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But Hooker remained overawed by Lee. Thinking only of the defensive,
he visited Sickles's position at Hazel Grove about dawn on Sunday, May
3. There he stood on ground that would decide the coming day's battle.
The Hazel Grove plateau rose between the positions of Lee and Stuart.
Almost precisely as high as Fairview and connected to that site by a
clear vista through the forest, it afforded an excellent position for
artillery. If Lee were to unite the divisions of Anderson and McLaws
with those under Stuart—an absolute necessity for the Confederates
on May 3—he must first devise a plan to wrest control of Hazel
Grove from Sickles. Then Confederates could place artillery on the
plateau to fire into the Twelfth Corps lines south of the plank road and
west of Chancellorsville.
Hooker spared Lee the trouble of capturing Hazel Grove by ordering
Sickles to abandon the position and take up a new line along the plank
road. Against his better judgment (and with consequences two months
hence at Gettysburg, when he saw the Peach Orchard as a comparably
strong piece of ground that must be occupied), Sickles obediently
carried out Hooker's instructions. First light had begun to penetrate
the woods around the plateau when the soldiers and gunners of the Third
Corps began their withdrawal. Before the last of them had departed,
James J. Archer's Confederate brigade attacked from the northwest,
capturing 100 prisoners and four cannon.
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HIRAM BERRY PLACED HIS DIVISION NORTH OF THE PLANK ROAD IN AN EFFORT TO
BLOCK JACKSON'S ADVANCE. HE WAS KILLED ON MAY 3 AS HE CROSSED THE
FIRE-SWEPT ROAD. (BL)
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A U.S. CONGRESSMAN BEFORE THE WAR, DAN SICKLES OWED HIS HIGH RANK MORE
TO POLITICAL CONNECTIONS THAN TO MILITARY PROWESS, BUT ON MAY 3 HIS
CORPS FOUGHT WELL. (LC)
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Archer's brigade constituted part of a broader offensive orchestrated
by Jeb Stuart. The cavalryman had worked through the night to prepare
Jackson's three divisions for more fighting on Sunday. As day broke with
a heavy dew on the field, A. P. Hill's division (commanded by Brigadier
General Henry Heth since Hill had been wounded) was nearest the
Federals, Colston's in a second line 300-500 yards west, and Rodes's,
which had done the hardest fighting on May 2, in a third line near
Wilderness Church. All three divisions straddled the plank road. Hill's
middle brigades stood just east of the works constructed earlier in the
battle and then abandoned by Slocum's Federals. The divisions of Alpheus
Williams and Hiram Berry faced Hill's men south and north of the road
respectively.
Stuart's infantry advanced about 5:30 A.M. As soon as Archer captured
Hazel Grove, Porter Alexander, Lee's ablest artillerist, received word
"to immediately crown the hill with 30 guns." "They were close at hand,
and all ready," recalled Alexander, "and it was all done very quickly."
The fighting west and southwest of Chancellorsville rapidly swelled into
the most brutal of the campaign. The brigades of Anderson and McLaws
added their weight to the attacks, pressuring the Federals from the
south and southeast. Dense vegetation greeted most of the attackers. The
defenders fought doggedly from behind their fieldworks. Hill's and
Colston's divisions gained ground here and there, only to be driven back
by Union counterattacks. Robert Rodes then threw in his brigades, which
relentlessly pressed toward Fairview. On the plank road, Hiram Berry
received a mortal wound. "My God, Berry, why did this have to happen?"
asked a grief-stricken Joseph Hooker when he saw his lieutenant's body.
"Why does the man I relied on so have to be taken away in this manner?"
Not far away, Brigadier General Elisha F. Paxton of the Stonewall
Brigade also lay dead. Certain he would die on May 3, Paxton had
lingered over a photograph of his wife just before the battle opened.
Untold others met similar fates through the early morning hours.
