle" because of his risky but successful division of his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force, the battle pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army half its size, Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Lee's audacity and Hooker's timid performance in combat combined to result in a significant Union defeat. The great Confederate victory was tempered by the mortal wounding of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to friendly fire, a loss that Lee likened to "losing my right arm."

Chancellorsville Campaign
Chancellorsville – Fredericksburg II – Salem Church

The Chancellorsville campaign began with the crossing of the Rappahannock River by the Union army on the morning of April 27, 1863. Heavy fighting began on May 1, and did not end until the Union forces retreated across the river on the night of May 5 to May 6. Although the South lost, and were deeply humiliated by their defeat, it was General Lee's conduct at such Battles as Chancellorsville that enabled Southerners to hold their heads up with pride in the face of the North's final victory. Without this, the scars and wounds of the war may have been so severe that the process of healing and of reconciling the nation after the war would have failed. Although technically one, the nation would have in practice remained divided.

Forces and plans

The Chancellorsville campaign began with the potential of leading to one of the most lopsided clashes in the war. The Union army brought an effective fighting force of 133,868 men onto the field at the start of the fighting; the Confederate army numbered less than half that figure, at 60,892, and was poorly clothed and malnourished. Furthermore, the Union forces were much better supplied and were well-rested after several months of inactivity. Lee's forces, on the other hand, were scattered all over the state of Virginia. In fact, some 15,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, stationed near Norfolk dealing with a Federal threat at Suffolk, failed to arrive in time to aid Lee's out-manned forces.

Moreover, the engagement began with a Union battle plan superior to most of the previous efforts by Army of the Potomac commanders. The army started from its winter quarters around Fredericksburg, where it faced Lee across the Rappahannock. Hooker planned a bold double envelopment of Lee's forces, sending four corps on a stealthy march northwest, turning south to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, turning east, and striking Lee in his rear. The remaining corps would strike Lee's front through Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, some 7,500 cavalry under Maj. Gen. George Stoneman were to raid deep into the Confederate rear areas, destroying crucial supply depots along the railroad from the Confederate capital in Richmond to Fredericksburg, which would cut Lee's lines of communication and supply. This bold, aggressive plan was later known as "Stoneman's Raid."

However, despite its superior forces and sound strategy, the Army of the Potomac's lack of competent leadership doomed its forces, as in earlier campaigns of the war. The superior tactical skills of the Confederate leaders Lee and Jackson won the day.

On April 27 and April 28, the four corps of the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers in several places, most of them near the confluence of the two rivers and the hamlet of Chancellorsville, which was little more than a large mansion, owned by the Chancellor family, at the junction of the Orange Turnpike and Orange Plank Road. In the meantime, the second force of more than 30,000 men, under Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, and Stoneman's cavalry began its movement to reach Lee's rear areas.

Battle

May 1–May 2

Chancellorsville battle on May 1 and 2 ██ Confederate ██ Union

By May 1, Hooker had approximately 70,000 men concentrated in and around Chancellorsville, while Lee worked frantically to concentrate his own army. He confronted Hooker at Chancellorsville with 40,000 men, while on his right, Maj. Gen. Jubal Early manned Fredericksburg's formidable Marye's Heights with 12,000 troops, hoping to keep Sedgwick out of Lee's rear. The next day, the Union and Confederate troops clashed on the Chancellorsville front, with some Union forces actually pushing their way out of the impenetrable thickets and scrub pine that characterized the area. This was seen by many Union commanders as a key to victory. If the larger Union army fought in the woods, known as the "Wilderness of Spotsylvania," its huge advantage in artillery would be minimized, since artillery could not be used to any great effect in the Wilderness.

However, Hooker had decided before beginning the campaign that he would fight the battle defensively, forcing Lee, with his small army, to attack his huge one. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union army had done the attacking and met with a bloody and dreadful defeat. Hooker knew Lee could not take such a defeat and keep an effective army in the field, so he ordered his men to withdraw back into the Wilderness and take a defensive position around Chancellorsville, daring Lee to attack him or retreat with superior forces at his back.

Lee accepted Hooker's gambit and planned an attack for May 2. On the night before, Lee and his top subordinate, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, came up with a risky plan of attack. They would split the 40,000-man force at Chancellorsville, with Jackson taking his Second Corps of 28,000 men around to attack the Union right flank. Lee, on the other hand, would exercise personal command of the other 12,000 (the other half of Longstreet's First Corps, commanded directly by Lee during the battle) facing Hooker's entire 70,000 man force at Chancellorsville.

For this to work, several things had to happen. First, Jackson had to make a 12-mile (19 km) march via roundabout roads to reach the Union right, and he had to do it undetected. Second, Lee had to hope that Hooker stayed tamely on the defensive. Third, Early would have to keep Sedgwick bottled up in Fredericksburg. And when Jackson launched his attack, he had to hope that the Union forces were unprepared.

