The Battle of Chancellorsville Essay

bloody and costly years for both sides we come to the date of July 1,

The Battle of Gettysburg is considered to be the turning point of the Civil War. Sadly, the Battle of Gettysburg was the battle that involved the highest amount of casualties in the entire war. The battle was fought from July 1-July 3, 1863. The Union force that was at Gettysburg was Army of the Potomac, and was lead by General George Meade. General Meade had never led an Army and had just received this position right before the battle began. Leading the Confederate Army of Virginia was General Robert E. Lee, who lead his Army to multiple victories before the Battle of Gettysburg. This critical battle resulted in an Union victory, but at a very severe cost, as both sides suffered a total of 46,281 casualties. The 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 Gettysburg was the most decisive battle for the North, and it lasted for a total of three days. It began on July 1 and ended on July 3, 1863. The Confederacy was going on the offensive and was beginning to venture into Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington D.C. They encountered Union troops as they advanced towards Harrisburg where they planned to cut off Union supply lines and to steal provisions that they needed. The Battle of Gettysburg became the bloodiest multi-day battle ever fought in United States history. At the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union claimed victory, and they would use this psychological advantage throughout the rest of the Civil War.

Prior to the battle, Both armies recently fought each other recently at the battle of Chancellorsville. Lee victoriously won the Battle of Chancellorsville against the former command of the Potomac, Major-General Joseph Hooker. Hooker after the loss at Chancellorsville, was relieved of command By President Lincoln and Gen. George Meade replaced Hooker as the commander of the army of the Potomac().

There were several reasons for the defeat of the Confederacy which included no industrial base, (Donald 1996, p. 99) inadequate transportation net (Donald, 1996, p. 99), and bickering among the generals (McPherson & Hogue, 2009, p. 365) etc., but the overriding factor was that the Confederacy never became a nation (Donald, 1996, p. 100). That is, they seceded because the Southern states believed they had the right as independent States to do so (Donald, 1996, p. 7). The South lost because they never stopped believing this. No state could depend on any other for full support of the war. The Governor of Georgia specifically prohibited his troops from fighting outside the state for many months. Many governors set limits on how many

After the Union’s defeat at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln once again made a change in the Union Army’s leadership. General Ambrose Burnside was replaced with Major General Joseph Hooker. Hooker and Lincoln both agreed that the key to victory in the war was the destruction of Lee’s Army in a decisive battle (Sears 57-62). Hooker’s plan to accomplish this was to use his 130,000 soldiers and launch a double envelopment of Lee’s 60,000 men still camped at Fredericksburg.

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 battle of Fredericksburg started on December 11th and ended on December 15th 1862. The two generals that were a part of this war was general Robert E. Lee and general Ambrose Burnside. Burnside had a plan to cross the Rappahannock river at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the confederate capital of Richmond before lees army could stop him. But before Burnside could do that they had a problem which were pontoon bridges which gave lee enough time to move his army. They finally had time to build the bridges while they were under fire. While all that was happening the Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a strongly fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye's Heights.

As the Army of the Potomac held off the Confederates from attempting to make their way through the North, it was Mclellan’s last major battle while he was the commander of the Army of the Potomac. On November 9th, 1862, the Union decided to appoint Major General Ambrose Burnside. He was not in command for long because he didn’t shine in his opportunity against the Confederates in the Battle of Fredericksburg. After a crushing defeat at the battle of Fredericksburg, the Union made a quick change of command by appointing Major General Joseph Hooker. They thought he could get the Union to get back on a roll, but they thought wrong. Against General Robert E. Lee, the Army of the Potomac didn’t fare so well. With another wrong choice of a strong commander who could not lead them to victory, they hand picked Major General George G. Meade. He was picked only days before the most important battle in the Civil War at Gettysburg. While the Army of the Potomac was holding off the final push of the confederates into the North, Meade got his first victory under his belt as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. With this victory, the Union knew that Meade had the skills required to lead the Army of the Potomac. Meade and his army cruised to victory while handing the Confederates losses left and right. He later witnessed the surrender of Robert E Lee and his Confederate Army at Appomattox

The Battle of Chancellorsville started on April 30, 1863 and lasted through May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In this battle General Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate), while Major General Joseph Hooker led the Army of the Potomac (Union). Before the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Potomac army was led by General Ambrose Burnside, who only commanded in the battle at Fredericksburg which led Lincoln to put Major General Hooker in command. With Hooker in charge the Potomac army was in “tip-top condition, and with more strength than ever before.” With the Potomac being double the size and much stronger than Lee’s army, Hooker made the first move.

The battle of Spotsylvania was a really bloody. The Union Army of the Potomac consisted of 100,000 soldiers led by generals Ulysses S. Grant and George Meade. The Confederate Army of Virginia was nearly half the size with only 52,000 soldiers. They were led by General Robert E. Lee. General Grant began the campaign in early May, marching his army into Virginia. The Confederates dug in and waited for the Union to attack. Grant's army attacked several times over the next few days. On May 12, Grant massed his soldiers for a major attack on the center of the Confederate line. They smashed through the line and split the Confederate Army down the middle. However, the Confederates didn't give up. They fought really hard and managed to hold off the

Lincoln felt that the destruction of Lee’s army should be the primary goal, not the capture of a Southern city, however, he approved Burnside’s plan. This was mainly due to the fact that Burnside was actually moving the army in pursuit of Lee. Burnside’s first act as commander was to divide his army into three grand divisions, the right commanded by Major General Sumner, the center commanded by Major General Hooker, and the left commanded by Major General Franklin. Once this was completed he set forth for Virginia with a compliment of 100,000 men.

In the next pages I will explain why Fredericksburg was such a tragedy. Why it was a big morale booster for the South, but a disappointment for the North?

On December 12 , they crossed over and on the 13, mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye’s Heights that resulted in staggering casualty Union generals C. Feger Jackson and George Bayard, and Confederate generals Thomas R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg were killed. There was nearly 200,000 combatants it was the largest amount of concentration of soldiers. Burnside’s plan at Fredericksburg was to use the nearly 60,000 men in Maj. William B. Franklin’s Left Grand