BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Chancellorsville Natl Battlefield

VA -- Chancellorsville Natl Battlefield:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHAN_130120_013.JPG: Wounding of Jackson Just 1.7 miles west, on this road (then the Orange Plank Road), Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded by "friendly fire" about 9:30 P.M. on 2 May 1863 during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Having brilliantly executed a flanking maneuver against the Federals, Jackson, with eight aides, was returning from a reconnaissance between the lines. When skirmishing erupted, they were mistaken for Federals in the darkness and fired on by the 18th N.C. Infantry, killing four and wounding Jackson. After a battlefield amputation of his left arm, Jackson was taken 17 miles southeast to Guinea Station, where he died on 10 May from infection.
2. CHAN_130120_020.JPG: Chancellorsville The Civil War had entered its third year, and the Army of the Potomac was again on the march. Led by its new commander, "Fighting Joe" Hooker, the 134,000-man Union juggernaut crossed the Rappahannock River beyond Lee's left flank on April 28, 1863, and descended upon a former country inn known as Chancellorsville. Although reduced to just 60,000 men, Lee responded with his accustomed audacity, attacking Hooker here in the gloomy thickets of the Wilderness. Four days of pitched battle followed, in which Lee outmaneuvered and outfought his opponent, ultimately forcing him to retreat. It was the Southern leader's greatest triumph of the war, but it came at a great cost. On May 10, 1863, his top general, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, died of wounds received in the battle. Without Jackson to carry out his plans, Lee never again achieved such stunning success. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson: This photo was taken just a week before Chancellorsville, his last and greatest battle. Robert E. Lee: By 1863, much of the Confederacy saw Lee as the best, and perhaps only, hope for Confederate victory. Joseph Hooker: Chancellorsville was Hooker's only battle as commander of an army. Chancellorsville was not a village but a house at a strategic crossroads. Frances Chancellor and her six children stayed in the house until May 3, when, at the height of the battle, flames engulfed the home and drove the Chancellors away. Jackson fell wounded near where the modern visitor center now stands. Follow the driving tour to reach the remainder of Chancellorsville Battlefield.
3. CHAN_130120_038.JPG: Chancellorsville Campaign May 2, 1863. Jackson's two leading lines, battling the tangled undergrowth and the retreating Federal XI Corps, became disorganized. In this vicinity, Jackson halted his successful advance and ordered A.P. Hill's Division to the front. While the change was being made, Jackson rode out with his staff about 9 p.m. to reconnoiter the Federal position. Meeting A.P. Hill, he gave one of his last field commands: "Press them! Cut them off from the United States Ford, Hill! Press them!" A few minutes later he fell mortally wounded by the mistaken fire of his own men.
4. CHAN_130120_058.JPG: Memorializing Jackson's Death The Battle of Chancellorsville "Of his soldiers he was the idol; of his country he was the hope; of war he was the master." -- Senator John Warwick Daniel When General "Stonewall" Jackson died eight days after being wounded in these woods, shock waves rippled through the South. Confederates immediately memorialized him in in words. "A greater sense of loss and deeper grief never followed the death of mortal man," wrote one artilleryman. Few felt Jackson's loss more keenly than Robert E. Lee, who confessed "I know not how to replace him." After the war local residents erected a small boulder about 60 yards from the site, to commemorate the general's wounding. That rock still stands amid the bushes to your left-front. In 1888, 5,000 people attended the dedication of the more formal monument in front of you.
5. CHAN_130120_083.JPG: On this spot fell mortally wounded Thomas J. Jackson, Lt. Gen. CSA, May 2nd 1863
6. CHAN_130120_096.JPG: There is Jackson standing like a stone wall Bee at Manassas
7. CHAN_130120_109.JPG: Jackson Monuments The effort to erect a monument at the site of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's mortal wounding began in February 1887, when Fredericksburg newspaper editor Rufus Merchant founded the Stonewall Jackson Monument Association. On June 13, 1888, a crowd of more than 5,000 spectators attended dedication ceremonies at the monument. Guests included the former Confederate cavalry general, Governor Fitzhugh Lee, whose vigilant scouting activities during the Battle of Chancellorsville contributed to Jackson's success. Prior to construction of the monument, Jackson's former staff officers, Beverly Tucker Lacy and James Power Smith, assisted by Lacy's brother, J. Horace, of nearby Ellwood Plantation, transported the large quartz boulder to the wounding site.
