The Civil War Series; 6; Tragic Victory: The Battle of Chancellorsville

OH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. No bottle in all of American history showed more military genius and leadership failure. No battle in American history displayed a great a combination of Almy maneuver and applied psychology than the 1863 engagement at Chancellorsville. It was a fight that on paper you cannot win. But he did win one of the Confederacy's most astonishing victories though it came at an inestimable cost with genuine pleasure. Welcome to this documentary a long time Flynn William C. Davis. Jack is now director of programs for the Virginia sun a full Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. He brings to this series an uncommon talent and wide experience. It is an honor to work with you. And we thank you our viewers in

Joining us now for victory in the battle of Chancellorsville. Some years ago a book appeared under the unlikely title from the jaws of victory. The story of military blunders throughout the ages. The author dedicated the book to Ambrose Burnside whom he called the worst general who ever lived. That may have been a bit of an

exaggeration but there is little in doubt that in his brief time in command of the union's army of the Potomac poor Burnside bounced from catastrophe to catastrophe. It began form of the battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 1862 one sided just replace the popular but timid General George B McClellan who built the Army of the Potomac but was reluctant to use it. Burnside planned a rapid strike south to get between Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate Capitol at Richmond. At first it looked like he would succeed but at Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River he was stopped by that lay and indecision giving Lee time to confront him on the hide behind the city. Burnside then senselessly battered his army against the Southerners almost impregnable positions in what would be the largest battle in the war and numbers of men involved. In the end after taking more than 12000 casualties for nothing. Burnside retreated five weeks later Burnside tried another maneuver to get around Leigh only to get bogged down for five days as incessant rain turned the roads into

such mire that it became known as bird inside mud March. Retreating in discouragement in disgrace. Burnside was relieved of command two days later that brought an energetic and inspirational new general to command the demoralized Yankees. The man who had admittedly campaigned and even conspired to take Burnside's command. Yet he was also a man known as a fighter of supreme confidence. And he began by rebuilding the Army of the Potomac ensuring that its arms and equipment were the best available seem to the comfort of the men even as he trained them for hard campaigning to come in the spring. There would be no more mistakes no more hesitation and indecision. He promised that the next time this army marched against Lee it would march to trial. President Abraham Lincoln had seen a lot of soldiers by this time and sadly had seen a lot of defeat as the army of Potomac passed the winter and spring of 1863 in its quarters in and around Falmouth across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg Lincoln came to its headquarters at Chatham. The beautiful home of the

lacy family on April 6 the Nathan Lincoln reviewed almost one hundred thirty five thousand men and rank up on a range. It was an ungainly sight riding on horseback. Yet the men cheered him everywhere he went. They all saw the anxiety in his face the expectation and the question could they bring him a victory this time. While buddy Lee was the embodiment of Virginia's cavalier tradition. The consummate soldier he had declined command of all union armies in 1861 because of his devotion to his native state. Lee had been in command of the Army of Northern Virginia for less than a year when he fought the battle of Chancellorsville. However in those 11 months he had defeated McClellan's army at Richmond pope's army at Manassas and Burnside's army at Fredericksburg Lehigh clips to everything your command of the South had. Confederate soldiers looked at the gray bearded kindly lady with affection. Sons

give their father's. Union General Joseph Oka had connived and manipulated to get on become a man. Both his assets and his defects were clearly visible. Beardless Blon self-assured who was known as well for whiskey women and elegance. He had taken command of the Army of the Potomac early in 1863 and he had given it new life. Hooka looked like a god for a northern public hungry for a bold captain who could secure a victory in Virginia. In the battle to come Lee and hook on one another. And yet perhaps more than in any other engagement of the Civil War Chancellorsville would be a contest between two individuals. It would be a test of knowledge integrity manhood and moral fiber. In such a confrontation Joe Hooker was so out matched that in the end it was no contest at all. Or was embarking on a 25 mile secret march with 70000 soldiers.

Forty pieces of artillery in more than 100 fully loaded wagons every item of this huge force had to get in the southern side of a wide barrier. The Rappahannock River. How to get a NAMI a false a level is specially a wide level. Could be a logistical nightmare in the civil war. Oh pontoon bridges well vailable but more often than not they relied on for Woods the shallow spots and. You say unless all components of an Army infantry cavalry supply wagons I'm to those wagons and the like. Unless all components want to know components when across. When Joseph in all related is Chancellorsville campaign late at night. He went about 20 miles up the alcoholic level and he crossed at such shallow points as his forward and us forward without those forwards getting that campaign underway would have been difficult indeed. January of 1863 the Union Army of the Potomac got a new commander in the person of General

