Existing comment:
Chancellorsville Campaign:
Lee's Greatest Victory:
After the Union defeat at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln replaced Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside in January 1863 with the aggressive Gen. Joseph Hooker. At the end of April, Hooker sent most of the Army of the Potomac westward, leaving two corps in Fredericksburg under Gen. John Sedgwick. Hooker intended to crush Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia between the two Federal wings. Lee detected Hooker's maneuver and shifted most of his army westward to meet the threat.
On May 1, Hooker's and Lee's advanced elements collided here. The Confederates pushed the Union troops backs to Chancellorsville, where the Federals dug in for a defensive battle. Lee and his principal lieutenant, Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, took the offensive the next morning. Jackson marched around the Union army, attacked Hooker's vulnerable right flank, and forced the Federals back toward the Rappahannock River. Darkness halted the fighting, but that night, Jackson was badly wounded as he reconnoitered between the lines.
On May 3, Sedgwick's corps broke through the weakened Confederate line at Fredericksburg. Holding Hooker at bay, Lee sent reinforcements to Salem Church, where Sedgwick was stopped the next day. By May 5, Hooker was in full retreat and the Battle of Chancellorsville, perhaps Lee's greatest victory, was over. It cost Lee his best general, however, when Jackson died on May 10. Having seized the initiative, Lee embarked on his second invasion of the North -- an invasion that would end at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. |