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THE CAMPAIGN BEGINS: APRIL 27-30
Reynolds and Sedgwick cross the Rappahannock River below
Fredericksburg to hold the Confederate army in place while Hooker leads
the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps across Kelly's Ford, above town,
effectively flanking Lee's Fredericksburg defenses. Sickles supports the
Union army's right wing, while Conch sends two divisions of the Second
Corps to U.S. Ford as a diversion.
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Initial execution of the plan was splendid. Three Federal corps
marched upriver on April 27, got across the Rappahannock and Rapidan
with minimal delays, and by late afternoon of April 30 clustered near
Chancellorsville. Couch's two divisions hurried to join them—having
crossed the Rappahannock at United States Ford when Confederates on the
right bank of the river withdrew in response to reports of heavy enemy
activity to the west. Back at Fredericksburg, Union pontoons were in
place by dawn on April 29, allowing thousands of Sedgwick's infantry to
move into position opposite Lee's lines below the town. Musketry and
artillery fire soon echoed along the river, continuing through the
balance of that day and the next.
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WHILE HOOKER'S MAIN FORCE CROSSED THE RAPPAHANNOCK UPRIVER FROM
FREDERICKSBURG, SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST AND SIXTH CORPS CROSSED ON PONTOON
BRIDGES BELOW THE TOWN. (HW)
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Many Union soldiers sensed that they had stolen a march on the crafty
Lee. On the afternoon of April 30, George Meade shed his usual restraint
to greet Henry Slocum at Chancellorsville with unabashed enthusiasm:
"This is splendid, Slocum; hurrah for old Joe; we are on Lee's flank,
and he does not know it. You take the Plank Road toward Fredericksburg,
and I'll take the Pike, or vice versa, as you prefer, and we'll get out
of this Wilderness."
Meade alluded to the major east-west routes through the
Wilderness—the Orange Plank Road and the Orange Turnpike, both of
which connected Orange Court House and Fredericksburg. The turnpike and
plank road entered the area on separate beds but came together at
Wilderness Church west of Chancellorsville to form a single road. They
diverged again at Chancellorsville with the plank road veering sharply
southeast, only to rejoin the turnpike just east of Zoan Church for the
last few miles to Fredericksburg. Unnamed by Meade the River Road
provided a third route to the rear of Lee's position along the
Rappahannock, angling northeast from Chancellorsville to trace a large
arc on its way to the town. These three avenues lay open to the Federal
flanking forces on the afternoon of April 30, but there would be no more
marching that day. At 2:15 P.M., Hooker dispatched instructions from
Federal headquarters at Falmouth for the elements of the turning column
to halt at Chancellorsville, where he would join them that night.
Hooker arrived at Chancellorsville between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M. He
found not a town or village but a rather imposing country residence.
Begun in the early nineteenth century by the Chancellor family, the
building had been enlarged several times, functioning as an inn on the
turnpike for many years. Traffic had decreased markedly by 1860, and the
Chancellors then used the structure, which they called Chancellorsville,
as a family home. The rambling brick house would serve as headquarters
for the Army of the Potomac. Before departing for Chancellorsville (but
after issuing his orders halting the turning column), Hooker had
transmitted a congratulatory message: "It is with heartfelt
satisfaction," he stated, "the commanding general announces to the army
that the operations of the last three days have determined that our
enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defenses
and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits
him."
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"O THE HORROR OF THAT DAY!"
Although its name implies that it was a village Chancellorsville was
actually nothing more than a large brick house with a few scattered
dependencies set in the heart of the Wilderness. The building was
constructed by the Chancellor family in the early 1800s as an inn to
accommodate travelers using the Orange Turnpike, and Frances Chancellor
and her family were living at the house in 1863, when Joe Hooker
occupied it as his headquarters. For two days Mrs. Chancellor, her
children, and a few other local people remained sheltered in the house
while the battle raged around them. But on May 3 Confederate artillery
shells set the building on fire, compelling those inside to flee for
safety. Sue Chancellor, then an eleven-year-old girl, described the
arrival of the Union army at her home and the battle that followed. The
Union officer she mentions was Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Joseph
Dickinson of Hooker's staff.
