Why was chancellorsville so important

George Stoneman at its head. Camped in their winter headquarters on the north side of the Rappahannock at Falmouth, Va. On April 8, the president watched as the troops paraded past.

General Hooker beamed with satisfaction and pride, he continued. His eyes sparkled with confidence…. Such a great army! Thunder and lightning! The Johnnies could never whip this army! Upon his return to Washington, Lincoln wrote a letter to Hooker expressing his views on the upcoming spring campaign. He stated that our primary object is to menace him [Lee], that he shall have no leisure nor safety in sending away detachments.

If he weakens himself, then pitch into him. On April 11, he sent Maj. Daniel Butterfield, his chief of staff, to the capital with a top-secret letter to Lincoln detailing his plans for the upcoming offensive.

This double envelopment had Maj. Henry W. George G. With that, the blue horde would traverse the Rappahannock, then the Rapidan, and march in a southeasterly direction toward the vital crossroads at Chancellorsville. While all this was transpiring, Maj. Ambrose Burnside, later dubbed the Mud March. On the left wing, Hooker sent Maj. There they would cross the Rappahannock and convince Lee that this was the main thrust of the attack.

If Lee held, Sedgwick would hurl his 59,man wing against him. If Lee withdrew toward Chancellorsville, Sedgwick would follow and carry the works at all hazards, and establish his force on the Telegraph Road.

Let your watchword be fight, and let all your orders be fight, fight, fight. Unfortunately, the Union horsemen did not do much fighting on this day; Mother Nature stepped in. As Stoneman was preparing to cross, a torrential downpour began. For some inexplicable reason, Stoneman had hesitated in crossing.

Now the wooden bridge that spanned the Rappahannock was under water, and the nervous brigadier decided to wait out the rain. Earlier, Colonel Benjamin F. If Stoneman had demonstrated the same boldness that Davis possessed, his cavalry would have crossed the river and sped on toward Richmond unimpeded. The raid was a disastrous failure. Infuriated, Hooker quickly revised his plans. Within two days, the Union horsemen had crossed the Rappahannock and were in motion.

Apart from a few skirmishes with Rebel troopers, the Northern force was unimpeded as it proceeded to rip up railroad ties, burn depots and cause as much damage as possible. The only exception was Brig. It seems that Averell thought he was vastly outnumbered and thus ordered his 3, troopers to halt.

Disgusted, Hooker relieved him of command on May 2. Under the cover of darkness on the evening of April 28, the Union juggernaut began to move. As a chilly rain fell, the Northern infantry stepped off with a spirit not felt since the beginning of the war. Foot soldiers from the 75th Ohio sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic as they slogged through the thick, oozing mud. Suddenly, Hooker rode past. His bright blue eyes sparkled with pride and confidence, remembered one infantryman.

He waved his black hat high overhead. His thick blond hair jolted in rhythm to the galloping of his horse. Slocum, senior to Howard and Meade, was in command. However, Fighting Joe had, in a manner of speaking, kept his cards close to his vest.

The only commanders who had received any detailed instructions were Sedgwick and Stoneman. If the enemy decided to fight, Slocum was to select a strong position, and compel him to attack you on your ground. Hooker urged Slocum to push on so that not a moment be lost until our troops are established at or near Chancellorsville. From that moment all will be ours. When he learned the true scope of the Yankee movement, Stuart hastily sent word to the Confederate detachment at Germanna Ford.

Brigadier General Henry W. He soon was embroiled in an exchange of words with Brig. William T. Brooks and James S. It seems that Benham also thought he was in charge of the crossing. At a. David A. Russell refused to allow his troops to cross in the darkness. Benham summarily ordered him arrested, but nothing came of it. At approximately a. Suddenly out of the darkness the sharp crack of muskets was heard.

Bang whiz bang—we were saluted by a volley of musketry, recalled one Pennsylvania officer. The greater portion of the balls flew too high over the men in the boats and too low to do us much damage. As soon as this was accomplished, the bridge building resumed at a rapid pace.

As the boatmen neared the riverbank, preparing to cross, Confederate sharpshooters opened up. The boatmen fled as two regiments from the famed Iron Brigade returned the Rebel fire.

When word came to load the boats, the soldiers had to race across open ground to reach the craft. While their comrades covered them, the 6th Wisconsin and 24th Michigan started toward the Rebel positions with bullets hailing around all the time.

Opposing the Iron Brigade were the 13th Georgia and 6th Louisiana. In this instance, the blue-clad attackers had the advantage. Confederate riflemen had to stand halfway out of their parapets to get a clear shot and, in so doing, exposed themselves to the Yankee infantry. Henry Walker from the 13th Georgia later wrote to his family: We fought there about two or three hours until our cartridges gave out and we never lost but one man while we was in the rifle pits but when we went to leave they swept our boys down like they was chaff.

The troopers from Maj. Jubal A. While they were frantically digging in, a puzzled Robert E. Lee watched in amazement as Union infantry scampered ashore from the Union bridgehead at Fredericksburg. Never one to become nervous in tense situations, Lee coolly waited to hear from his trusted eyes and ears, Stuart, before making any decision.

For this campaign, the Northern army consisted of , men against 60, southern men. The harsh winter had decreased the fodder for animals and food for Confederate men. To supply forage for the animals, Lee had been forced to send his army to different places. So the army was much smaller than that of Hooker, and the odds were against the Confederates. The first part of the campaign went exactly as Hooker had planned.

Hooker thought that, as he had planned, Lee would have two options: either retreat toward Richmond, where Federals were waiting for him or turn around and face Hooker and Sedgwick in opposite directions. Learn more about the background to emancipation. Lee never reacted the way he was expected to do.

He divided his army and put 10, men at Fredericksburg to watch Sedgwick. The rest of his men quickly marched to the west to confront Hooker. The area had very limited farms and clearings with almost no roads. So, Hooker decided to go a few miles east of Chancellorsville so that his numbers could have a real influence.

This is a transcript from the video series The American Civil War. Watch it now, on Wondrium. Jackson crushed the Union 11 th Corps, under the command of O. Caught by surprise, the Union Army had to retreat for two miles. But as it got dark, the Confederate attack lost its steam. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, , involved nearly , combatants, the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle.

Ambrose Burnside, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than , troops to cross the Grant in the spring of It pitted Confederate General Robert E.

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