Incredibly, all of this happened. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart kept the Union forces from spotting Jackson on his long flank march, which took almost all day. The only sighting came shortly after Jackson's corps disengaged from Union forces south of Chancellorsville, and this worked to the Confederates' advantage—Hooker thought that his cavalry under Stoneman had cut Lee's supply line and that Lee was about to retreat. Therefore, he stayed right where he was and never contemplated an all-out attack, sending only his III Corps of 13,000 men under Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles forward. Sickles captured a handful of Second Corps men and then stopped.

Over at Fredericksburg, Sedgwick and Hooker were unable to communicate with one another because of a failure of telegraph lines. When Hooker finally got an order to Sedgwick late on the evening of May 2 ordering him to attack Early, Sedgwick failed to do so because he mistakenly believed Early had more men than he did.

But what led most of all to the impending Union disaster was the incompetent commander of the Union XI Corps, Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard. Howard, whose 11,000 men were posted at the far right of the Union line, failed to make any provision for his defense in case of a surprise attack, even though Hooker ordered him to do so. The Union right flank was not anchored on any natural obstacle, and the only defenses against a flank attack consisted of two cannons pointing out into the Wilderness. Also, the XI Corps was a poorly trained unit made up almost entirely of German immigrants, many of whom did not speak English.

At 4:30 p.m., Jackson's 28,000 men came running out of the Wilderness and hit Howard's corps by surprise while most of them were cooking dinner. More than 4,000 of them were taken prisoner without firing a shot, and most of the remainder were thoroughly routed. Only one division of the XI Corps made a stand, and it was soon driven off as well. By nightfall, the Confederate Second Corps had advanced more than two miles (3 km), to within sight of Chancellorsville, and was separated from Lee's men only by Sickles' corps, which remained where it had been after attacking that morning. Hooker suffered a minor injury during the peak of the fighting when a Confederate cannonball hit a wooden pillar he was leaning against at his headquarters. Although practically incapacitated, Hooker refused to turn over command temporarily to his second-in-command, Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, and this failure affected Union performance over the next day and contributed to Hooker's lack of nerve and timid performance throughout the rest of the battle.

Both Hooker and Jackson made serious errors that night, and for Jackson, his mistake cost him his life.

Hooker, concerned about Sickles' ability to hold what was now a salient into the Confederate lines, pulled the III Corps back to Chancellorsville that night. This gave the Confederates two advantages—it reunited Jackson and Lee's forces, and it gave them control of an elevated clearing in the woods known as Hazel Grove, one of the few places in which artillery could be used effectively. (Sickles was quite bitter about giving up this high ground; his insubordinate actions at the Peach Orchard in the Battle of Gettysburg two months later were probably influenced strongly by this incident.)

Jackson's mistake came when he was scouting ahead of his corps along the Orange Plank Road that night. Having won a huge victory that day, Jackson wanted to press his advantage before Hooker and his army could regain their bearings and plan a counterattack, which might still succeed because of the sheer disparity in numbers. He rode out onto the plank road that night, unrecognized by men of the Second Corps behind him, and was hit by friendly fire. The wound was not life-threatening, but Jackson contracted pneumonia after his arm was amputated, and, though he had began to recover from his wounds, he died on May 10. His death was a devastating loss for the Confederacy, and many argue that an adequate replacement for such a fine officer and military tactician was nonexistent.

May 3

Chancellorsville battle on May 3

On May 3, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill, who had taken command of the Second Corps following Jackson's injuries, was incapacitated. Hill consulted with Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes, the next most senior general in the corps, and Rodes acquiesced in Hill's decision to summon J.E.B. Stuart to take command, notifying Lee after the fact. The daring cavalryman proved to be a fine infantry commander as well. Stuart launched a massive assault all along the front, aided by Hooker, who was withdrawing troops from Hazel Grove, and then set up artillery on the spot to bombard Union artillerists. Fierce fighting broke out that evening when Stuart launched another massive assault against the Union lines, which were slowly crumbling from the pressure and a lack of resupply and reinforcements. By that afternoon, the Confederates had captured Chancellorsville, and Hooker pulled his battered men back to a line of defense circling United States Ford, their last remaining open line of retreat.

Still, Lee could not declare victory, and Hooker was not conceding defeat either. During the peak of the fighting at Chancellorsville on May 3, he again called on Sedgwick to break through and attack Lee's rear. Again that general delayed until it was too late. That afternoon, he finally did attack Early's position at Marye's Heights (after Early at one point abandoned it himself thanks to a misinterpreted order from Lee), and broke through. But he did it too late in the day to help Hooker. In fact, a single brigade of Alabama troops led by Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox staged a delaying action along the Orange Plank Road west of Fredericksburg and slowed Sedgwick's already-sluggish advance. Reinforcements under Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws arrived from Chancellorsville late in the afternoon and joined Wilcox at Salem Church, four miles (6 km) west of Fredericksburg, and the combined Confederate force halted Sedgwick's march to Chancellorsville.