"There were in the house my mother, her six daughters, her half-grown
son, Miss Kate F, Aunt Nancy, and a little negro girl left by her mother
when she went away to the Yankees. We put on all the clothes we could,
and my sisters fastened securely in their hoop skirts the spoons and
forks and pieces of the silver tea service which the engineers had given
my mother.. . . Other valuables were secreted as best they could be.
Presently the Yankees began to come, and they said that Chancellorsville
was to be General Hooker's headquarters, and we must all go into one
room at the back of the house. They took all our comfortable rooms for
themselves, while we slept on pallets on the floor . . . . General
Hooker did not come until the next day. He paid no attention to my
mother, but walked in and gave his orders. We never sat down to a meal
again in that house, but they brought food to us in our room. If we
attempted to go out, we were ordered back. We heard cannonading, but did
not know where it was. We were joined by our neighbors, who fled or were
brought to Chancellorsville house for refuge, until there were sixteen
women and children in that room. From the windows we could see couriers
coming and going and knew that the troops were cutting down trees and
throwing up breastworks. I know now that they were pretty well satisfied
with their position and were confident of victory.
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ON APRIL 30. THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CLEARING WAS FILLED WITH MULES,
SOLDIERS, AND WAGONS. FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS IT WOULD BE THE HEART OF
THE UNION ARMY'S POSITION. (LC)
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Well, we got through Thursday and Friday as best we could, but on
Saturday, the 2d of May, the firing was much nearer, and General Hooker
ordered us to be taken to the basement. The house was full of wounded.
They had taken our sitting room as an operating room and our piano as an
amputating table. One of the surgeons came to my mother and said, 'There
are two wounded Rebels here, and if you wish you can attend to them,'
which she did.
There was water in the basement over our shoetops, and one of the
surgeons brought my mother down a bottle of whisky and told her that we
should all take some, which we did, with the exception of Aunt Nancy,
who said: 'No sah, I ain't gwine tek it; I might git pizened.'
There was firing and fighting, and they were bringing in the wounded
all that day; but I must say that they did not forget to bring us some
food. It was late that day when the awful time began. Cannonading on all
sides and such shrieks and groans, such commotion of all kinds! We
thought that we were frightened before, but this was beyond everything
and kept up until after dark. Upstairs they were bringing in the
wounded, and we could hear their screams of pain. This was Jackson's
flank movement, but we did not know it then. Again we spent the night,
sixteen of us, in that one room, the last night in the old house.
Early in the morning they came for us to go into the cellar, and in
passing through the upper porch I saw how the chairs were riddled with
bullets and the shattered columns which had fallen and injured General
Hooker. O the horror of that day! The piles of legs and arms outside the
sitting room window and the rows and rows of dead bodies covered with
canvas! The fighting was awful, and the frightened men crowded into the
basement for protection from the deadly fire of the Confederates, but an
officer came and ordered them out, commanding them not to intrude upon
the terrorstricken women. Presently down the steps the same officer came
precipitously and bade us get out at once, 'For madam, the house is on
fire, but I will see that you are protected and taken to a place of
safety.' This was Gen. Joseph Dickinson. . . . Cannon were booming and
missiles of death were flying in every direction as this terrified band
of women and children came stumbling out of the cellar. If anybody
thinks that a battle is an orderly attack of rows of men, I can tell
them differently, for I have been there.
"The woods around the house were a sheet of fire, the air was
filled with shot and shell, horses were running, rearing, and screaming,
the men, a mass of confusion, moaning, cursing, and praying."
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The sight that met our eyes as we came out of the dim light of that
basement beggars description. The woods around the house were a sheet of
fire, tThe air was filled with shot and shell, horses were running,
rearing, and screaming, the men, a mass of confusion, moaning, cursing,
and praying. They were bringing the wounded out of the house, as it was
on fire in several places .... Slowly we picked our way over the
bleeding bodies of the dead and wounded, General Dickinson riding ahead,
my mother walking alongside with her hand on his knee, I clinging close
to her, and the others following behind. At the last look our old home
was completely enveloped in flames.
