Battle of Chancellorsville

“ After the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville, it soon became the subject of universal apprehension that the victors in that field would make an attempt upon Washington, and with that ultimate object would invade Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the early days of June, the movements of the enemy on the Rappahannock indicated some ag [Pg 483] gressive design, though the precise nature of the enterprise about to be undertaken was unknown to our military authorities, who waited with much anxiety for its development. A great raid across the Potomac by Stuart's famous cavalry was anticipated ”

“ A battle there seemed impossible. Neither side could see its antagonist. Artillery could not move; cavalry could not operate; the very infantry had to flatten their bodies to glide between the stunted trees. That an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men should have chosen that spot to fight forty thousand, and not only chosen it, but made it a hundred times more impenetrable by felling trees, erecting breastworks, disposing artillery en masse to sweep every road and bridle-path which led to Chancellorsville—this fact seemed incredible. ”

“ J. M. Hall's report of battle of Chancellorsville says: "Justice demands that I should mention Lieut.-Col. John S. Garvin, commanding the Twenty-sixth Alabama, who was severely, if not mortally, wounded while gallantly leading his regiment, and giving the highest evidence of that coolness and skill which should ever characterize the true soldier." (958, 959, 961) Mentioned in Capt. T. M. Riley’s and Samuel B. Pickens' reports. ”

“ The trouble with us has been that we attack resisting troops, and when we defeat them we refuse to trouble them any more: we let them get away. Yet, as you say, Chancellorsville was a great victory; anything that would have sent Hooker's army back over the river, even without a battle, would have been success. ”

“ During the second day of the battle of Chancellorsville, General Pleasonton was trying to get twenty-two guns into a vital position as Stonewall Jackson made a sudden advance. Time had to be bought; so Pleasanton ordered Major Peter Keenan, commanding the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry (four hundred strong) , to charge the advancing ten thousand of the enemy. An introduction to the poem, setting forth these facts, is omitted. ”

“ No doubt he was a brave man and believed he could repel any attack that might be made on him, but where the great issues of a battle are at stake, a commander has no business to take needless chances, and, when he can, he should put his men under cover as effectually as may be, so that he can accomplish his purpose with as little loss of limb and life as possible. If, as soon as the Eleventh Corps was located they had gone to work cutting the timber to the front and intrenching, as Hancock’s men did, Jackson would have met a bloody repulse, and Chancellorsville would have been our victory. ”

“ At Chancellorsville out of fifteen hundred and nine, it had one hundred and fifty-four killed and five hundred and twenty-six53 wounded, or forty-five per cent. On the 12th of May at Spottsylvania it acted probably the most distinguished part of any brigade in the army. It did the last fighting at Appomattox, and about twenty-five men of the 14th, under Captain W. T. Jenkins, of Halifax county, fired the last shots. To see these poor devils, many of them almost barefooted and all of them half starved, approach a field where a battle was raging was a pleasant sight. ”

“ Marmaduke’s reb. army overtaken by Gen. McNeill at Chalk Bluff, on the Ark., and driven into Ark.
2. Col. Grierson’s cavalry arrived at Baton Rouge, La., after a raid of 15 days through Miss., defeating the rebs. in several encounters.
2. Artillery skirmish on the Nansemond river, Va., by Gen. Getty’s troops and reb. forces.
2–3. Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. The army of Gen. Lee attacked the Fed. forces under Gen. Hooker, and after a series of sanguinary contests, the Union army was compelled to retire, and recrossed the Rappahannock. Very heavy loss on both sides. ”

“ To its vigilance and energy we were indebted for timely information of the enemy's movements before the battle, and for impeding his march to Chancellorsville. It guarded both flanks of the army during the battle at that place, and a portion of it, as has been already stated, rendered valuable service in covering the march of Jackson to the enemy's rear. The horse artillery accompanied the infantry, and participated with credit to itself in the engagement. The nature of the country rendered it impossible for the cavalry to do more. ”

“ The fog prevented the Rebels from seeing the movements of Sedgwick, though Barksdale's pickets reported the town full of Yankees. From Chancellorsville came the roar of battle, the constant thunder of the cannonade. It was half past five when Shaler's brigade of Newton's division moved over the field where so many thousands fell on the 13th of December. It was a reconnoissance to ascertain the position and number of the force holding the place. The men marched on gallantly, but were forced to retire before the Mississippians and the artillery on the hill. ”

“ Furthermore, we had been marching towards the firing, and were under the nervous strain always incident to operations in the presence of the enemy. Nothing will quicker exhaust men than the nervous tension occasioned by the continued firing which indicates the imminence of a battle.
At daylight we were aroused and under arms again. We found we were at the head-quarters of the army. The Chancellorsville House, which had been vacated by its occupants, was used for office purposes, and much of the open space around it was occupied by the tents of General Hooker and staff and hospital tents. ”

“ Never did a general carry to battle a better plan of battle than Fighting Joe Hooker's at Chancellorsville (May 2-3, 1863) , and rarely has one marched from a battle that had proved for his own side a more lamentable fiasco. Taking the offensive with vast advantage in numbers, he proposed to hold Lee in place with one of his wings while he thrust the other behind Lee's left, between the Confederate army and Richmond. ”

“ He passed within seven miles of Ewell's column on its way to Gettysburg, and neither knew that the other was near. Had they effected a junction it would have saved the rebel cavalry a long, fruitless, and exhausting march, which kept them out of the battle on the first day. It was one of those accidental circumstances which seemed to favor us in this campaign, while almost every incident at Chancellorsville was against us. Finding Ewell had left York, Stuart turned and marched on Carlisle, which he found occupied by our troops. ”