The élan of Stuart's infantry and superb service by
Confederate artillerists helped decide the issue. Many Confederate
brigades seemed intent on fighting to exhaustion—none more so than
Dodson Ramseur's North Carolinians, who lost upward of 750 of their
1,500 men in less than an hour. "On beholding the shattered remnants of
the . . . brigade," observed an officer in one of the regiments, Ramseur
"wept like a child." In support of the assaults, 20 Southern cannon
along the plank road joined those at Hazel Grove to punish Union
infantry and duel with 40 Federal pieces at Fairview. For the only time
during the war in Virginia, Confederate gunners enjoyed a decided edge
in a major engagement. Major William Ransom Johnson Pegram, just
twenty-one years old and perhaps the most aggressive artillerist on the
field, happily shouted to Porter Alexander amid the battle's din: "A
glorious day, Colonel, a glorious day!"
(click on image for a PDF version)
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LEE ASSAILS HOOKER'S LINE: MAY 3, DAWN
At sunrise, Lee makes a determined assault against Hooker's position.
Anderson and McLaws press in from the south and east, while Stuart hurls
Jackson's divisions against the western face of the Union line. After
four hours of heavy fighting, Hooker will abandon Chancellorsville and
fall back to a new line closer to the river.
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Clermont Best's guns answered bravely but suffered converging fire
from enemy cannon along the plank road and at Hazel Grove. Union
ammunition chests ran low as Hooker ignored Best's pleas for fresh
rounds. Union infantry west of Chancellorsville grudgingly gave ground
on both sides of the plank road. "My line of guns . . . kept to its work
manfully until about 9 A.M.," reported Best with pride, "when, finding
our infantry in front withdrawn, our right and left turned, and the
enemy's musketry already so advanced as to pick off our men and horses,
I was compelled to withdraw my guns to save them." The last of Best's
pieces left Fairview by 9:30 A.M. A Federal counterattack briefly
regained the position within half an hour, but at ten o'clock Hooker
issued orders to abandon it for good. The loss of Fairview compelled
abandonment of the Chancellorsville crossroads as well. Soon the Army of
the Potomac was in retreat toward a defensive line nearer the
Rappahannock. Parts of the Second, Third, and Twelfth corps waged a
rear-guard action (Hooker had not committed their comrades in the First,
Fifth, or Eleventh corps).
The soldiers of Lee and Stuart reunited shortly after ten o'clock.
Forming a blazing crescent that closed in on the crossroads from the
west, south, and east, Confederate infantry celebrated in wild triumph
as Lee rode into the clearing around the Chancellor house. An artist
could seek no more dramatic scene: Flames rose from Chancellorsville,
providing a memorable backdrop as Lee's troops shouted their devotion
and exulted in their morning's accomplishment. Colonel Charles Marshall
of the general's staff saw Lee astride Traveller "in the full
realization of all that soldiers dream of—triumph." It must have
been from such a tableau, added Marshall, "that men in ancient times
rose to the dignity of gods."
The relative circumstances of Lee and Hooker at that moment
graphically revealed the unequal fates of war. While Lee imbibed the
adoration of his victorious soldiers, Hooker stood dazed and detached at
the Bullock house a mile to the north. He had been stunned about 9:15
when a Confederate artillery projectile struck a pillar at
Chancellorsville against which he was leaning. Thrown to the ground and
rendered briefly unconscious, Hooker had mounted unsteadily, let his
troops see him, then ridden to the Bullock place, where he rested on a
blanket and took some spirits. He rapidly regained a measure of
lucidity, then summoned Couch to dispense instructions for withdrawing
the army from Chancellorsville.
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FORTY CANNON AT FAIRVIEW ANCHORED THE UNION LINE. IN THIS SKETCH, ARTIST
ALFRED WAUD CAPTURED A UNION BATTERY IN ACTION NEAR CHANCELLORSVILLE.
