Chancellorsville

It's May 1, and 150 years ago today the battle of Chancellorsville began, the battle that's often called Robert E. Lee's masterpiece. What follows is written from memory, so there might be factual errors.

Actually, it started off pretty well for the union Army of the Potomac. Major General Joe Hooker had restored the morale of his troops in the aftermath of Ambrose Burnsides's disasters at Fredericksburg and on the "mud march." Furloughs and better food had worked their magic, and the yankee troops were in reasonably good shape as Hooker led them into the scramble of new growth woods known as the Wilderness. Also, Hooker's intelligence gathering apparatus had told him how many troops Lee had and where they were.

There were two factors working against Hooker as he set out to defeat Lee and end the rebellion. First, he seems to have feared that someone on his staff would leak the army's plans to the Confederates, and so he kept his strategy to himself. This would have important and disastrous consequences. Second, the army was relying on a new telegraph apparatus that often failed to work. This too would prove to  be a great hindrance to his operations.

Hooker's army got off well, flanked the Confederates west of Fredericksburg, and reached the crossroads at the Chancellor house deep in the forest. Then they halted. Whether this was by design is something historians are still arguing about. (Historians, as we all know, will argue about almost anything.)

Hooker's move took Lee by surprise.  He had been guarding Fredericksburg, the mid-point on the direct route from Washington to Richmond, but he reacted quickly when word reached him concerning Hooker.

Historians who defend Hooker claim this is just what the yankee general wanted. Lee was rising to the bait Hooker dangled in front of him. Cannonading and infantry clashes broke out on May 1.

And then fate took a hand, not  for the last time in this battle. Next day a Confederate cannonball struck the porch of the Chancellor house as Hooker stood nearby. Part of the porch collapsed and Hooker was hit hard on the head. Undoubtedly, he suffered a concussion. Alas for the union, the symptoms of concussion make the affected person appear to be drunk. Hooker was alternately alert and incapacitated for the rest of the day. He issued few orders and provided little direction, but refused to surrender command to his senior corps commander, Darius Couch, who mistakepunly thought Hooker was drunk.

Lee audaciously divided his army, ordering his best subordinate, Stonewall Jackson, to make a flank attack on the union right. Dividing your army in the face of a numerically superior foe is usually a prescription for disaster, but Lee sensed that the yankee forces were suddenly inert and he could take the gamble. Jackson's men smashed into the union's eleventh corps, generally considered the weakest of the army at sunset. The eleventh collapsed, and panic spread to neighboring yankee troops. Only darkness and the nearly ready union dinners halted the rebel advance.

Then it was the Confederates who experienced a disaster. There was a full moon that night, enough light for the attack to continue. Jackson rode forward to check the situation and became the victim of friendly fire. Shot three times, he had his left arm amputated that same evening, and died a week later from pneumonia.

Meanwhile, Hooker pulled himself together enough to order his detached corps at Fredericksburg to attack Confederate forces there the next morning. The order was issued that evening before midnight but not dated or timed. The telegrapher sent the message after midnight, dated and timed at the moment of transmission. Sixth corps commander, John Sedgewick, assumed he had an entire day to prepare, thus giving Lee time to reinforce his own men there.

All of Hooker's plans had come to nothing, but his army was not defeated despite taking huge losses. He might have continued the battle, but although his army was not beaten, "Fighting Joe" was, and ordered a retreat. "My God," President Lincoln exclaimed when told the news. "What will the country think?" Union losses in killed, wounded and captured totaled 17,000.

In the aftermath of his victory, Lee decided to repeat his strategy of 1862, invade the north and fight a decisive battle to win Confederate independence and end the war. He would have to do so without Jackson, who would be replaced by General Robert Ewell, who did not possess Jackson's intuition for the enemy weaknesses or aggressive spirit.

In addition, as Lee began to maneuver north, his cavalry commander, Jeb Stuart, fought a battle against union men at Brandy Station, and for the first time the yankee horsemen gave as good as they got. This was a good omen for the north, but not for Lee's hopes as he advanced towards Gettysburg.