American Civil War: War in the East, 1862-1863

The Battle of Fredericksburg

Much to Lincoln's annoyance, McClellan failed to pursue Lee following Antietam despite the relative health of his army. In response to this inactivity, Lincoln removed McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac on November 5, and appointed Major General Ambrose Burnside two days later. Urged to take action by the President, Burnside planned to quickly move south towards Richmond via Warrenton and Fredericksburg. As the army moved, the plan quickly began to deteriorate. Arriving at Fredericksburg in mid-November, Burnside found that the pontoon bridges needed to cross the Rappahannock had not arrived. Despite the requests of his subordinates to ford the river, Burnside sat still afraid that if they crossed they would be cut off by the rising waters.

By the end of November, Lee's army had begun to arrive and occupied the heights to the west of the town. On December 13, Burnside's men finally crossed the river to attack. Through the course of the day, Burnside launched a series of fruitless frontal assaults on the Confederates fortified on Marye's Heights. At the end of the day Burnside had lost over 12,000 men, compared to less than half that number for the Confederates.

The Battle of Chancellorsville

In January 1863, following a failed attempt by Burnside to restart the offensive, he was replaced by Major General Joseph Hooker. An able and aggressive corps commander, Hooker spent the winter reorganizing and re-supplying the army, as well as planning his campaign for spring. To end the stalemate at Fredericksburg, Hooker proposed sending his cavalry under Major General George Stoneman deep into the Confederate rear to disrupt their lines of communications while he made a fast flanking march with the main body of the army. One corps would remain opposite Fredericksburg to hold Lee in place.

Moving at the end of April, Hooker was able to deceive Lee, circle his flank, and cross the Rappahannock in his rear. The Confederate general was badly outnumbered having sent Longstreet's corps south to the Norfolk area. On May 1, Hooker's men began to advance out of the woods known as the Wilderness toward Lee's position. Though all was going according to plan, Hooker began to lose his nerve and ordered his troops to assume a defensive position around the hamlet of Chancellorsville. Realizing that his situation was desperate, Lee and Jackson planned an audacious attack for May 2. Splitting his inferior force, Lee sent Jackson on a 12-mile march around the Union right flank.

Storming out of the woods at 5:30pm, Jackson's men smashed into the unprotected flank of the Union XI Corps routing them and rolling up the Union line. As Jackson pressed on, the Union forces fell back to defensive positions near Chancellorsville. That night, while scouting the lines, Jackson was shot by friendly fire. The following day, Hooker repulsed numerous attacks by Lee and began to withdraw his forces back over the Rappahannock. While Chancellorsville was one of Lee's greatest victories, it cost him his ablest subordinate, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. After having his arm amputated, Jackson died of pneumonia on May 10.

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