Decisions at Chancellorsville: The Sixteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle

＂Having won a considerable victory at Fredericksburg only months earlier, Gen. Robert E. Lee would again be tested by Gen. Joseph Hooker and the Federal Army at Chancellorsville. Hooker and the bulk of his army crossed the Rappahannock River at dawn on April 27, 1863, in conjunction with cavalry raids from Maj. Gen. George Stoneman. But Lee boldly divided his army, leaving a small force to defend Fredericksburg and attacking Hooker with the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia. As the battle wore on, Lee launched multiple attacks on Hooker’s defenses resulting in massive casualties for both sides. Lee divided his army again, sending Gen. Thomas ’Stonewall’ Jackson’s corps on a flanking maneuver that infamously resulted in the general’s injury by friendly fire and eventual death. Though the Confederate Army’s victory was assured, Lee equated the loss of Stonewall Jackson to the loss of his right hand, and as many months later Lee would find his army in a tide-turning defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg＂-- Provided by publisher.

SARAH KAY BIERLE is an education associate with the American Battlefield Trust. She has authored or edited more than a dozen books on the American Civil War, including Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song (Southern Illinois, 2020).