A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR

PART 3

Presented byGreg Caggiano, Instructor

Brookdale Community College

THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLEAPRIL 30- MAY 6, 1863

• “Mud March” of January, 1863• Union Army is Humiliated• No end of the war in sight• Burnside is replaced

AFTERMATH OF FREDERICKSBURG

• Nickname: Fightin’ Joe• Loved by his men• Brilliant organizer• Overconfident and cocky• Raises morale by introducing better sanitary conditions for food preparation• Creates different patches and logos for each corps

JOSEPH HOOKER

• To cross the Rappahannock River, converge on Chancellorsville, and surprise Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army• Attempts to flank Jackson’s men, but JEB Stuart figures this out and warns Jackson

HOOKER’S PLAN

• Much like when Burnside was in command, Hooker’s fellow officers grew to dislike him very quickly

• After ordering his men to march forward, he then sent a message to them ordering a halt

• Hooker thinks he has Lee right where he wants him• “My plans are perfect. May God have mercy on Robert E. Lee, for I shall have

none.”

DISSENTION IN THE RANKS…AGAIN

• The Union Army outnumbers the Confederates 100,000 to 30,000, because he chose to advance his men with only Jackson’s corps

• Hooker has his men dig in around camp, and says that Lee will not be able to defeat him because of that

OUTNUMBERED…AGAIN

• Even though the battle was only 2 days old, the generals and Hooker himself knew something was wrong

• Years later, Hooker said, “I just lost confidence in Fightin’ Joe.”• “The retrograde movement had prepared me for something of the kind, but to

hear from [Hooker's] own lips that the advantages gained by the successful marches of his lieutenants were to culminate in fighting a defensive battle in that nest of thickets was too much, and I retired from his presence with the belief that my commanding general was a whipped man.”- Darius Couch

LOSS OF CONFIDENCE

• After Stuart scouts the Union position and informs Lee, he orders Jackson to commit a daring surprise attack on the Union’s unguarded left flank on May 2

• An hour before sunset, Jackson attacks while the enemy is cooking dinner and unprepared, and they flee through the camp and past Hooker’s headquarters

• There is mass confusion for both sides, as men cannot find their regiments and don’t know where they are

SURPRISE ATTACK

• During the battle, a cannonball strikes Hooker’s house and a shingle falls off and hits him on the head, knocking him unconscious

• When he finally stands up and walks away, another cannonball lands where he was just laying

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

• Jackson scouts the Union position in the woods at night, when he rides near a regiment of South Carolina soldiers, who open fire, thinking he is the enemy

• He is struck in the arm, shoulder, and hand• The doctors amputate his arm, and his wounds heal, but he develops

pneumonia• “He’s lost his left arm, and I have lost my right.”- Robert E. Lee

THE WOUNDING OF JACKSON

THE MOST FAMOUS ARM IN THE WORLD

• Though it looked like they would be badly beaten, the Union rallies, and although they lose the overall battle, they inflict severe damage on the Confederates

• Final casualty figures:• USA: 17,000• CSA: 13,000

ACTIONS OF MAY 3-6

• Though the CSA Army had technically won the battle, their celebration was short lived

• Jackson would die of pneumonia on May 10• There was a sense of disbelief in the south• The Confederacy would never recover from his loss, as in later battles, his

presence was sorely needed• Example: Ewell at Gettysburg

• Known as a “Pyrrhic Victory”

A BITTERSWEET VICTORY

GETTYSBURGJuly 1-3, 1863

SITUATION REPORT: SPRING/SUMMER, 1863

• Union Army reeling after disastrous defeat at Chancellorsville• Joseph Hooker relieved of duties and replaced by George Meade• Confederacy trying to recover from loss of “Stonewall” Jackson at

Chancellorsville• Union Army potentially one major loss away from surrender/ ending the war• Grant having major success out west, but it is going unnoticed

A.P HillCSA

Henry HethCSA

John BufordUSA

John ReynoldsUSA

George MeadeUSA

Robert E. LeeCSA

CSA strength: ~70,000 USA strength: ~90,000

John Bell HoodCSA

Strong VincentUSA

“After this urgent protest against entering into battle at Gettysburg according to instructions - which protest is the first and only one I ever made during my entire military career - I ordered my line to advance and make the assault.” Gen. J.B Hood

James LongstreetCSA

Joshua Lawrence ChamberlainUSA

"My dead and wounded were nearly as great in number as those still on duty." Col. William Oates, CSA

Richard EwellCSA

"The town of Gettysburg looked as if some universal moving day had been interrupted by catastrophe.“- Bruce Catton

PICKETT’S CHARGE

• “General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.”- James Longstreet to Robert E. Lee, 3-July, 1863

Gen. Isaac Trimble, CSA Gen. Johnston Pettigrew, CSA

Gen. Lewis Armistead, CSA

Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, USA

• “For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think this time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago.”- William Faulkner

GETTYSBURG AND SURROUNDING AREA

• Of the 53,000 casualties, 8,000 were killed. These bodies rotted in the hot July sun• More than 3,000 horse carcasses put into pyres and burned• The smell was horrific and could be smelled for miles• Photographers flocked to Gettysburg• Armies not obligated to bury dead or clean a town once a battle was fought• Responsibility of the town

• Looting strictly forbidden• Union soldiers buried individually, near where they lay in shallow graves• Confederate soldiers buried in shallow graves

AFTERMATH

• Union: feels the battle saved them, and gives them hope that the war will end in their favor

• Confederate: sentiment divided over whether the battle was a disaster or merely a setback

• “The results of this victory are priceless. ... The charm of Robert E. Lee's invincibility is broken. The Army of the Potomac has at last found a general that can handle it, and has stood nobly up to its terrible work in spite of its long disheartening list of hard-fought failures. ... Copperheads are palsied and dumb for the moment at least. ... Government is strengthened four-fold at home and abroad.”- George Templeton Strong

“WHAT IF?”

• What if…• …Heth’s men do not go to Gettysburg for shoes?• …Stuart was present during the entire battle?• …Longstreet did not delay his attack on July 2nd?• …Ewell takes Culp’s Hill on July 1st?• …Lee takes Longstreet’s advice on July 3rd?

• The most broad question for the war:• What if Jackson was not killed at Chancellorsville?