The battle of Chancellorsville started April 30, 1863 when Robert E. Lee’s 60,000 men who were engaged on Fredericksburg heights, found 80,000 rival troops behind them. The troops were led by Joseph Hooker who declared Lee could “Ingloriously fly” or give “battle on our ground”. Lee faced troops nearly twice the size of his, splitting them up into two groups for a surprise attack on Hooker. This is how it happened, Hooker left the VI Crops and a division to make a demonstration against the confederate position at Fredericksburg to cover up his movement with the rest of the army to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers at Germnna and Ely’s fords.
Hooker took up defensive positions, this meant their only means were to retreat and Lee received…show more content… Hooker was born November 13, 1814, in Hadley, MA and died October 31, 1879, Garden City, NY. Hooker lived I relative obscurity in California and Oregon until the outbreak of the Civil War offered him a chance to return to the field. He gained reputation during the peninsula Campaign and the battle of Antietam. Hooker was beloved by his men for his morale-boosting improvements in food rations and medical care, but a defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville led to his resignation in June 1863. Hooker succeeded General Ambrose Burnside as the commander of the Army of the Potomac in early 1863.Hookers first field experience came in Florida during the second Seminole War (1835-42). He later attended in the Mexican American War (1846-48). After the battler at Chancellorsville he was fired and replaced.
The battle of Chancellorsville resulted in a confederate victory. The Confederates resumed the offensive on May 3rd, forcing Hookers army into a defensive posture near the fords that their only means of retreat. When a Confederate artillery round smashed into a pillar against which Hooker was leaning, Robert E. Lee spent an unconscious half hour. His return to semi-sentience disappointed the veteran corps commanders who had hoped, unencumbered by Hooker, to employ their army's considerable untapped