The Battle of Chancellorsville in northern Virginia is considered Lee’s greatest victory. It is also the battle in which Lee’s right-hand man Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was fatally wounded by his own soldiers. The battle is memorable because Lee and Jackson had about 60,000 men facing vastly overconfident federal Gen. Joe Hooker’s 100, 000 men, and won an overwhelming victory. The American Battlefield Trust explains the brilliant maneuver that resulted in Lee’s success:
Chancellorsville, by Stephen Sears:
May 2. Jackson takes nearly 30,000 men off on a march that clandestinely crosses the front of the enemy army and swings around behind it. Jackson’s objective is the right flank of the Union line that rests “in the air” along the Orange Turnpike near Wilderness Tavern. That leaves Lee with only about 15,000 men to hold off Hooker's army around the Chancellorsville crossroads. He skillfully manages the formidable task by feigning attacks with a thin line of skirmishers.
At about 5:00 p.m. Jackson, having completed his circuit around the enemy, unleashes his men in a violent attack on Hooker's right and rear. His men burst out of the thickets screaming the “Rebel Yell.” They shatter the Federal Eleventh Corps and push the Northern army back more than two miles. Yet three hours later, the army suffers a nadir as low as the afternoon's zenith, when Jackson falls, mortally wounded by the fire of his own men. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart is now in temporary command. Both sides settle in for an anxious night, with pickets occasionally exchanging musket fire in the dark.
This was the high water mark of the Confederacy and led directly to Lee’s decision to immediately invade the North, resulting in his defeat at a Gettysburg just two months later. The Battle of Chancellorsville is often forgotten in the overwhelming amount of attention that is rightly focused on Gettysburg. I’ve had a good fortune to visit the Chancellorsville battlefield several times. While not as amazing as either the Gettysburg or Antietam battlefields, it is well worth the time if you’re in the vicinity (near Fredericksburg).Chancellorsville, by Stephen Sears:
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