Joseph hooker hooker took over command of the Army after the disastrous mud March in which the Union Army once again failed to in its objective to cross the river and defeat Robert E. Lee Hooker to command a time when the army was at its highest state of demoralisation. It would never reach during the war. In the course about three months time Hooker took this demoralised rabble of men and whipped them into what he himself called the finest army of the planet. I had about one hundred thirty five thousand men under his command. He decided to break this army into three different parts. His cavalry would act first under the leader of General George Stillman. It would move up river from Lee cross behind Lee's left flank and and slash down behind Lee cutting off Lee's communications and supplies with the capital at Richmond. At the same time the right wing of the army under hooker himself were crossed behind Stillman and come down on Lee's left flank while league was at that point worried about his front which was being attacked by John Sedgwick who crossed the river

with him. Part of workers army directly below Fredericksburg. So focused plan that worked he would have one part of his army in front of Lee one part behind Lee and his cavalry in between. When we tried to retreat the carrier would be there to cut off his retreat while his army closed in from behind and crushed him. The plan worked to perfection. You know I mean across the river about six miles behind me on April the 30th and came down to Chancellorsville across roads across the orange Turnpike which is a noisy highway you hear behind me and massed in a place called Chancellorsville. There on May 1st right wing began to move out slowly closing the vice of the strap that he created over at that point. Rob really did the unexpected. Instead of retreating my cooker thought he would do Lee instead boldly split his army against my portion of Fredericksburg to hold off Cedric Marsh for the bulk of his army west toward Chancellorsville met hooker and at that point Joker lost his nerve.

Bill back to Shasta still giving up the initiative to Robert E. Lee. From that point on the course of the battle will be dictated by Lee not by Hooker. It had been a near miss for Robert E. Lee. Rare was the opponent who could steal a march on him. You had hookers bold plan and swift execution had done just that. Since his victory over Burnside lead kept his army in winter quarters in and around Fredericksburg waiting for spring when the Yankees next move his strength reduced to about 60000. Lee knew he could hardly assume the offensive against an army more than twice his strength. And that left the initiative to the enemy. Yet Lee was never more dangerous than when in a tight place. Furthermore he had the advantage of knowing the countryside and he would have the benefit of interior lines meaning that he could move regiments from one part of his line directly to another if necessary while the Federals with a much longer front and their army unit separated by some distance had farther to go. But most of all Lee had his own audacity against a self-confident commander like fighting Joe Hooker. Lee's best chance lay in doing the unexpected. And that is just what he had done.

For his part hooker taken too much for granted especially after the initial movements of his plan did work so smoothly. Nevertheless Sedgwick was strong enough to pose a real danger to Lee's rended at Fredericksburg and even though his advance had been halted at Chancellorsville. Still if hooker could just hold his ground Sedgewick might still push through Fredericksburg in advance against Lee's rear and then possibly crush the Confederates between the two forces through sheer force of numbers. But until then by halting his advance where he had her now condemned his men to fight in the most awful terrain faced by army soldiers anywhere during the Civil War. In Virginia it is called the wilderness. It is an area 12 miles long six miles wide and it lies silent and foreboding along the southern bias of the Rappahannock. Second growth time but choke each other heavy underbrush close in every directions a stream of Theos out of some way and goes no way out and at least behind land that is swamp like in texture. The home was such

that one could not see twenty yards in any direction. In other words it was an awful place for an army to be. On the night of May 1st 1863 Gentles Lee and Jackson met here at the intersection of those two country roads deep in the wilderness and by the light of a single file. The two generals set on empty cracker boxes to play in what became one of the most damning strategies in all of American military history. Tell us more about it is my good friend a Wilson doing. Well but ironically General Jackson predicted that the Union Army would retreat on the night of May 1st speculating that hooker's withdrawal from his advance that day indicated that he would end the campaign but Lee argued no the hooker was going to stay and the generals job would be to find a vulnerable spot in the union line to launch their attack.

In general do it happened allowed up late in the evening with exactly that information. Stewart was reconnoitering against the union right flank and discovered that hookers right flank the western part of his army was in the air not anchored on any natural or artificial obstacle. Once imbued with that information Lee and Jackson then decided that they would assault that flank and the job became to discover how to arrive there with a sufficiently powerful force to destroy that wing of the Union Army. But do so secretly on what would be a 12 mile march. And the willingness was ideally suited for this to think would see when would aid secrecy. The thick woods would prevent you not to live if I'm concentrating and it was so few roads in here that is actually a pin to these now a little country lanes. Not only did the Confederates have the advantage of the terrain in the wilderness but they also had the advantage of fighting on familiar territory. General Jackson's chaplain Reverend Beverley Tucker Lacy had the Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg prior to the war