(NPS)
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JEB STUART HURLED JACKSON'S DIVISIONS AGAINST THE UNION LINE ONE AFTER
ANOTHER. AFTER FOUR HOURS OF STUBBORN FIGHTING, UNION COMMANDERS ORDERED
A RETREAT. (FROM MEMOIRS OF STONEWALL JACKSON)
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HOOKER APPEARED ON HORSEBACK AT THE FRONT, MAKING HIM A CONSPICUOUS
TARGET FOR CONFEDERATE SHARPSHOOTERS. IN THE END, IT WAS A CANNONBALL
RATHER THAN A BULLET THAT TOOK HIM OUT OF ACTION. (NPS)
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THE HEAVIEST FIGHTING OF THE CAMPAIGN TOOK PLACE ON THE MORNING OP MAY
3. IN THIS SKETCH, UNION TROOPS OP THE THIRD AND FIFTH CORPS REPEL A
CONFEDERATE ASSAULT. (NPS)
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Could Lee maintain the morning's offensive momentum? His mind
scarcely had time to focus on that question before alarming news arrived
from Fredericksburg. John Sedgwick's men had broken through Jubal
Early's defenders and were on their way toward Chancellorsville.
Since fighting erupted in the Wilderness on the morning of May 1,
Sedgwick and Early had presided over an often neglected phase of the
Chancellorsville campaign. Assigned the role of occupying Lee at
Fredericksburg, Sedgwick had shifted thousands of soldiers from the
Sixth and First corps across the Rappahannock below town on April 29.
They held their positions for three days, "assuming a threatening
attitude" late on May 1 in response to orders from Hooker (orders later
rescinded). Reynolds's corps departed for Chancellorsville on Saturday,
May 2, leaving Sedgwick with about 24,000 men in his Sixth Corps and
Brigadier General John Gibbon's division of the Second Corps. A series
of orders flowed from army headquarters at Chancellorsville to Sedgwick
on May 2. The last of them, dated 10:10 P.M., arrived an hour later:
"The major-general commanding directs that you cross the Rappahannock at
Fredericksburg on the receipt of this order. and at once take up your
line of march on the Chancellorsville road until you connect with him.
You will attack and destroy any force you may fall in with on the road."
Although Sedgwick did not know it, Hooker expected him to retrieve Union
fortunes thrown into chaos by Jackson's flank attack.
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THE VICTORIOUS CHIEF
On May 3, the divided wings of the Confederate army reunited in the
fields surrounding the Chancellor house. Colonel Charles Marshall
described the ovation accorded to Lee by the troops as he entered the
clearing in his book, An Aide-de-Camp of Lee.
"On the morning of May 3, 1863, . . . the final assault was made upon
the Federal lines at Chancellorsville. General Lee accompanied the
troops in person, and as they emerged from the fierce combat they had
waged in the depths of that tangled wilderness, driving the superior
forces of the enemy before them across the open ground, he rode into
their midst. The scene is one that can never be effaced from the minds
of those who witnessed it. The troops were pressing forward with all the
ardour and enthusiasm of combat. The white smoke of musketry fringed the
front of the line of battle, while the artillery on the hills in the
rear of the infantry shook the earth with its thunder, and filled the
air with the wild shrieks of the shells that plunged into the masses of
the retreating foe. To add greater horror and sublimity to the scene,
Chancellor House and the woods surrounding it were wrapped in flames. In
the midst of this awful scene, General Lee, mounted upon that horse
which we all remember so well, rode to the front of his advancing
battalions. His presence was the signal for one of those outbursts of
enthusiasm which none can appreciate who have not witnessed them.
The fierce soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of
battle, the wounded crawling with feeble limbs from the fury of the
devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse. One long,
unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the
earth blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose
high above the roar of battle, and hailed the presence of the victorious
chief. He sat in the fall realization of all that soldiers dream
of—triumph; and as I looked upon him in the complete fruition of
the success which his genius, courage, and confidence in his army had
won, I thought that it must have been from such a scene that men in
ancient days rose to the dignity of gods."
