Battle of Chancellorsville - 163rd Anniversary of Robert E. Lee's tactical masterpiece...

May 1, 1863

Union Major General Joseph Hooker had skillfully crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers with a large portion of his 130,000-man Army of the Potomac, positioning much of it near Chancellorsville (a rural crossroads and tavern in dense, tangled forest known as the Wilderness). This put him in Lee’s rear. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, with roughly half that number (60,000 after leaving part of his force at Fredericksburg), divided his army and advanced westward to meet the threat.

Stonewall Jackson’s Confederate corps linked up with divisions under Major Generals Richard H. Anderson and Lafayette McLaws near Zoan Church (about three miles east of Chancellorsville). Jackson, aggressive as ever, ordered an advance around 11 AM along the Orange Turnpike and Orange Plank Road. At roughly the same time, Hooker ordered his forces eastward on multiple axes: Major General George Meade’s V Corps (including divisions under Brigadier Generals Charles Griffin and George Sykes) along the Turnpike and River Road, and Major General Henry Slocum’s XII Corps (supported by Oliver O. Howard’s XI Corps) along the Plank Road. Major General Darius Couch’s II Corps and others were in reserve.

The armies collided around 11:20 AM. On the Turnpike, McLaws’s division (with William Mahone’s brigade) engaged Sykes’s division of the V Corps. Fighting lasted several hours; Union forces counterattacked and regained some ground but faced pressure. On the Plank Road to the south, Anderson’s division halted Slocum’s advance, with Brigadier General Ambrose Wright’s brigade attempting a flanking move via an unfinished railroad cut (largely contained by arriving Union support).

The combat was relatively limited, with probing attacks and see-saw actions in open areas just beyond the dense Wilderness, but intense enough in spots, involving both artillery and infantry engagements. Union troops on the River Road made good progress toward Banks’s Ford but were recalled.

Despite numerical superiority and some local successes, Hooker, uncharacteristically cautious, ordered his corps commanders to fall back to defensive positions around Chancellorsville by mid-afternoon. He preferred to let Lee attack him in the Wilderness, where terrain would blunt Union advantages in numbers and artillery. This surprised and frustrated some of Hooker's subordinates, such as Meade and Couch who were both beside themselves with anger.

The day ended with the Union army entrenching in a defensive arc centered around the Chancellor mansion. That night, Lee and Jackson held a famous meeting and planned a daring flank march for May 2 (Jackson’s famous attack on the Union right). Fighting had been sharp but brief on May 1, with casualties numbering in the hundreds on both sides. The real fighting for Chancellorsville, however, was about to begin....


Map showing fighting on May 1, 1863


Painting of Lee, Jackson, and Stuart planning the May 2 flank attack