This Day in History, May 2 (Battle of Chancellorsville)

[Lunatic Fringe]

Jackson flanks Hooker at Chancellorsville

Stonewall Jackson administers a devastating defeat to the Army of the Potomac. In one of the most stunning upsets of the war, a vastly outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia sent the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General Joseph Hooker, back to Washington in defeat.

Hooker, who headed for Lee's army confident and numerically superior, had sent part of his force to encounter Lee's troops at Fredericksburg the day before, while the rest swung west to approach Lee from the rear. Meanwhile, Lee had left part of his army at Fredericksburg and had taken the rest of his troops to confront Hooker near Chancellorsville. When the armies collided on May 1, Hooker withdrew into a defensive posture.

Sensing Hooker's trepidation, Lee sent Jackson along with 28,000 troops on a swift, 14-mile march around the Union right flank. Splitting his army into three parts in the face of the mighty Army of the Potomac was a bold move, but it paid huge dividends for the Confederates. Although Union scouts detected the movement as Jackson swung southward, Hooker misinterpreted the maneuver as a retreat. When Jackson's troops swung back north and into the thick woods west of Hooker's army, Union pickets reported a possible buildup; but their warnings fell on deaf ears.

In the evening of May 2, Union soldiers from General Oliver Otis Howard's 11th Corps were casually cooking their supper and playing cards when waves of forest animals charged from the woods. Behind them were Jackson's attacking troops. The Federal flank crumbled as Howard's men were driven back some two miles before stopping the Rebel advance.

Despite the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Union forces soon gained the upper hand in the war in the eastern theater. Scouting in front of the lines as they returned in the dark, Jackson and his aides were fired upon by their own troops. Jackson's arm was amputated the next morning, and he never recovered. He died from complications a week later, leaving Lee without his most able lieutenant.

 

[KantianBurke]

"He has lost his left arm but I have lost my right."

[KantianBurke]

"Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

[society-by-contract]

Even after Jackson rolled up Hooker's right, exposed flank by destroying Howard's corps, Lee was still in a pickle. He was outnumbered and and it took a while for him to create a line that surrounded Hooker (the drunk). This battle had two other parts Jubal Early faced a superior force across the Rappahannock which finally crossed after repeated orders from Hooker. Finally Lee almost trapped a third segment of the Army of the Patomac at Salem's Church. I love Jackson's final order to A.P. Hill paraphrased by "do not stop the attack for any reason you must capture the United States (not possesive) ford and cut off the enemy's retreat." J.E.B Stuart took command of Jackson's troops, but even he could not effect Jackson's orders. This book renders an excellent description of the three battles:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039587744X/ref=lib_dp_TFCV/104-2745108-2727909?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader#reader-link

[what's up]

Depicted in "Gods and Generals."

[Brices Crossroads]

I thought the Chancellorsville battle depiction in Gods and Generals was the best recreation of an actual battle I have ever seen. The battle is also captured very well in a passage from "Battle Cry for Freedom" by James McPherson:

"A few hundred yards to the west, Jackson's rugged veterans--their uniforms torn to worse tatters than usual by briars and brush--were deployed for attack at 5:15. Coming through the woods from the west on a front two miles wide and three divisions deep, the yelling rebels hit the south-facing Union regiments endwise and knocked them down like tenpins."

Gods and Generals really provides a faithful rendering of this attack, in which the three Confederate Divisions, first Rodes, then Colston and finally Hill emerge from the woods at the double quick to deliver a tremendous, crushing blow that sent nearly half of Hooker's huge army scurrying for safety. Only the fall of night preserved the Union army from complete destruction.