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CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY STRUCK THE CHANCELLOR HOUSE AND SET IT ON FIRE.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE, THE BUILDING LAY IN RUINS. (USAMHI)
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Early's instructions from Lee on May 1 had outlined a subordinate
role. He was to "watch the enemy and try to hold him" at Fredericksburg,
retreating toward Richmond if attacked in "overpowering numbers" or
marching to Lee's support if Sedgwick recalled all or most of his units
from the Confederate side of the river. In response to garbled orders
delivered by Colonel R. H. Chilton of Lee's staff on the morning of May
2, Early started most of his men toward Chancellorsville. They had
progressed about a mile west on the plank road when word from William
Barksdale warned that Federals had advanced in strength against a small
Confederate force left at Fredericksburg. Early "determined to return at
once to my former position," and his troops "regained our former lines
without trouble about ten or eleven o'clock at night." During this
confusing period of march and countermarch, thought Early, Sedgwick
"might have smashed every thing to pieces, but for his excessive
caution."
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AMONG THE WOUNDED
"The afternoon slowly passed, a long and sorrowful one for us;
then the night came, the last night on earth for many who died for the
lack of the care they needed."
The Army of the Potomac contained thousands of new soldiers, many of
whom got their first taste of combat at Chancellorsville. Among the
newcomers was twenty-year-old Rice Bull of the 123rd New York
Volunteers. Bull enlisted in the Union army on August 13, 1862, in
response to President Lincoln's call for 300,000 additional troops, but
he did not see any combat until Chancellorsville. There, he got more
than his fill. On May 3, Confederate troops attacked the 123rd New York
near Fairview, and in the fighting Bull fell with a bullet in his side
and a shattered jaw. The following excerpt from his memoirs vividly
describes the immense suffering endured by wounded soldiers,
particularly those who had the misfortune of falling into enemy
hands.
"I had just fired my gun and was lowering it from my shoulder when I
felt a sharp sting in my face as though I had been struck with something
that caused no pain. Blood began to flow down my face and neck and I
knew that I had been wounded. Ransom Fisher standing next to me saw the
blood streaming down my face, and said, 'You are hit. Can't I help you
off?' I said. 'No, Ransom, I think I can get to the Surgeon without
help.' I took my knapsack that lay on the works in front of me and
started to go to the left of our Regiment where our Surgeons were
located. I passed in the rear of several Companies, all were firing
rapidly, and when back of Company K felt another stinging pain, this
time in my left side just above the hip. Everything went black. My
knapsack and gun dropped from my hands and I went down in a heap on the
ground.
I do not know how long it was before I became conscious but the
battle was raging furiously; two dead men who were not there when I fell
were lying close to me, one across my feet. . . .
The bullet that entered my right cheek had glanced along the jaw bone
and came out of my neck near the jugular vein. My second wound was in my
left side above the hip; the bullet came out near the back bone making a
ragged wound. It was difficult to turn either way to seek a comfortable
position as I had been hit on both sides. As yet there was little pain
but by night my jaw was stiff and swollen, my side was commencing to
give me trouble and I was hot and feverish. The clotted blood had
hardened so my clothing was chafing and irritating my wounds every time
I moved. . . .
The afternoon slowly passed, a long and sorrowful one for us; then
the night came, the last night on earth for many who died for the lack
of the care they needed. For those not so severely wounded nature was
kind, the night was beautiful, it was comfortably warm, and a full moon
shone down on us, making it almost as light as day. We were so far away
from the enemy's camps that we were not annoyed by them. We could
faintly hear in the distance the rumble of wagons passing along the
turnpike and the subdued faraway sound of fife and drum reached us. But
these sounds we did not heed, for around us were suffering men and the
air was filled with their cries and moans. At last it was quiet for all
were so exhausted that even in the pain they slept. Before morning many
died; we heard their cries no more. . . .