and was familiar with this part of Spotsylvania County. The generals also were aware of the owners of Katherine furnace the Welford family the people who had built all these charcoal roads that would provide a secret access to hookers right flank. The basic Confederate strategy was going to be what had worked so well over the past 11 months Jackson doing a flank movement with Lee coming in to deliver that how much blow at the great opportunity. When Lee asked Jackson how many man he intended to take with him Amanda must've gone when Jackson-Lee flat he would take his whole twenty eight thousand soldiers which would leave Lee with about fourteen thousand men confronting Joe hookahs 70000. This was truly going to be Lee's biggest gamble of the Civil War. But because he was so hopelessly outnumbered and because the stakes was so high he had no choice but to take an enormous miss. Lee and Jackson were in the natural pile. The alliance was one of the cavalry and the

land he had the dignified gentlemanly masterful The contrast of the stone and you Melissa Old Testament wall you know Jackson. They were 17 years apart in age. Lee was a product of Tidewater. Jackson was an orphan from the mountains of north western Virginia. They had graduated high West Point and given 30 years of outstanding service to the army. Jackson finished West Point by unwavering determination. And has spent the decade before the Civil War as a plodding author professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Nevertheless. Lee and Jackson shot two dominating qualities. Blessedness in battle and then allotting faith in God. Lee once said of Jackson he is true honest and brave and spouse no exertion to accomplish his objective. Jackson was unusually supposedly of about Lee so great is my confidence in him and I am willing to fight. Blindfold.

They came to Gabaa in late June 1862 as a union army Hammad at the gates of Richmond. Both men had shaky beginnings in that relationship. However they quickly came to depend upon and to trust completely one another. In less than a year. They had forged what many historians call a model military partnership. I did not been so short lived. The course of American history my. Shortly before 8:00 a.m. Jackson started down the Kathman phoniest road was 71 regiments and 21 batteries a lot. Even by the short distance when he spied generally standing by the road Jackson lying little Saul saluted. Leave it time to salute. What the two men said was short and unknown. No one was only on to hear it but it was an unforgettable sight. The mountain often and the Tidewater mystics that one day are they although they all die

soon Jackson pointed to the west eyes ablaze. Lee nodded the two men saluted Jackson Rodolph. They would never see each other again. The clearing behind me was slightly larger in 1863 than it is today but at the far end of the clearing was located Hazel Grove a high open plateau on which Union artillery was located. Those federal gunners spotted Jackson's column as it marched past this clearing. Less than one hour after they departed from the bivouac location Sol Jackson's flank march depended on secrecy for success was discovered about 45 minutes after it began. The base of the chimney behind me is all that's left of Katherine's furnace today. Yet on May 2nd 1863 and late morning and early afternoon the phoniest in all the land it became a bottle of lamb after hooker discovered

Jackson's march to Union command mistakingly concluded that Jackson was retreating as the money went by Daniel Sickles commanding the union Corps requested permission to come down and make sure of this hookah finally granted permission for elements of the court to move Dan to the Catherine phoneys. What happened then we'll Sickles encountered the 23rd GA which was a regiment Jackson had the task from the head of his column as a flank guard to protect the main Confederate column as it turned to the south here at Catherine furnace. As circles in Gaze the 23rd Georgia he also came under fire from the Mississippi brigade. Lee had posted on the high ground and sickles left this unexpected Confederate resistance prompted General Sickles to ask for reinforcements. And before all was said and done twenty thousand Federals had arrived in the general area of Catherine furnace that left a huge gap in the days of the Union

land in absolutely Sickles troops capture of the twenty third George almost to a man they viewed their activity here as a success. But what they didn't know was that twenty thousand troops provided everything that was in support of General Howard's corps on the far right flank of the Union Army at the very moment that Sickles troops were victorious here at Catherine furnace. Jackson's 26000 troops were deploying in the wilderness west of Howard's right flank ready to make their famous flank attack make a famous flank attack against a completely unsupported Unionville and this was going was going to contribute to the remarkable degree of success the Jackson would experience on the afternoon of many seconds. Jackson's flanking column O May 2nd consisted of three divisions all individually and. Almost half of the force with a double sized Division of General AP heal up and 80 of whose gallantry had extended from Williamsburg on the

peninsula to Cedar Mountain in the Piedmont to saving Lee's army from a war ending defeat at Antietam Hill was 37 thin with long all been high on flashing hazel eyes. He was quiet impetuous and hard fighting. Much of his effectiveness had been in pay out of late by an ongoing feud with his superior Stonewall Jackson. The division in the middle of the marching column was on the LA eat Colston. He too was 37 and a VMI graduate who had remained at the school to teach French history and military strategy. Jackson had a high opinion of his former faculty colleague promotions came quickly. This is somewhat strange given Colston a limited field experience. Leading the flight March where this soldier is a while but he loads a native of Lynchburg a 34 year old said return to Lexington to teach mathematics at his alma mater. He rapidly became one of the best division commanders in all the confederate nominees and he would die as he might wish in the field.

