Battle of Chancellorsville - Research Paper Example

Battle of Chancellorsville The Battle of Chancellorsville still stands as General Robert E. Lee’s major victory in the American Civil War, while at the same time characterizing the worst defeat of the union soldiers under General Joseph Hooker (Gallagher, 27). Nevertheless, the armies of the confederates also suffered a major blow during the battle, after General Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by some of the confederate troops who mistook him and his battalion for the union troops, an occurrence that weakened the confederate army by far, considering that he served as the greatest strategic mind that the confederate South ever had (Hamlin, 12). The Battle of Chancellorsville derived its name from a mansion near where the confederate and the union armies confronted each other, which the owner had named Chancellorsville. The Battle of Chancellorsville was fought between May 1 and 6, 1863, and was a culmination of the frustrated winter assault that the confederate and the union armies had spent confronting each other along the Rappahannock River (Stackpole, 36). General Hooker dispatched his union armies on April 27 1863, and by the 1stof May his battalion had managed to cross over the Rappahannock River and settle at Chancellorsville, which was a densely forested area within a wilderness. The major problem that confronted General Hooker’s armies is that by settling at Chancellorsville, they were not able to see or track the movements of the confederate soldiers, since they had settled in a densely forested area, which could not allow them trace General Lee’s armies’ movements. Thus, on May 2, General Lee ordered a foot soldier cavalry led by General Stonewall Jackson to swing into action and attack the union armies by surprise. The attack caught the union armies unaware, but they managed to resist and confront the confederate armies until the evening of that day, when darkness found the two sides disorganized for more battle, and thus the battle had to stop until the following day (Hotchkiss and William, 42). On the morning of May 3, the assault continued, and over the next three days, General Lee’s confederate armies had managed to push the union army back and forced it to retreat and cross over north of the Rappahannock River. Nevertheless, the union armies managed to draw more strength from the retreat and surged forward crossing the river and advancing towards the confederate armies, at which point General Lee subdivided his army into two sections, allowing them to attack the Union from different sides. Thus, on May 3, the major battle of Chancellorsville was fought, and the confederate soldiers met and defeated the union soldiers near the Salem Church (Watts, 72). Nevertheless, both sides suffered huge casualties, where the confederate armies are estimated to have suffered a casualty of 10,000 soldiers, while the union armies are estimated to have suffered a casualty of 14,000 soldiers. Thus in total, the Battle of Chancellorsville had cost both sides of the armies a casualty of well over 24,000 soldiers, and marked the major victory of the South confederates against the Northern union (Watts, 77). The union armies had mobilized a total of 130,000 soldiers for the Battle of Chancellorsville, while the confederate South had mobilized a relatively lesser army numbers at 60,000 soldiers. However, the nature of the terrain where the battle was fought defined the major reason why the union armies were defeated, since they could not trace the movement of the confederate soldiers, who were well acquainted with the territory which was within their borders. Secondly, the strategy that was adapted by General Robert Lee to divide his armies against the military war convention also serves as a major reason that enabled the confederate soldiers to defeat the union armies, since the division of the southern armies into two sections enabled the confederates to attack the union battalion from different sides. Confronted by a superior army that was more than twice his army, General Lee took the most daring military strategy of splitting his army into two, so that it could be possible to launch surprise attacks. This is because, it would have been easier for General Hooker’s army to trace the confederate army if only it was fighting as a single unit, and thus the surprise attacks that were launched by the confederate south could not have been possible (Gallagher, 103). Thus, the unexpected strategy became a very useful move, since it managed to distract the union armies from anticipating the surprise attacks, with General Lee leading the visible confederate battalion, while General Stonewall Jackson led the guerrilla unit that attacked and surprised the union armies just in the fall of the evening of May 2, when the union soldiers were settling to prepare dinner. The planning of the Battle of Chancellorsville started on April 29, after news reached the confederate generals that the union army had crossed over the Rappahannock River, and was preparing for an assault within the confederates zone. However, the Battle of Chancellorsville had been planned for long by the union armies, since it started being planned in January 1863 after General Joseph Hooker was appointed the new commander of the union forces (Hotchkiss and William, 46). General Hooker had taken over the command of the union armies when it was already highly demoralized, having been defeated in a series of previous battles that had left the union in a very vulnerable position. The first strategy that General Hooker adapted was organizing the soldiers into units of corps, to enable each of the corps regain their pride under the union service. Thus, having found the union army scattered under various demoralized regiments, General Hooker set on reorganizing and consolidating the regiments into a formidable army force under consolidated command (Stackpole, 51). General Hooker spent four months to prepare his union armies and by the end of April, he felt that his new army of the Potomac was well revitalized and able to stage a confrontation of the confederate south army of General Robert Lee, which was a very war-hardened army. The defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg had dealt the Union army a major blow, and there was hardly any enthusiasm amongst the army to continue engaging in the war. Thus, by the turn of 1863, it was almost becoming certain that the confederate South was headed for a win and for a subsequent secession (Hamlin, 81). This was the greatest worry for President Lincoln, since the subsequent secession of the confederate South would have turned out to be disastrous for him and the whole of America. Therefore, he had appointed General Hooker in early 1863 to revitalize the union army and help rebuild confidence in the union army, so that the South could not win in this battle. The major strategy of General Hooker was to build a large and centrally commanded army, which he felt was the only way through which the battle with the south could be won. Thus, having managed to build a large army, and having managed to restore the self-esteem of the union soldiers, General Hooker felt it was time to test his strategy of a large army assault. Consequently, he commissioned an army of 130,000soldiers, which was twice the number of armies that the confederate South under General Robert Lee could raise (Watts, 27). Therefore, the Battle of Chancellorsville was the major test for General Hooker’s military strategy, but it dealt him a huge blow, when he was eventually defeated. The significance of this battle is that it elevated the status of General Robert Lee as a military commander, for having been able to defeat the union army in the battle, despite the fact that the union army was more than twice his army. Works Cited Gallagher, Gary W. Chancellorsville: the battle and its aftermath. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Print. Hamlin, Augustus C. The Battle of Chancellorsville [microform]: the attack of Stonewall Jackson and his army upon the right flank of the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon, May 2, 1863. Chicago: Library of American civilization, 1970. 5-196. Print. Hotchkiss, Jed and William Allan. The battle-fields of Virginia: Chancellorsville: embracing the operations of the Army of northern Virginia, from the first battle of Fredericksburg to the death of Lieutenant-General Jackson. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1867. Print. Stackpole, Edward J. Chancellorsville; Lees greatest battle. Harrisburg, Pa: Stackpole Co., 1958. Print. Watts, John. Civil War combat: The battle of Chancellorsville. New York: A&E Television Networks, 2002. Print. Read More