Significance Of The Battle Of Chancellorsville

Americans had been engaged in a Civil War which had been begun in April of 1861 with shots fired on a fort in South Carolina. In the summer of 1863 in a small town called Gettysburg, there would be a fierce battle fought between the Union Army of the Potomac led by General George G. Meade and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee. The events of the battle would overcome the losses suffered by the Union and put the Confederacy on the run. “Over 165,000 men would converge, and before the fighting ended, the ground would run red with blood. The battle was fierce, and the casualties proved it. But the casualties that resulted would not be in vain, at least for the Union; the formidable power

The Civil War, composed of the Union run by numerous generals replacing one another, and the Confederacy lead by Robert E. Lee, was and still is one of the most gruesome wars in American History, and the Battle of Gettysburg is considered by most as an incredible turning point of the war. This is due to how the Union brought down the Confederacy’s winning streak, and gave the Confederacy a huge blow to their manpower, supplies, and overall strength to win (Battle of Gettysburg, 1). Robert E. Lee, though a great general throughout the Civil War, was a failure during the Battle Gettysburg because he was not able to get his men to their jobs done in time. Another reason he was a failure was because of his plan to attack again on July 3rd which

The geography of the North destroyed the chances that the South had of winning. The number of casualties for the South was about the same as the North, but it affected the South way more because they had a way smaller amount of men. As a result, the south lost all of its morale and confidence in winning this war. Both armies, exhausted, held their positions until the night of July 4, when Lee withdrew. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War, costing the Union 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates suffered 25,000 casualties. The South had won most battles before the Battle of Gettysburg because they were fought in the South. Unfortunately, for the South, the Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the North and the North's geography was totally different from what they are accustomed to. Robert E. Lee wrote letters to Jefferson Davis saying he cannot fulfill his position as General. He states, “I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire. How can I fulfill the expectations of others?...”(Document C) His morale and confidence in these letters have been diminished. Abraham Lincoln on the other hand wrote the Gettysburg address. This speech made the south lose more of its morale and hope in the war. h In this speech he gave a new meaning to the war. The Battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point in the Civil War due to geography,

The Battle of Fredericksburg is remembered as the Confederate Army’s most one-sided victory in its campaign against the Union Forces of the North. It was also the first battle to occur shortly after President Abraham Lincoln had delivered his “Emancipation Proclamation” and the President was hard pressed for a victory to use to bolster public support for it. General George McClellan fresh of his victory against of General Robert E. Lee’s forces at Antietam was being pressured by the President to

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought by the largest number of soldiers, totaling 172,000 young men (“American Civil War”). During the Civil War, our nation was divided by the North (Union Army) and the South (Confederate Army) for opposing viewpoints on slavery and states’ rights. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought over three long, arduous days. The soldiers struggled under their respected generals in a 25 mile battle zone (“American Civil War”). This battle was a triumphant victory and a heart-wrenching loss for the troops of the Yankee North and Rebel South. The complexity of the Battle of Gettysburg brought together two fronts whose decisions and commitment would determine its outcome.

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

The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the American Civil War because the Confederate morale declined while the Union’s dramatically increased. “I have seen and heard

Although James McPherson presents Lincoln as having numerous qualities that defined him as a brilliant leader, he wastes no time in revealing what he believes to be Lincoln’s greatest strength. In his Introduction, McPherson states regarding Lincoln’s political leadership: “In a civil war whose origins lay in a political conflict over the future of slavery and a political decision by certain states to secede, policy could never be separated from national strategy…. And neither policy nor national strategy could be separated from military strategy” (McPherson, p.6). Lincoln could not approach the war from a purely martial standpoint—instead, he needed to focus on the issues that caused it. For the catalyst of the war was also the tool for its solution; a war started by differing ideologies could only be resolved through the military application of ideology. This non-objective approach to the waging of the war almost resembles the inspired approach McPherson brings to his examination of Lincoln himself.

The Battle of Gettysburg was clearly one of the biggest battles in the Civil War. General Robert Lee led his Northern Virginia Army to victory at Chancellorsville and was feeling a great deal of confidence ("Battle of Gettysburg"). He then decided with this confidence he would try a second attempt at invading the North. The reason Lee took his troops north was because he wanted to take the pressure off of the Virginia farms. Lee also thought that if he won any battles on northern territory, that it could possibly put pressure on President Lincoln to settle the war ("History Place - Battle of Gettysburg").

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.

     The South’s dominating strategy in winning the civil war was attrition. They believed they could wear down the political will of the North if they held out long enough to make the Northerners tired and question value of the means to achieve the ends. Military stalemates, guerilla war tactics and inconclusive battles would help the South achieve this goal. “Confederate armies did not have to invade and conquer the North: they needed only to hold out long enough to force the North to the conclusion that the price of conquering the South and annihilating its armies was too high, as Britain had concluded in 1781 and as the United States concluded…” (Why Did the Confederacy Lose?, pg 117)The South really enjoyed McClellan’s performance in the Southern theatre with his tendency to retreat when he could have won. This was another helpful hand the South would need to cause attrition. In response, Lincoln knew he had to do two things to prevent attrition and win the war more quickly. He needed to fire McClellan, and shift the theme of the war in the view of the North so that it would not lose its thunder. He did this by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and converting the war for unionism into the war for morality. The

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 when the Southern United States seceded from the union. The first battle, taking only thirty-four hours, caused Lincoln to officially rally troops against the South. Most Northern Americans would eventually learn to love Lincoln’s courage; however, many Southern Americans would despise Lincoln. Throughout the civil war many lives were lost, and many families were torn apart. Lincoln would remain a strong figure throughout the war. He would give his people hope, he would give his people courage, and he would give his people strength. Around the time the Civil War was drawing to a close, Lincoln was being reelected. The general of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, surrendered after a battle in Virginia. His troops surrendered in April, a little over a

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