Just before the charge at Chancellorsville Jackson turned and looked at the officers clustered around him. 17 division leaders believe it is invent your mental Connell's with VMI graduates with emotion in his voice Jackson said. The institute will be hooked on today. For Jackson's 28000 Man March that May 2nd was indeed for taking the soldiers were marching forward west in lock step. By Jackson's strict orders they march 15 minutes vested 10 March 50 less to 10 initially in the enthusiasm of the movement some of them in talk that was a little singing now and then but as Hours passed and the heat and the humidity grew silence took over the likes and before long only the clank of canteens against musket butts could be heard as the long line snaked its way through the wilderness. And the chances they'll.

This is a vestige of one of the woods roads that Stonewall Jackson's column followed on May 2nd 1863 during their famous flank march at Chancellorsville. A picture of this road is worth ten thousand words in a history book as to the logistical challenge Stonewall Jackson faced in moving his 15 brigades of infantry and more than 100 pieces of artillery on a march that would eventually consume 12 miles and do so secretly and preserve enough energy in his troops to allow them to make a flank attack at the end of this march. Jackson arranged his three divisions with the general Rhodes's division in the lead followed by the artillery and then followed by Colston as division and AP Hill Division. When Jackson reached his deployment west of the right flank of the Union Army. Only 10 of his 15 brigades would be in position.

Nevertheless more than 17000 Confederates would be ready and poised to make one of the most famous attacks in American military history. Behind me Virginia Route 3 traverses the historic trace of the orange turnpike. Of the eighty six hundred men General Oliver Otis Howard's eleventh Corps deployed the Union right flank here 8000 of them faced south 90 degrees away from the direction that Jackson's flag attack was about to begin. The other 600 troops were deployed about half a mile in front of me with two small pieces of artillery facing more than twenty six thousand Confederate troops who at 5 p.m. responded to a bugle call signal by Stonewall Jackson. The forest erupted with small animals rabbits squirrels deer who were fleeing from these

thousands of confederates driving through what was then a much more heavily wooded terrain than you see today. The two small union regiments fired one volley and were quickly overrun as were the remainder of Charles Devon's Division located on Howard's right flank. About a half a mile behind me however a second Union Division commanded by Carl shirts wheeled 90 degrees and occupied a ridge above the wilderness church holding off Jackson's attack which extended three quarters of a mile on either side of the orange turnpike for nearly half an hour until Jackson's overwhelming force outflank churches men both on the left and right. The eleventh Corps made yet a fourth stand. About a quarter a mile east of will in this church the so-called Bush Beck line until those Federals also were driven from the field in a two hour span from about 5 o'clock until seven o'clock. Jackson was

successful in a lemonade. The entire 11th corps from the field. However the eleventh Corps put up a sufficient fight. In fact it cost them twenty four hundred casualties to so disorganized Jackson's first two divisions that Stonewall who was desiring to continue the advantage gained by his flank attack had to halt the progress of progress at his core until he could bring up the troops of AP Hill Division to continue the assault after dark. These orders would lead to tragic consequences in the thickness of the woods around Chancellorsville at 9 p.m.. You're thoughtless had descended over the land that side of the bottle always ended with the setting of the sun. But Jackson was oblivious to the simple victory although the federales was not enough. This was Armageddon. One more attack would bring total destruction of the Amalekites the night assault was imperative Jackson concluded.

Without consulting Lee. Disregarding both military custom and common sense. Jackson personally rode through the dog smoke field Woods was still taking place. On his staff accompanied him as he sought to determine the exact position of the Union lines. Once satisfied as to the location of the enemy Jackson turned his horse and started back but to a different point in his line. Confederate soldiers in that sector were on a wire that that commando was reconnoitering in front. The southern US first heard and then saw all horsemen coming from the direction of the Union Army. They had to be enemy. Veteran Confederates needed no orders as to what to do. Men in the eighteen North Carolina open five at a distance. Some 75 yards. Police 69 caliber bullets struck each other. Somehow Jackson managed to stay in the saddle until aid could lift him tenderly to the ground in a single blinding flash of

gunfire. The man who was the chief of the Confederacy was suddenly out of the picture. For how long. The shooting of Jackson occurred about 9:15 p.m.. Two of the three bullet wounds were not serious but the third was crippling. A bullet had entered the left on three inches below the shoulder split of the bone and toe and so on being tendons before passing on the building. And all the saw applied a makeshift tourniquet to stem heavy bleeding. All the aides galloped off in search of a physician and an ambulance. Two soldiers lifted Jackson by the armpits and sought to take him to the E.R.. It was too painful. A leather team eventually alive then placed Jackson on the canvas stretcher twice and they had gotten this gunfire and confusion whipped both times Jackson fell heavily to the going on. By the time an ambulance was

