Free ebooks ==> http://www.Ebook777.com
The fighting 75Lee reacted boldly to Hooker's maneuver. He
divided his small army, leaving Jubal A. Early
and about 10,000 men to watch Sedgwick
at Fredericksburg and marching the other
50,000 to deal with the Federals at
Chancellorsville. The critical moment of the
campaign occurred on the morning of 1 May.
Hooker's advancing infantry clashed with
Confederates 3.5 miles (5.6km) east of
Chancellorsville near Zoan Church,
whereupon the Union commander ordered a
withdrawal. Some of Hooker's subordinates
argued vehemently for maintaining the
offensive. A retreat into the gloomy
Wilderness, they insisted, would negate all
that had been accomplished over the past
several days. But all offensive thoughts had
left Hooker's mind, as he ordered his troops to
concentrate and dig in near Chancellorsville.
Darius N. Couch, leader of the Federal II
Corps, bitterly concluded that 'my
commanding general was a whipped man.'
Lee eagerly took the initiative. On the
night of 1 May, he and Jackson discussed
how best to attack Hooker. The Federal left
occupied strong ground and rested near the
Rappahannock. A frontal assault against
Chancellorsville would be too costly. The
best course seemed to be turning the Union
right, which ran west from Chancellorsville
along the Orange Plank Road and Orange
Turnpike (the two main east-west arteries
through the Wilderness). Lee decided to
divide his army again, sending Jackson's
Second Corps on a flank march along
narrow country roads. Lee would keep the
14,000 men of Richard H. Anderson's and
Lafayette McLaws's divisions of Longstreet's
corps to occupy Hooker's attention.
Jackson conducted the war's most
celebrated flanking maneuver on 2 May,Few incidents in the war exceeded in boldness Lee's
decision to send Jackson's corps on a flanking march
around Hooker's right One of Jackson's staff officers
described the scene on the night of 1 May when the
two generals plotted their strategy (depicted in this
painting).'I found him [Jackson] seated on a cracker box
with his back against a tree while opposite to him Gen.
Lee sat on another box with his back against a tree. They
were engaged in conversation.' (Osprey Publishing)
launching a powerful attack at about 5.15 pm
that crushed Oliver O. Howard's Union XI
Corps. Many of Howard's troops were
Germans, and critics later accused the
'damned Dutchmen' of fleeing without
putting up a fight. In fact, no Union corps
could have stood when Jackson's divisions
swept out of the woods, shrieking the
unnerving 'Rebel Yell' and easily overlapping
every potential defensive position. Half the
regimental commanders and a quarter of the
soldiers in Howard's corps fell during the
fighting - evidence that they offered
considerable resistance.
Darkness and confusion arising from the
movement of large bodies of men through
heavily wooded terrain slowed down the
Confederate attack by about 7 pm. Jackson
hoped to reform and renew the attacks later
that night. Riding to the front with the goal
of finding a way to cut Hooker off from the
Rappahannock fords, he rode into the path