If you read my blog yesterday you know that I explained Appomattox Court House is a town. Today I am going to tell you that Chancellorsville is not a town, it is a house! Go figure. The battle of Chancellorsville is really interesting. The Union was defeated, mostly by itself, and had about 17,000 casualties to Robert E. Lee’s 13,000 casualties. Two awful things happened, though, that made this win a bitter one for the Confederacy. First and least important, was that the triumph gave the South confidence that perhaps they shouldn’t have had. The second, and most important, Andrew, “Stonewall” Jackson was killed.
Jackson was shot by friendly fire on the night of May 2, 1863. He was hit in the left arm twice, breaking bones and causing a compound fracture. Soldiers were right there to help him, and tied his arm to stop the bleeding, then they put him on a stretcher. Two men were carrying him when a stray artillery shell hit one of the men, mangling both arms. Of course, he dropped Jackson. Quickly, Jackson was raised again by four carriers to shoulder level and was being transported to the field hospital. In the dark, one of the carriers tripped over a dead Union soldier. Again, Jackson was dropped, this time he hit the ground on the shoulder and arm of his left side. By the time he arrived at the field hospital, he had lost a great deal of blood. They amputated his arm the next day, and he began to recover. Four days later, he developed pneumonia and died seven days after he’d been injured. Jackson was a “brilliant” leader, and there is a lot of speculation about how the war would have turned out if he had not been shot that night.
We ate lunch at the place where Jackon’s arm is buried. Only a group of hardcore history geeks would be pleased with that!
I said earlier that the Union was defeated by itself at Chancellorsville. The Union outnumbered its enemy two and a quarter to one. The Union had 130,000 troops available and the Confederacy had 60,000. There is no reason in the world that they should have lost. The problem was their leader, Thomas Hooker. According to Robert Krick, our scholar and guide today, Hooker was “a sleeze” and was well known by Robert E. Lee. “Anyone else in command of the Union would have won. Hooker just didn’t pay attention.” Hooker didn’t notice that Lee was moving troops around in order to flank him. In fact, Lee “snuck 30,000 troops and 115 pieces of artillery down a narrow road six miles long in order to flank Hooker.” We walked down a part of that road this morning. It was such a beautiful and quiet place, it was hard to imagine the horrible loss of life that happened in that area.
30,000 Confederate soldiers snuck down this road for six miles to get into position to flank the Union troops.
Scholars debate whether Hooker was drunk during the battle. Some are quite sure he was. Another camp of scholars think that he wasn’t drinking but should have been. Hooker surely had a drinking problem, and some think that he quit drinking before this battle and may have been impaired by withdrawal symptoms. Whatever, he blew it and lots of men died because of it.
When the Rebels were in place, they attacked. Bob Krick explained to us that “The ultimate nightmare in battle is an attack behind and at your flank. The only thing you can do in this event is run away.” The Southern soldiers were a “torrent of animated destruction” charging and running as they yelled and screamed. The result was a “Yankee stampede” in front of them.