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Once at the crossroads, Hooker brimmed with confidence. Sickles's
Third Corps would join the turning column early the next morning. The
commanding general would then oversee an advance he believed certain to
unnerve the previously unflappable R. F. Lee. Within earshot of a
newspaper correspondent, Hooker stated, "The rebel army is now the
legitimate property of the Army of the Potomac. They may as well pack up
their haversacks and make for Richmond. I shall be after them."
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RESPONSIBILITY FOR GUARDING THE FORDS ABOVE FREDERICKSBURG FELL TO DICK
ANDERSON. WHEN UNION TROOPS CROSSED BEYOND HIS LEFT FLANK, ANDERSON FELL
BACK TO ZOAN CHURCH. (BL)
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Lee's position did seem nearly hopeless. Caught between the hammer of
the flanking force at Chancellorsville and Sedgwick's solid anvil at
Fredericksburg, his best option might be to slip southward in search of
a better tactical situation. But as so often in the past, the
Confederate chieftain opted for a daringly unpredictable response. Jeb
Stuart's hardworking troopers—free to roam the flanks of the army
because so many of Stoneman's cavalrymen had ridden
southward—supplied intelligence on April 29 about Federal crossings
at Kelly's Ford and enemy columns moving toward the fords on the
Rapidan. That evening Lee ordered Richard H. Anderson to go to
Chancellorsville and instructed Lafayette McLaws to prepare his division
to follow. Anderson reached his destination about midnight to find
Brigadier General William Mahone's and Brigadier General Carnot Posey's
brigades, which had fallen back from United States Ford earlier in the
day. Apprised that a heavy force of Union infantry was bearing down on
the crossroads—and under orders from Lee "to select a good line and
fortify it strongly"—Anderson withdrew to a ridge just beyond the
eastern edge of the Wilderness. This position, near a small Baptist
church with the unusual name Zoan, covered the plank road, the turnpike,
and the Old Mine or Mountain Road that linked the turnpike with United
States Ford. Soon reinforced by a third of his brigades, Brigadier
General Ambrose R. Wright's Georgians, Anderson ordered the men to dig
in. Their efforts created some of the first field fortifications
constructed by the Army of Northern Virginia.
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OPTIMISM PERVADED THE UNION RANKS ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 30 "OUR ENEMY
MUST NOW INGLOURIOUSLY FLY." HOOKER ANNOUNCED TO THE ARMY, "OR COME OUT
FROM BEHIND HIS DEFENSES AND GIVE US BATTLE ON OUR OWN GROUND. WHERE
CERTAIN DESTRUCTION AWAITS HIM." (NPS)
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Through a tense April 29 and into the next day, Lee watched Union
movements at Fredericksburg and pondered intelligence about activity
upriver. Hooker had kept him off balance since February, when he had
confessed to Mrs. Lee his inability to fathom the Federal commander's
intentions: "I owe Mr. F. J. Hooker no thanks for keeping me here in
this state of expectancy. He ought to have made up his mind long ago
what to do." Uncertainty ended on April 30 when Lee decided that
Sedgwick intended nothing more than a facade of aggressiveness at
Fredericksburg. "It was now apparent that the main attack would be made
upon our flank and rear," Lee later explained. "It was therefore
determined to leave sufficient troops to hold our lines [at
Fredericksburg], and with the main body of the army to give battle to
the approaching column."
How would Lee divide his small arrmy to keep an eye on Sedgwick,
Jubal Early would remain at Fredericksburg with his division from
Jackson's Second Corps. Brigadier General William Barksdale's brigade of
Mississippians from McLaws's division, and roughly one-quarter of the
army's artillery—a total of 9,000 soldiers and 56 guns. The rest of
the Second Corps would march westward to join Anderson and McLaws for a
showdown with Hooker's main body.
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WHILE HOOKER CROSSED THE RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER ABOVE FREDERICKSBURG,
SEDGWICK'S GUNS SHELLED LEE'S LINE BEHIND THE CITY IN AN EFFORT TO HOLD
THE CONFEDERATE ARMY IN PLACE. (LC)
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