secured Jackson was him watching week displaying signs of shock. That was his condition when the general surgeon Dr. Hunter got to him for the ambulance wagon bumped back and forth on the way to the temporary medical station at the Wilderness tabun. It then took a while to get Jackson's condition stabilized. It had been five hours since the wounding plus the fact that the general had been awake and active for fully 24 Alice this is all that in the rains of the wilderness town which then stood along the plank road. It now is beside a very busy fleet. Here five miles west of Chancellorsville thousands of wounded Confederate soldiers were bald and laid out in the fields and available homes. It was here at 11:00 p.m. on May 2nd that the badly injured Stonewall Jackson was bald. Two o'clock in the morning 27 year old surgeon on the McGuire assisted by three other physicians

amputated the mind of the general. The following day on learning of the general's misfortune police sent a message you have lost your left arm. But I have lost my light. A favorite question in civil war trivia contest is what famous American is buried in two different places. The answer begins with two highly question staff offices who are not going to let the amputated limb of that beloved chief discarded on a pile of Subud lambs. What happened in Will. We're standing in the family cemetery of the Elwood plantation in this plantation during the war was owned by a man named Horace Lacy. Lacy's brother Beverley Tucker Lacy was Jackson's chaplain. And because Beverly Tucker Lacy was aware of his brother's family burying ground he and the young James power Smith a Presbyterian divinity student wrapped Jackson's severed arm in a towel. Cracked over a small rise about a

half a mile. And quietly unceremoniously gave Jackson's left arm a Christian burial at this family cemetery. Some 40 years later. James power Smith who by then had been the Presbyterian minister at the Fredericksburg church and had married Lacy's daughter came back and erected this small monument testifying to his commanders. And so the arm lives heal me heal side you know. And Chancellorsville battlefield Johnson's body lies in Stonewall Jackson cemetery across the Blue Ridge Mountains in Lexington. When we learned of Jackson's serious routine he had to put someone else in command of the old Second Corps and quickly. One of Jackson's subordinate division commanders might have seen the logical choice but the senior man General AP Hill was also wounded and out of action. Jubal Early was back in Fredericksburg facing Sedgwick and none of the remainder had the experience to command such a large

force in action. Instead in the emergency lead turn to his trusted friend Major General Jeb Stuart the dashing Virginia had command of the Army's cavalry troops for almost a year. In recent months repeatedly showed himself a capable and dependable leader who took his own cavalry scarcely participated in the battle which relieved the pressure on Stewart allowing leader temporarily move him away from his own command that suited Stewart just fine for he coveted leadership of an infantry corps with its greater responsibility. He would not disappoint Lee a chance of his bill even though Jackson had made the dramatic movement that would eventually decide the battle. Still there was much danger facing the Confederates and it remains to be seen if they could reap the fruits of what Jackson had commenced. There would be a lot more hard fighting ahead to determine that outcome and one think Stewart could always promise to leave was that he was a bold and determined combatant. Never the less you have hooker stood his ground lean steward would still be separated by a strong force of Federals between them.

With Sedgwick always a potential promise of disaster from their rear for Robert E. Lee. A man who lived with being the underdog on a daily basis. It was perhaps the most dangerous moment of the battle. Stonewall Jackson's flank attack on May 2nd had damaged the army but it not destroyed the Bakiyev he still lay in position. A very strong position and was ready to fight the Confederates the next day. In fact the irony is that simle Jackson's attack actually put the Confederates in a worse position because now they're outnumbered army was divided and Joe Hooker held the key ground in between the ground known as Hazel Grove. However hooker made a big mistake by evacuating Hazel Grove thereby allowing Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson's corps now commanded by the Calvary men Jeb Stuart to reunite the wings of their army on May 3rd. Jeb Stuart sees Hazel Grove massed about 30 guns there and began pounding the center of the position here at Fairview. The Federals had RA. 40

to 45 guns here on this ridge and they now begin to reply to that fire at the same time they came in artillery fire from the West and also artillery fire from the east. So the Federals here were caught in a three way CROSSFIRE after four hours of punishment the ferals finally gave up this hill and fell back to Chancellorsville from their retreat to the river. The battle of Chancellorsville was now well on its way to being one. It is ironic that after all the marches and all the maneuvering what decided the battle of Chancellorsville was autoload on the morning of May 3rd in the hooka pullback is true from this high ground that Hazel glow beyond the tree line in to Chancellorsville and to S.. Southern is quickly swamp over this is so immediately. The advantage it is at all totally and quickly place guns up here. The Confederates open they deadly like FAI into the union position at Chancellorsville. It was such a one sided contest as some of thought is have called it the greatest day