8. CHAN_130120_171.JPG: A Fatal Reconnaissance: When "Stonewall" Jackson reached this point at about 9:00 pm on May 2, 1863, he stood at the peak of his military career. Four hundred yards in front of you, a shaken Union army hastily built earthworks to halt the Confederate tide. One hundred yards behind you, Jackson's troops formed along the Bullock Road for what Jackson hoped would be a final and climactic attack against the faltering Federals. While the Confederates prepared, the general and a small group of attendants rode forward on the Mountain Road -- little more than a woods path -- to this point. Jackson could hear the axes of Union soldiers fashioning earthworks in front. One of his staff officers cautioned the general to go back. "The danger is over," he snapped. "The enemy is routed. Go tell A.P. Hill to press right on!" With that, Jackson continued his fateful ride toward the front.
9. CHAN_130120_190.JPG: Confederate Catastrophe: Near this spot around 9:15pm on the night of May 2, 1863, the Confederate cause suffered disaster. As "Stonewall" Jackson and his party returned from their reconnaissance down the Mountain Road, Confederate musketry erupted south of the Plank Road (Route 3). The scattered fire rippled northward, directly across Jackson's path. A Confederate officer yelled, "Cease firing! You are firing into your own men!" Through the darkness, a voice shouted back: "Who gave that order? It's a lie! Pour it into them, boys!" The flash from dozens of rifles illuminated the darkness. Two bullets crashed into Jackson's left arm; a third pierced his right hand. Later that night, his left arm would be amputated. On May 10, 1863, Jackson died in a farm office at Guinea Station. After the shooting, Jackson's horse bolted through the woods. Staff officers stopped the panicked animal and lowered Jackson to the ground near the site of the present monuments. After Jackson was shot, attendants carried him to a field hospital behind the lines. There, surgeons removed his wounded left arm. The last portrait of Jackson, taken at a Spotsylvania County farm about ten days before his mortal wounding. Mrs. Jackson regretted that the image showed "a sternness in his countenance that was not natural."
10. CHAN_130120_196.JPG: Battle of Chancellorsville Hooker reached this point, April 30, 1863; Next day he entrenched, with his left wing on the river and his right wing on this road several miles west. That wing was surprised by Jackson and driven back here, May 2. The Confederates stormed the position here, May 3. The Union army withdrew northward, May 5-6, 1863.
11. CHAN_130120_202.JPG: The Chancellorsville Intersection: The intersection in front of you was the focal point of the Chancellorsville Battlefield. From here roads radiated in five directions. Four of them are visible; the fifth, River Road, just beyond the trees to your left. From this intersection on May 1, Union troops advanced eastward (to your left) in a failed attempt to get behind the Confederates at Fredericksburg. "Our movement up to the arrival at Chancellorsville were very successful & were well planned. Everything after that went wrong, and Fighting Joe sunk into a poor driveling cur." -- Union Major General Henry Slocum. The Chancellor family's house dominated the intersection, which had become known as Chancellorsville. For three days, Union commander Joseph Hooker directed his army from the building. But on May 3, victorious Confederates swarmed over this ground, pursuing Hooker and his defeated army as they retreated to a new line farther north -- leaving behind what had become one of the most famous intersections in America. In 1863, Chancellorsville was a simple, but important, country crossroads.
12. CHAN_130120_228.JPG: Climactic Struggle: On the morning of May 3, 1863, more than 17,500 men fell killed or wounded in the woods and fields around you -- one man shot every second for five hours. Entrenched Union lines in front of you collapsed, and the Confederates surged forward to seize the Chancellorsville intersection. Some 25 Union cannons in this clearing made a valiant effort to cover the retreat, but they were soon smothered in a Confederate crossfire. Major William H. Seward of the first Virginia Infantry recalled the confusion and horror of that morning: "The Chancellor house was enveloped in flames... Men everywhere were seen to be in the agonies of death, some of these grappling the earth to draw their broken forms from the range of the searching flames... On both sides of the road were scattered loaves of bread, empty haversacks and cartridge boxes, hundreds of knapsacks... thousands of muskets..."
13. CHAN_130120_238.JPG: Lee's Greatest Triumph: As Union resistance around the Chancellor house dissolved, Robert E. Lee rode into the clearing behind his victorious battalions. Though badly outnumbered, Lee in three days had stopped the initial Union advance, brazenly split his own army to launch the most successful flank attack of the war, and, on May 3, driven the Federals from their entrenched positions around Chancellorsville. The battle was perhaps the greatest of his career. Thousands of Confederate troops raised their hats and cheered when they saw Lee arrive near the Chancellor house. Wrote one staff officer: "... it must have been from such a scene that men in ancient days rose to the dignity of gods."
