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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." |