“ One man is full of dash, and goes forward at once; another is timid, or at least over-cautious, and advances slowly; a third stops to recall some outlying detachments, or to make elaborate preparations. The result is, the outer army has lost its strength and is always beaten in detail. One portion is sure to be defeated before the others arrive. We shall have occasion to refer to this principle again in reference to the battle of Gettysburg. The history of our own war shows that an attack against the front and rear of a force is not necessarily fatal. ”

“ As the nature of the country rendered it hazardous to attack by night, our troops were halted and formed in line of battle in front of Chancellorsville at right angles to the plank road, extending on the right to the Mine road, and to the left in the direction of the Catherine Furnace.”
As darkness falls upon the Wilderness, and the fire of the outposts, provoked by every movement of the patrols, gradually dies away, we may seek the explanation of the Federal movements. ”

“ III. The absence of General Barlow's brigade, which I had previously located in reserve and en echelon with Colonel Von Gilsa's, so as to cover his right flank. This was the only general reserve I had."
Every such battle has its interesting incidents, generally enough to fill a volume, and they are seldom repeated. Some of the most interesting incidents of Chancellorsville are told by Capt. Henry N. Blake, of the Eleventh Massachusetts Regiment. Here are a few of them:
"A man who was loading his musket threw away the cartridge, with a fearful oath about government contractors ”

“ About 51⁄2 o’clock Sunday morning, the enemy came down the plank road leading from Chancellorsville, and made a furious onslaught. The engagement soon became general, and for five hours the roar of artillery and sharp rattle of musketry resounded through the forest. Our batteries were posted on commanding positions, and made great havoc among the enemy as they advanced to the conflict.
About ten o’clock the lines were contracted and re-formed in the vicinity of the clearing, which, together with a single house, constituted all of Chancellorsville. ”

“ If there was any campaign during our civil war which was especially, in a military sense, a glorious one for the rebels, and an ignominious one for us, it was Chancellorsville. It is indeed a pity that the skill of the one side and the errors of the other cannot be once again pointed out, that the true and only possible explanation of Hooker's one hundred and thirty thousand men being defeated by Lee's sixty thousand cannot be once again stated, without eliciting from a body of veterans of the old Third Corps a set of condemnatory resolutions. ”

“ The sun hardly penetrates through its gloom, and the traveller, oppressed with its loneliness and desolation, 154 hurries through that he may reach the more genial spots beyond, and feel the cheering rays of God’s sunshine.
Near one border of this region, at the junction of roads that lead from Fredericksburg and United States Ford, is Chancellorsville; not a town, not a village, but simply a tract of cleared land surrounding one brick house, said to have been erected for a private residence, but used at the commencement of the war as a roadside tavern. ”

“ Men are chilled by disaster and do not readily enlist after a defeat; yet the terms of service of thirty thousand of the two years' and nine months' men were expiring, and something had to be done. Our army, however, at the end of May was still formidable in numbers, and too strongly posted to be effectually assailed; especially as it had full and free communication with Washington and the North, and could be assisted in case of need by the loyal militia of the free States.
The rebels had obtained a triumph, rather than a substantial victory, at Chancellorsville. ”

“ He had come face to face with his foe, and had a hundred and twenty thousand eager and well-disciplined men at his back. He had come to fight, and he—retreated without crossing swords.
XI. THE POSITION AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.
The position at Chancellorsville was good for neither attack nor defence. The ground was not open enough for artillery, except down the few roads, and across an occasional clearing. Cavalry was useless. Infantry could not advance steadily in line. The ground was such in Hooker's front, that Lee could manoeuvre or mass his troops unseen by him. ”

“ The purpose of this order was to encourage the men and inspire them with the enthusiasm of forthcoming victory. But when we consider that the portion of the army operating around Chancellorsville was at that very moment apparently as thoroughly caged up in a wilderness of almost impenetrable undergrowth, which made it impossible to move troops, and into which one could not see a dozen feet, as though they were actually behind iron bars, it will be seen how little ground there was for encouragement. ”

“ Too high praise cannot be accredited to officers and men for their gallantry, fortitude, and manly courage during this brief but arduous campaign. Exposed as they had been for five days immediately preceding the fights on the picket line, they were, of course, somewhat wearied, but the order to move forward and confront the enemy brightened every eye and quickened every step. Under fire all through Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday, without being able effectually to return this fire, they bore all bravely, and led the march towards Chancellorsville on Friday morning in splendid order. ”

“ To retire from an enemy whom you have gone out to attack, and whom you have already placed at a disadvantage, before striking a blow, is weak generalship indeed.
Hooker had arrived at Chancellorsville at noon Thursday. Lee was still in Fredericksburg. The troops were able to march many miles farther without undue taxing. They should have been pushed out that afternoon to the open ground and to Banks's Ford. To fail in this, was the first great error of the campaign. ”

“ The unemployed troops are massed at Chancellorsville, out of the roads. Pleasonton holds his cavalry brigade there in readiness to move. Hooker announces his headquarters at Tabernacle Church as soon as the movement opens.
Immediately after (11.30 A.M., Friday,) Sedgwick is directed to threaten an attack at one P.M., in the direction of Hamilton's Crossing, to ascertain whether the enemy is hugging his defences in full force. A corps is to be used with proper supports, but nothing more than a demonstration to be made. ”

“ The Union army's been defeated—at Chancellorsville. They're driven north of the Rappahannock—to Falmouth. Our troops are in their old camps. There's an outpost across the ford—just over the hill.'
"It was the first I'd heard of the defeat at Chancellorsville, and it stunned me for a second. ”