14. CHAN_130120_244.JPG: Burial site of the Rowley infants, ca 1912 and 1915
15. CHAN_130120_255.JPG: Civilians in the Crossfire: In seventy-two hours, the Chancellor family's world had turned upside down. A Union soldier described the Chancellor women on April 30: "Upon the upper porch was quite a bevy of ladies in light, dressy, attractive spring costumes. They were not at all abashed or intimidated, scolded audibly and reviled bitterly. They... stated they had assurances from General Lee, who was just ahead, that he was there anxiously awaiting an opportunity to extend the 'hospitalities of the country.' They had little conception of the terrors in store for them..." -- Unknown Union soldiers, 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers Three days later, Confederate artillery shells set fire to the Chancellor house, forcing Sue Chancellor and the other women to flee. "The sight that met our eyes as we came out of the dim light of that basement room beggars description. The woods around the house were a sheet of fire -- the air was filled with shot and shell -- horses were running, rearing and screaming -- the men, a mass of confusion, moaning, cursing, and praying... At our last look, our old home was completely enveloped in flames." -- Fourteen-year-old Sue Chancellor
16. CHAN_130120_261.JPG: The Chancellor Slaves: Their names are unrecorded, their labors are rarely noted. No images of them survive. But slaves outnumbered Chancellor family members when Frances Chancellor moved into this house in 1861. Likely, only a few of the slaves owned by the Chancellors occupied the house itself. Most probably lived in cabins scattered around the Chancellors' 300 acres of farmland. The slaves' overseer James Moxley lived at Fairview, a quarter mile to the southwest. When the Union army arrived at Fredericksburg in spring 1862, hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of Spotsylvania's 6,000 slaves escaped into Union lines. The Chancellor slaves were among those who fled. By May 1863, only one slave remained with the family; a young girl whose mother had left months earlier. When the house caught fire and the Chancellors fled; they left the girl behind -- her fate unknown. Most like she passed into Union lines -- and freedom.
17. CHAN_130120_334.JPG: Jackson Attacks: "You can go forward then." With those words, "Stonewall" Jackson unleashed one of the most famous and successful attacks of the Civil War. On the afternoon of May 2, 1863, Jackson led 30,000 men of his Second Corps to a point just beyond the Union army's right flank, located in this vicinity. He deployed his men astride the Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3) in three lines of battle, each one-half mile or more in length. Two hours before sunset, Jackson struck. As his men struggled through the tangled woods, they drove deer, rabbits, and turkeys ahead of them. The frightened animals bounded into the Union camps, causing the Northern soldiers there to cheer. Their merriment quickly turned to fear as the Confederates stormed out of the woods screaming the Rebel Yell. Jackson was upon them!
18. CHAN_130120_341.JPG: The Flying Dutchmen: The target of Jackson's attack was General Oliver O. Howard's Eleventh Corps, which extended for more than a mile along the Orange Turnpike. The Eleventh Corps was relatively new to the Army of the Potomac. Its 11,000 men included a large percentage of German immigrants -- men with names like Peissner and Buschbeck, Schurz, and Schimmelfennig. Union pickets had warned Howard of the enemy's approach, but he had ignored their reports. Headquarters had assured him that the Confederate army was in retreat. Now, as the Southerners bore down upon Howard's flank, the men of his corps broke ranks and fled. Although the general and his officers eventually restored order, they could not restore the corps' reputation. From then on, the Eleventh Corps would be known derisively as "the Flying Dutchmen." "Why did we run? Well, those who didn't run are there yet!" -- Private William B. Southerton, 7th Ohio Volunteers. Clutching a Union banner under the stump of his amputated right arm, General Howard endeavored to rally his panic-stricken troops near Dowdall's Tavern. "I felt... that I wanted to die," Howard wrote, "... and I sought death everywhere I could find an excuse to go on the field."
19. CHAN_130120_349.JPG: Pressing the Attack: That evening, as the fighting subsided, Confederate officers reassembled their commands in the clearing surrounding Wilderness Church, one-half mile in front of you. The attack had taken a heavy toll on the army's organization. Units had become mixed. Some men wandered off in search of food or water; others plundered abandoned Union camps. It would take time to get his corps back into fighting trim, but Jackson could not wait. The Confederate army was divided. Decisive action by Hooker might yet turn the Confederate victory into defeat. Jackson had to strike before the enemy could regain his balance. As darkness descended on the battlefield, Jackson ordered General A.P. Hill to slice behind the Union forces at Chancellorsville and sever their supply line across [the] Rappahannock River. "Press them, Hill!" he snapped, "Cut them off from United States Ford! Press them!" From Wilderness Church, the Confederates moved forward again into the gathering night. Wilderness Church... Jackson's troops reorganized in the church clearing following their attack on the Eleventh Corps.
20. CHAN_130120_365.JPG: 154th New York State Volunteer Infantry: 1st brigade, 2nd division, 11th Corps "The hardtack regiment" Anchor of the Buschbeck Line near Dowdall's Tavern Battle of Chancellorsville May 2, 1863
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