Existing comment:
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..." |