THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE FOUGHT IN THE SPRING OF
1863 on May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
The battle of Chancellorsville was a planned battle on the part of the Union forces. Major General Joseph Hooker was Lincoln's choice as Commander-in-Chief to crush the Confederate army and take Richmond. The Union army still encamped on Stafford Heights and General Lee's troops were still at Marye's heights between Hooker and Richmond.
First off Hooker was told to restore morale and dicipline in the Union ranks, then present a battle plan to crush Lee's army. He had 130,000 men, the largest and best equipped and supplied army in the world.
General Lee only had only 58,934 men left after the hard winter; he lost a lot to sickness due to short rations and about 10,000 men went home during the winter months and had not returned. Also he had sent General Pete Longstreet with General Pickett's and General Hood's divisions south of the James river to gather desperately needed supplies and forage for his army. He knew something big was under foot as he could see across to Stafford Heights and see all the movement of troops. But General Lee never let things like that worry him and said until he knew what "those people's" plans were he would not shift any troops.
General Hooker's plan was to leave one division on Stafford Heights in plain sight of General Lee and one division at Hamilton's Crossing below Fredericksburg to hold Lee's attention, then take the rest of his army up the north side of the Rappahannock 20 miles to Kelley's Ford and cross there, then come down to the Rapidan River and cross it at Ely's Ford and march on to Chancellorsville and be behind General Lee before he knew they were there. It was a good plan and had worked up to this point, Hooker had stole a march on the best General in either army, he could now destroy Lee's army, so he thought.
General Lee had not been asleep, General "J. E. B." Stuart had kept him informed about the crossings of the river and he had pulled every troop he dared out of Fredericksburg and had formed a battle line just east of Chancellorsville to try and stop Hooker's forces. He knew he could not hold them back long with Longstreet's men gone. So he told General Stuart to ride around back of Hooker's forces and find him a place in his battle line that was weak and he would hit where he could do the most damage. This Stuart did and found Hooker's left flank weak and not well patrolled. This is what General Lee needed to know. That night he set General Jackson's entire force in motion in front of Hooker's men and marched them around back of Hooker's troops, to get at his weak spot.
General Hooker had not made his move yet and had lost too much time and his advantage had passed. He now thought that General Lee was pulling his forces out and would retreat back to Richmond and no battle would be fought.
At 5:30 p. m. on May 2 Jackson's men were in position as the bugle call sounded, the rebel yell and the cannons opened up on the Eleventh Corp of Hancock's division, under General O. O. Howard. They were eating dinner and had their rifles stacked. They took off with the pack mules, officer's horses, caissons with men and horses running for their lives. They ran into Berry's division of the 3rd Corps, Hayses' brigade of the 2nd Corps and part of the 12th, no one could make an effectual stand until finally dark came and each outfit tried to reorganize and form a battle line for next day.
The night of May 2nd, 1863, was to be a sad night for the Confederate forces and General Lee. General Jackson was doing some scouting ahead of the lines and ran into a brigade of North Carolinian troops on guard and was mistaken for Yankee scouts. The party was fired upon and General Jackson was hit by 3 balls, most of his party was killed or wounded. General Jackson died 8 days later on May 10, 1863. The command was passed to General A. P. Hill and he was carried from the field early next morning wounded also. General Lee placed General "J. E. B." Stuard in command of Jackson's forces and the 3rd of May was a seesaw battle, but General Stuart was a smart cookie also. He saw an advantage to be had by placing 30 pieces of artillery on top of Hazel Grove and shelling the Federal troops. This made the difference in a winning battle and a loosing battle and the army of General Hooker was now a defeated army. This is not exactly correct, the General was defeated, not the army.
On May 4th and 5th General Hooker ordered his army to withdraw back across the river rather than to risk total war with General Lee, explaining this to his Corp commanders that their duty was first to protect Washington. The Federal forces lost 17,287, the Confederates lost 12,821 at Chancellorsville.
The 42nd Infantry was at Chancellorsville under Lt. Gen. Jackson's second corps. They were in General Trimble's division, Brigader General J. R. Jones's brigade, commanded by Lt. Col. R. W. Withers. The 42nd Division had 15 killed and 120 wounded in this battle.
While Richmond rejoiced at the victory, the deep despair in Washington was summed up by Lincoln's anguished cry "My God! What will the country say?"