The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on May 3 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. The campaign pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory.
On January 26, 1863 General Joseph Hooker was appointed the commander of the Army of the Potomac. General Hooker wanted to attack General Lee’s army while a large portion of his troops were engaged at the town of Fredericksburg. He commanded an army that was almost twice the size of Lee’s forces. Hooker then moved the Union forces toward the town of Chancellorsville and had his men set up in defensive positions just outside the town. When General Lee learned of this he moved a portion of his men to assault Hooker and his army. When he arrived, Lee split his men in order to attack from different locations and General Stonewall Jackson commander of the cavalry moved his men to an exposed section of the Union defense and exploited it. On May 3 the fighting was so fierce that it caused General Hooker to withdraw his men and move them to the other side of the river that was nearby. This is when General Lee learned of federal troops gaining the advantage
The Battle of Second Bull Run was not an expected victory for the Confederacy. The Battle of Chancellorsville, one of the greatest battles for Lee’s army, Lee faced Major General Joseph Hooker. Hooker’s army was not expecting Lee to brilliantly split up his army when they took an the massive Union troops. Lee was able to stay calm in the mites of battle facing odds that were against him and stop Hooker’s troop. The Battle of Chancellorsville is often referred to one of Lee’s greatest battles and highlights his military skill.
This is a brief thought of the events that came to unfold. Some say that Gettysburg was the battle that stopped the confederate advance to the north. In addition, that Lee only wanted to take the battle out the state of Virginia that had been hit rather hard by the unions Army . In this review of the Battle of Gettysburg, we will discuss the key events that people believed that allowed the Union Armies to cause the retrograde actions of the confederate forces. In addition, what each side wished to accomplish. And how the wished to accomplish these tasked the imagined
This paper will examine the Battle of Fredericksburg through the research of analytical papers, historical articles and technical reports by conducting the four steps of battle analysis. It will analyze the effects of the use and dismissal of intelligence assets and disciplines when applied to the planning of a territorial battle campaign. Using terrain analysis it will discuss how the choice of advantageous terrain can sway the outcome of a battle. It will also discuss how timing and momentum can be critical to our overall military planning. Finally, it will present an alternative outcome to the battle by establishing the utilization of intelligence assets available to both commanding generals and how altering critical decision points would have presented a significantly different result.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a short lived battle with tremendously tragic amounts of bloodshed and casualties. The physical battle, lasting the short span from July 1st to July 3rd 1863, is considered by many, the most significant and important battle of the American Civil War. Unfortunately what many consider the most significant battle of the American War was also indeed the bloodiest battle fought on American soil. Confidence can be to blame for the outset of this battle and how it began. In May of 1863, the Confederate army leader, Robert E. Lee was fortunate enough in Chancellorsville, Virginia when he and his army claimed the victory against the Army of the Potomac. Lee experienced a high of confidence from the victory, which ultimately
The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most famous battles of the Civil War. The battle was fought from July 1 to July 3 near Gettysburg. The famous battle was between Robert Lee and his Northern Virginia Army and George Meade and the North's Army of the Potomac, The Union. The original leader of the Army of the Potomac was General Joseph Hooker, but President Lincoln relieved Hooker of his duties and named Meade the new General of the Army. Many soldiers died from both sides during this battle and that is the reason it is known as one of the bloodiest battles. The Battle of Gettysburg was General Robert Lee's second attempt at invading the North and there was a definite aftermath to this battle.
Civil War historians view the Battle of Chancellorsville as General Robert E. Lee’s “greatest and most remarkable” victory (Sears 1). Lee, facing an army twice his size, defies all military doctrine and divides his army multiple times in order to out-maneuver and surprise the Union forces. The daring maneuver succeeds and ultimately forces the Union’s Army of the Potomac to retreat. The victory was another major blow to Union troops, but it came at a huge cost to the Confederacy: the loss of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. By evaluating the battle through the lens of the mission command activities, one can see how Lee’s daring maneuver was actually very calculated and his only option for victory. Throughout the rest of this paper, I will describe the timeline of the battle and how General Lee used the mission command activities of understand, visualize, assess, and lead to ultimately achieve victory at Chancellorsville.
The battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia was fought from April 30 through May 6, 1863. It was fought between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia commanded by General Robert E. Lee, and the Federal Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker. The intent of this battle was for Major General Hooker’s Union force to cross the Rappahannock River west of Chancellorsville in order to gain control of the Virginia Central and Fredericksburg rail lines; these rail lines were essential to the Army of Northern Virginia because they were the main supply lines to Richmond, the capitol of the Confederate states. The Union knew that by gaining the supply line to Richmond and defeating General Lee, was crucial because this would cause the Confederate strategic center of gravity to fall, essentially leading to an end of the Civil War. However, the Army of the Potomac lost the battle of Chancellorsville against General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and the Civil War raged on. The battle of Chancellorsville is generally viewed as General Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory of the Civil War. General Lee expertly demonstrated mission command by leading his troops into an unlikely battle, understanding the battle, visualizing, and directing his troops in a victory for the Confederacy.
On September 16, 1862, Confederate forces attempted an invasion of the North with the intention of capturing our Union's garrison at Harper's Ferry in order to gain both the French and British's recognition of the Confederacy and put us in between a rock and a hard place. However, our Army of Potomac placed under the command of the new Major General George B. McClellan, placed by President Lincoln himself, clashed with the Army of Northern Virginia led by the South's General Robert E. Lee at Sharpsburg, Maryland for one of the bloodiest days of this war.
The Killer Angels is an historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. The book captures the human nature of many historical figures over three fateful days in rural Pennsylvania in 1863. North and South, Yankee and Confederate; The Killer Angels provides a glimpse into the hearts and souls of some of the men who fought in this infamous battle and their own reasons for being in a fight to the death against their fellow countrymen.
As a result of its critical location, Vicksburg unified the southern states. As long as the South held control of the Mississippi the southern states were not divided. Jefferson Davis described Vicksburg as, “"Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South's two halves together” (Boundless, 2016). One of the main reasons the North wanted to siege Vicksburg was because they could cut the southern states down the middle, leaving Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas separated from the rest of southern forces. Without unity of command, the South was left to a severe disadvantage. President Lincoln described Vicksburg as “See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket,” (Vicksburg Siege, n.d.). In order to hinder the unity of command the Vicksburg campaign was designed to shut off communication and supply with the rest of the Confederacy. Without communication with other Confederacy troops, no one was aware that there were troops trapped in Vicksburg. After gaining the control of Vicksburg, the North was able to further hinder the communication and unity of command between the southern states as they now were split down the middle. General Grant knew that when
The battle of Chancellorsville took place on April 30th to may 6th 1863. It was fought in Chancellorsville, Virginia.This was was fought to stop General Joseph Hooker’s attempt to flank General Lee’s men. In this battle the Union suffered 14,000 and the Confederates suffered 10,000.The Confederates also lost General Jackson, a major loss which will eventually feel the cost of losing him. Over this 7 day battle some major generals were in battle. Some of these names include General Robert E. Lee, Joseph Hooker, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Rodes, William Mahone and George Sykes. To start the war General Sykes and General Mahone meet at the orange turnpike. General Sykes men seem to be forcing the the Confederates back. General Rodes
It is our duty, as soon to be Second Lieutenants in the Army, to learn from history. Learning from mistakes in the past is necessary to understand the responsibilities we will soon have. The Battle of Gettysburg shows prime examples of the nine principles of war: Objective, Offensive, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Surprise and Simplicity. In the military today, we are overwhelmingly blessed with every asset that we have including technology and monetary resources the list could go on forever but the most invaluable asset is history. Although all nine principles of war are pertinent to success on the battlefield, only five will be discussed in this analysis.
Gettysburg was fought during the Civil War between the Union Army of the Potomac led by General Meade, and the Confederate Army commanded by General R.E. Lee. The battle only was waged over the course of three days, but it would prove to be the most costly of the entire Civil War. In this paper, we will show how the Confederacy failed to identify certain principles of war, which lead them to incorrectly conduct a center of gravity and critical vulnerability analysis on the Union. Because of this failure, the Confederacy opened the door for the Union to score a decisive victory.
from April 29 to May 6, 1863 as part of the Civil War. To be more precise, the battle of Chancellorsville took place in the vicinity of Fredericksburg where other two battles took place. The Confederate army was led by General Robert E. Lee, while the Union army was led by Major General Joseph Hooker. Impressively, General Hooker’s army was composed with as many as 130,000 soldiers. The Union army was very well trained, equipped, and had all odds in favor. The Union army was two times as big as that of General Robert E. Lee, whose army was composed of merely 60,000-65,000 Confederate soldiers. Of these, 30,000 soldiers were from General Stonewall