in the history of the Army of Northern Virginia. Hooker in her again an army of seven KOA led by a veteran offices of highly varying abilities. Some of them were conspicuous in the Chancellor's veil campaign. Dyess in couch led the second Corps and was hookahs second in command. Couch was an imposing a slight weak looking professional soldier who in the Mexican War had won much reputation and lost much of his health. Cool and cautious were his attributes in striking contrast to couch was the third call was Daniel E. sickles. He was a Tammany Hall politician who got a general's appointment through political pull rather than from any military talents Sickles was gallant but bombastic impetuous and unpredictable. One observer noted whether Sickles was drinking fighting winching or plotting He was always operating with the waddle

wide open. Tall spy and stupid Georgia gold made lead the 5th Corps and ultimately would be the last command of the Army of the Potomac made was stated to the point of dullness. Yet he was a solid general totally void of the ambition that compromised so many of his fellow offices have a mate possessed such an uncontrollable temper that Billy Yanks usually refer to him as a damned old goggle eyed snapping turtle. All of all how it led the eleventh KOA that Jackson sent fleeing in the panic at Chancellorsville. A main officer of consuming religious ideals. How it was a power box in the Union High Command. One general said no general intrusted with the field of action of soldiers equal cowards who acted for surviving so many tactical errors of judgment and disregard of all those emerging later with increased wind Chancellorsville would be the darkest of Howard's many dog days in the field. The other wing of the Union Army was at

Fredericksburg and none of the six Corps John Sedgwick this Connecticut native was an affable scrubby be a good bachelor who played solitaire on his tent when not displaying a methodical involves Aleut leadership in battle. Scrupulous attention to the needs of his man had bought Sedgwick the nickname Uncle John. Still Sedgwick was never known for doubting decisions or rapid movements. In Fredericksburg some 10 miles away the sounds of battle between Lee and Hooker have been heard since the first gun was fired. Yet neither of the commanders there had definite information about the course of the battle around Chancellorsville at least setuid had a good idea of what the opponent and his immediate front was doing. That he is slow commanding the Yankee's observation balloon's made repeated ascensions leading one soldier to say that low and his assistants were up and down like jumping jacks. What they saw Hurley's positions and movements was of great importance. As such would planned his

final assault to take the city. Knowing that he'd given up his initiative when he lost his confidence in himself. Hooker looked to Sedgwick to retrieve the situation. On my second he'd sent a peremptory order for Sedgwick to take Fredericksburg immediately and push really hard before. Cedric launched the first of several assaults on the heights protecting the town on the morning of May 3rd. As one was repulsed he sent forward another and yet another. Finally sensing that the Confederate line was too weak to withstand any more shock Sedgewick sent forward a massive bayonet assault. It pushed through Early's lines and forced him to pull his command back to the outskirts of town and then even farther south. The road to Chancellorsville and Lee's rear was open. The Yankees push forward as fast as they could but found progress slow. Still after some hours Sedgewick advanced to within just six miles of Chancellorsville. But one of the birdies retreated reached Lee not long after hooker himself fell back from Hazel Grove. Confident now that the enemy in his front was no longer a potent danger Lee took the chance of

sending two of his own divisions back to stop Sedgwick when the Yankees reached Salem church they found Confederate Lafayette McLaws in a strong position on high ground. They hurled themselves at the confederate line but it held them because counter-attack stop in the Yankees Cold War. By the next morning early brought most of his command to join McLaws. Together they prepared to launch their own attack. By then however knowing himself stymied and who defeated Sedgewick had retired from the field the battle of Chancellorsville was over. The building behind me Salem church still bears the marks of 1863 battle of Chancellorsville Salem church still remains to remind us of what happened here in May of 1863 but unfortunately the rest of the battlefield is pretty well been destroyed over the course of the last oh 30 or 40 years. Development has swept over this area and has turned what was once peaceful fields and woods into shopping centers subdivisions and malls. Is the goal of the National Park

Service to try to preserve areas like Salem church so Americans don't forget about their historic past. Salem church was a landmark in the fighting of my third and fourth. It was also the scene of another picture one quite common in civil war battles one not usually fly on in the history books. This Baptist sanctuary became a makeshift field hospital for the hundreds upon hundreds of Michael Young men of north and south. But they are so out of the bottle come alive at McMillan of the 24th George you came here and such a friends. The Colonel was appalled by what he saw. This is what he wrote. The site inside the building for Hall was perhaps never equaled within so limited the space. Both real bailable foot of space was crowded with wounded and bleeding soldiers slow on the benches. Even the chancel imported one home. Almost to suffocation with. Amputated limbs were piled up in every corner

almost as high as a man could reach. Blood flowed in streams along the aisles and how could those screams and lungs were good side. This too. Is part of the trance was still campaigning. A sale from the east south and west by Confederate forces sexual exploitation the focus pleaded northward and cross the Rappahannock at banks forward. The rock line you see behind me. Lee then turned and headed back to Chancellorsville to finish off only to find when he got that hookah to have utilized the forwards to make his escape. False of us to safety. Meanwhile in Washington President Lincoln led Dispatches from the battlefield of the terrible defeat and all the president could say was My God what will