The fighting on May 3, 1863, was some of the most furious anywhere in the war and would have ranked among the bloodiest battles of the Civil War by itself. About 18,000 men, divided equally between the two armies, fell that day.

May 4–May 6

Chancellorsville battle on May 4

On the evening of May 3 and all day May 4, Hooker remained in his defenses while Lee and Early battled Sedgwick. Sedgwick, after breaking Early's defenses, foolishly neglected to secure Fredericksburg. Early simply marched back and reoccupied the heights west of the city, cutting Sedgwick off. Meanwhile, Lee directed the division of Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson from the Chancellorsville front and reinforced McLaws before Sedgwick realized just how few men were opposing him. Sedgwick, as it turned out, was as resolute on the defensive as he was irresolute on the attack, and he stood his ground that day before withdrawing back across the Rappahannock at Banks's Ford during the pre-dawn hours of May 5. This was another miscommunication between him and Hooker; the commanding general had wanted Sedgwick to hold Banks's Ford, so that Hooker could withdraw from the Chancellorsville area and re-cross the river at Banks's to fight again. When he learned that Sedgwick had retreated back over the river, Hooker felt he was out of options to save the campaign, and on the night of May 5–May 6, he also withdrew back across the river, despite advice from his subordinates urging against this.

Aftermath

Confederate dead behind the stone wall of Marye's Heights, Fredericksburg, Virginia, killed during the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863

Stoneman, after a week of ineffectual raiding in central and southern Virginia in which he failed to attack any of the objectives Hooker set out for him, withdrew into Union lines east of Richmond on May 7, ending the campaign.

The battle was fought under terrible conditions. Soldiers tended to get lost in the impenetrable maze of undergrowth, and many fires started during the course of the battle. Reports of wounded men being burned alive were common.

Lee, despite being outnumbered by a ratio of about five to two, won arguably his greatest victory of the war. But he paid a terrible price for it. With only 52,000 infantry engaged, he suffered more than 13,000 casualties, losing some 25 percent of his force—men that the Confederacy, with its limited manpower, could not replace. Just as seriously, he lost several top generals, most notably Jackson, his most aggressive field commander. The loss of Jackson would force Lee to reorganize his army before a second thrust into Union territory, where he would come to realize that his army's fighting capacities had been forever altered.

Hooker, who began the campaign believing he had "80 chances in 100 to be successful," lost the battle through miscommunications, the incompetence of some of his leading generals (most notably Howard and Stoneman, but also Sedgwick), and through some serious errors of his own. At any rate, either of the two main divisions of Hooker's army alone should have been capable of overtaking the greatly outnumbered forces of General Lee. Hooker's errors include diverting from his original battle plans and abandoning his offensive push on May 1, ordering Sickles to give up Hazel Grove and pull back on May 2. He also erred in his disposition of forces; some 40,000 men of the Army of the Potomac scarcely fired a shot. When later asked why he had ordered a halt to his advance on May 1, Hooker responded, "For the first time, I lost faith in Hooker." Hooker is reported to have sworn off liquor before the battle, but it is rumored that he turned to the bottle before the fight commenced in order to prepare himself for the daunting challenges that lie ahead.

Of the 90,000 Union men who bore the brunt of the fighting, just over 17,000 fell in battle, a casualty rate much lower than Lee's, and this without taking into account the 4,000 men of the XI Corps who were captured without a fight in the initial panic on May 2. Hooker's tactic of forcing Lee to attack him was clearly sound in concept, but it was terribly flawed in the way he and his subordinates implemented it. The actual fighting showed the Union army had become as formidable in battle as Lee's heretofore unbeatable legions.

The Union was shocked by the defeat. President Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, "My God! My God! What will the country say?" A few generals were career casualties. Hooker relieved Stoneman for incompetence. Couch was so disgusted by Hooker's conduct of the battle (and his incessant political maneuvering) that he resigned and was placed in charge of the Pennsylvania militia. Hooker was relieved of command on June 28, just before the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Battle of Chancellorsville, along with the May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness fought nearby, formed the basis for Stephen Crane's 1895 novel The Red Badge of Courage.

Portions of the Chancellorsville battlefield are now preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dodge, A. Theodore. The Campaign of Chancellorsville. Boston: J.R. Osgood and Co., 1881.
• Dupuy, R. Ernest, Trevor N. Dupuy, and Paul F. Braim. Military Heritage of America. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 1956. ISBN 0840382251
• Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0684849445
• Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959.
• Foote, Shelby. The Civil War, A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1958. ISBN 0394495179
• Furgurson, Ernest B. Chancellorsville 1863, The Souls of the Brave. New York: Knopf, 1992. ISBN 0394583019
• McGowen, Stanley S. "Battle of Chancellorsville." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, 392-98. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 039304758X
• Sears, Stephen W. Chancellorsville. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN 039587744X

External links

All links retrieved September 20, 2023.

• Chancellorsville American Battlefield Trust
• Battle of Chancellorsville Stone Sentinels
• Battle Of Chancellorsville History Net.

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