The morning of May 5th was bright and warm but our wounds had become
so sore and we were so stiff that those of us who were able did not feel
much like moving about. Many had died during the night. They were
gathered up and laid side by side in the rear of a lunette that had been
built by our soldiers before the battle to protect our artillery. This
collection of the dead continued every day while we were in the camp and
when we left scores lay there unburied. As time went on we faced a
terrible condition arising from the awful odor arising from the dead
horses and men that were lying all about the camp. As time went on the
stench became unberable. . . .
The morning of May 5th, Surgeons, under a flag of truce, reported at
the camp. . . . They found many that required amputation; the only
treatment they had for others was to give them a cerate with which to
rub their wounds. The Surgeons began their bloody work at once in the
immediate view of the wounded, some of whom were not more than ten feet
from the table. As each amputation was completed the wounded man was
carried to the old house and laid on the floor; the arm or leg was
thrown on the ground near the table, only a few feet from the wounded
who were laying near by. . . .
About noon thunder heads began to form in the west and south and
before one in the afternoon we heard the sound of thunder. . . . It was
about two in the afternoon when the storm started; it lasted about two
hours. . . .
The condition of most of the wounded was deplorable. More than half
had no tent covering, so had to take the full force of the storm. Many
could not move without help; they lay in the gutters between the rows,
and were half submerged. A few had the strength to sit up in the muddy
pool but the greater part lay sprawled in the mud and filth with nothing
between them and the ground but their soaked woolen blankets. Many did
not even have a blanket. I saw many men lying in from three to five
inches of water. We were told, though I did not see this, that on the
east side of the cabin two men were drowned. They were lying close under
the eaves and were unable to move when they were covered by the water
that fell from the roof. . . .
The night came and the rain increased. Those who were fortunate
enough to have a tent sat up, back to back to brace each other, either
shivering with chills or burning with fever from their wounds. There
were no lights about the camp, the darkness was impenetrable, and the
groans and shrieks of the wounded could be heard on every side. . . .
Not a thing had been done officially [by the Confederate army] either
for or against us who lay wounded. We were entirely ignored and were to
all appearance of no more consequence than the dead horses that lay
around us.
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CRUDE FARM BUILDINGS, LIKE THOSE PICTURED HERE, FREQUENTLY SERVED AS
FIELD HOSPITALS DURING THE BATTLES. IN MANY INSTANCES WOUNDED SOLDIERS
HAD NO SHELTER AT ALL. (NPS)
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Starvation that had threatened for several days became acute. The
badly wounded were getting weaker every hour and even the stronger were
breaking down. Wounds were feverish and festering and hunger was now
adding to our troubles; food was as necessary as nursing. Great numbers
were still laying in the mud, helpless. There were no privy vaults, but
had there been the majority were too weak to go to them. There still
remained nearly five hundred men in the camp. I must leave it to your
imagination for I cannot describe these awful conditions, which were
made worse by the stench from the dead men and horses. None of the men
or horses had been buried, The horses lay where they had died, the men
lay in a row side by side south of the cabin in sight of all the
wounded. . . .
By May 8th our wounds had all festered and were hot with fever; our
clothing which came in contact with them was so filthy and stiff from
the dried blood that it gravely aggravated our condition. Many wounds
developed gangrene and blood poisoning; lockjaw caused suffering and
death. While the stench from nearby dead horses and men was sickening it
was not worse than that from the living who lay in their own filth.
Finally, not the least of our troubles were the millions of flies that
filled the air and covered blood-saturated clothing when they could not
reach and sting the unbandaged wounds. As days went by none of these
conditions improved, except the cries of the mortally wounded gradually
lessened as they, one by one, were carried away and laid by the side of
those who had gone before them."
Bull remained on the battlefield for nine days until May 12, when
Union ambulances arrived under a flag of truce and carried him back to
safety across the Rappahannock River. He survived his wounds and
returned to his regiment within a year. He died in 1930 at the age of
eighty-eight.
— Excerpts from Rice Bull's memoirs courtesy of Presidio Press,
Novato, CA.
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