the country say. If ever Robert E. Lee breathed a sigh of relief. It had to be after the fighting stopped around chance of his bill. On May 6 the hooker retreated and once more had beaten the odds. Against numbers exceeding two to one. He'd driven back the army of the Potomac and perhaps saved Richmond. It came at a heavy cost however about 13000 casualties more than 20 percent of his command. Then there was the serious wounding of Stonewall Jackson and event whose outcome was yet uncertain as Lee's outpost watched the Yankees Red Cross the Rappahannock. But Lee always thought ahead and now realities and possibilities confronted him. The enemy was beaten and presumably demoralized. The season for active campaigning a just begun surely Lincoln would find another general. And the Yankees would come again. Lee had to seize the moment. Call him General James Longstreet's corps and other units and renew his army's strength. This was the time to strike before the enemy

could recover. The time to push northward to the Potomac and take the war to the enemy for the bold. The fields of Maryland even Pennsylvania lay ahead. Jackson needed post-surgery rest and quiet but the stay at the Wilderness tav and field hospital lasted only a day. Lee became increasingly concerned. The bottle was steel storming. The lines were unstable. Lee wanted his best gentle fall away in the safe place. The site selected was Guinea station. It was south of Fredericksburg and on the way all the way out of the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac willows. From that out Jackson could be moved speedily and in several directions if necessary. Surgeon McGuire was pleased with Jackson's physical condition after surgery and he too favored the move to get the station. On a hot Monday May 4th the journal was placed on a mattress inside a wagon a torturous 27 mile trip began. Jackson was alert and talkative in the early stages of the 14 hour lied yet as the

temperature climbed on the wagon pitched in by onst the general began to experience both nausea and pain in his side all along the loud people rushed to the ambulance with food and tearful eyes. All those soldiers and civilians alike by our heads and quite silently as the wagon passed. The rain was falling through the twilight when the long journey ended at the channel is St.. A few hundred feet north of Guinea station. Jackson by then was exhausted. The trip to safety had strapped and much of what strength you had left. The general knew that his wife was only 55 miles down the well loaded Wichman. She would come soon and help nurse him back to health. Always well. This is the Fairfield plantation of Thomas Coleman Chandler. He owned about eight hundred sixty acres surrounding us Stonewall Jackson was brought here on the evening of May 4th 1863 at about 8 p.m.. Jackson was supposed to stay in Mr Chandler's house a large

brick affair. But the doctors were rather stunned to learn that the house was already packed with food it before the general arrived. Doctor Holmes McGuire Jackson's medical director went through the house and examined each of the patients very carefully. Inside he discovered that one of the patients was suffering from erysipelas a strep disease which was highly infectious and often lethal. With nowhere else to turn in thunderstorms starting to roll in. They had to improvise quickly. Dr. McGuire asked about this little clapboard building and learned it was only the office on the plantation. Since nobody was staying there Dr. McGuire immediately commandeered it. People raced out into the yard and dragged off the office furniture desks and files work benches and tools and quickly replace them with any kind of house furniture available. They converted this small office into a cottage. This became Jackson's final home. This is the room where Stonewall Jackson is brought on the evening of May 4th 1863. Once he was brought into this room he never left this room alone. He spent the last six days of his life.

Two years his flame flashed across the suburbs but as he saw it over the land of his enemies. Travelled even the yaun the seas. The commander in chief of the British armies would decline. In my opinion Stonewall Jackson was the greatest natural military genius the world ever saw. I will go even further than that. As a campaigner in the field he never had a superior. In some respects I doubt whether he ever had an equal. Chance and was the paladin in the opening bottle of the war at Manassas. One setback after another then befell the Confederate States. The Southern people were desperate for victory when suddenly in the spring of 1862 Jackson electrified the world with his campaign in the Valley of Virginia. That after he was the most esteemed and beloved general in the Confederacy that was something else. To attempt to portray the

life of Jackson of which minister said it while leaving off the religious element would be like undertaking to describe Switzerland without making mention of the Alps. Jobson's brilliance is a journal and is proud he is a man made him a perfect soldier for the Southern people. His passing a high point in Confederate success was the greatest personal loss suffered by the wartime song. For generations laugh. Some of those and many in the news as well would say. Had Jackson live on the Confederate West win independents would have succeeded. While AFL BA in history. Has so much influence been bested in one individual. The doctors examined Jackson on the morning of May 10th very early and they immediately realized that Jackson is beyond hope. They took Mrs. Jackson out of this room and informed her that her husband would not survive the day. But they were reluctant to tell Jackson himself.

When Mariana realized that the doctors weren't going to tell her husband she came in here and broke the news to him. She handled it in a remarkable fashion actually kneeling beside her husband's bed and breaking the news by posing it as a question asking if it was the will of Jackson's father to be with him that day would he acquiesce. After repeating the question several times Jackson answered in a feeble voice. I'd prefer it later on. Jackson asked to see Dr. McGuire and he asked him pointedly. Anna tells me on the DI this day is that so when a doctor affirmed that the end was near Jackson relaxed he actually smiled at everyone in the room and simply answered. Good that's good. It's all right. In that instant Jack's not only understood but accepted. And perhaps we can make a case even embrace the ad later on when he was alone with one staff officer he told them that his desire through life was that when he died he wished to die on the Sabbath. May 10th was in fact a Sunday. Jackson said himself one last goal before the end he desired to keep his mind sharp is close to the end

as possible. Fighting off the fever of pneumonia fighting off even the pain killers that they've been giving him heavy doses of laudanum which was a tincture of opium and alcohol derivative Jackson refused to take the painkillers on the last day. But even with his best efforts Jackson continually lapsed in and out of reality. Often he would go back to the battlefields and start reliving them issuing the orders as he had that he was wounded. About an hour maybe an hour and a half before the Ed Jackson slipped entirely into delirium and didn't return. He started to ramble quite a bit talking very freely sometimes booming at the top of his lungs. Other times barely audible was a whisper. According to the doctors Mrs. Jackson and some of the staff officers present. Jackson was literally reliving the last two years of his life. They could pick out these distinct moments from his past based on what he was saying here the record. Anything from a simple dinner conversation with the mess to evening prayers the staff officers quiet moments with Mrs. Jackson. But all this came back to that one point. The

battle of Chancellorsville at those moments Jackson become very animated he'd start shouting commands at the top of his lungs calling on various officers like General AP Hill to press forward. Hill cut them off from the U.S. forward pass the infantry to the fort. He's calling on various staff officers. Some of these young men right around his bed like his Chief of Staff Sandy Pendleton Jackson often called on him at Pendleton do it have penalty take care that at one point Jackson became very upset scouted out where is Pendleton. Then he relaxed Ah Pendleton I want you to see if there's any high ground between us and the river. Now as he worked his way through a litany of Staff Officers Jackson became very worked up very impatient until he snapped for his commissary officer Wells Hawks shouting tell Major hawks too. But he broke off and needs. At that moment Jackson completely relaxed. He sank back in his bed. He's quiet for a moment and then he smiled. There's a particularly striking smile. Dr Maguire said it was a smile of ineffable

sweetness in a very like voice. Jackson whispered Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the tree. I Chancellorsville Lee took incredible chances against heavy odds in a week's time however he so changed the military situation that the Army of the Potomac did not again on to take a macho Richmond boy for you. Chancellorsville was ball perspective. Lee's most stunning victory. Yet it came at a total cost 13000 casualties including 1700 field and one of those fatalities was Stonewall Jackson. I know not how to replace him a grieving Lee confessed. Auden soldiers wept openly one five and explained everyone felt as though he had lost one of his D-list points.

Richmond Daily Dispatch stated. The affections of every household in the nation which whined about this great and unselfish warrior who two years ago was an unknown man. He has fallen. And the nation weeks. The loss of Jackson mock they pronounce a line of demarcation Indiana or beyond. Then the genuine. Delegation of authority permitting the widest degree of latitude had been the basis of Lee's great violence. During the 11 months that Jackson was with. At Gettysburg which Jackson only seven weeks in the grave. The system with no other executive officer had the ability of the old guy. No great tactician without a shout. West's own class on Jackson had done in the valley at Second Manassas and the chances in Pennsylvania lease all that he had to do it all himself. And he did not know what the price of victory at Chancellorsville. May have been the cost of defeat at Gettysburg.

Something else happened because of Chancellorsville. Since that was not and never would be a replacement for Johnson they never again attempted this spectacular dividing of his army that he had risked not once but five times with Jackson taking the lead. What Jackson brought to the outmanned Confederate army was incredible mobility. His swift secret marches his sudden opponents is his heavy attacks. Kept the huge well equipped Union Army continually off balance and unsure. Although outnumbered and they had shot. The commander but faint and jab and thrust until he left an opponent bloodied and beat. Yeah off to Chancellorsville the two opposing armies met again in the same wards. Lee then had no mobility no man to execute supplies to perfection. And this forced me to waste the kind of war he did not. A stand up slug it out contest with us a few of you thought. It was the kind of fight the Lee could not win over the long haul.

Thus in more ways than one for the Confederate States the journey to album ox may well have begun on a Saturday night when a sheet of gunfire swept through the darkness. At a place called Dance.