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Jackson’s March Around Hooker at Chancellorsville
Excerpt from Lost Victories: The Military Genius of Stonewall Jackson, by Bevin Alexander, pages 303-05
Background: Union General Joseph Hooker had placed a large force on Lee’s left or western flank at Chancellorsville. He expected General Sedgwick to hold down Lee at Fredericksburg, a few miles east, but Sedgwick had done little. Lee dispatched Jackson to deal with Hooker. He drove Hooker’s forces back into the Wilderness around Chancellorsville. When Lee came up on May 1, 1863, cavalry chief Jeb Stuart informed him and Jackson that Hooker’s right wing was floating “in the air” west of Chancellorsville—and could be attacked on its western flank. To achieve this required dividing the Confederate force.
Nevertheless, a flank movement offered the only means of forcing Hooker to retreat back across the Rappahannock. Some time before midnight Lee approved the operation and appointed Jackson to carry it out, with Stuart to cover the march with his cavalry. Jackson rose, smiling, touched his cap, and said: “My troops will move at 4 o’clock.”
Nonetheless, neither the route of the march, the exact objective, nor the number of troops to be used had been decided on. Lee had approved a flank move with the limited objective of forcing Hooker to retreat. But as soon as Jackson realized that Hooker’s flank was unguarded he had begun devising a far more ambitious strategy with implications for destruction of Hooker’s army.
Early in the morning on May 2, 1863, after a short sleep, Jackson talked about a route with his chaplain, Tucker Lacy, whose family owned land in the region. Lacy traced a possible course but Jackson said it was too close to the enemy. Lacy remembered that Charles C. Wellford, proprietor of Catharine Furnace, lived near the furnace a couple of miles southwest. Jackson sent Lacy with Jedediah Hotchkiss, one of his engineers, to query Wellford. They woke Wellford, who pointed out a covered route and appointed his adolescent son Charles as guide.
Hotchkiss returned to where Lee and Jackson had resumed their discussion and traced the route. There was a moment of silence. Then Lee said; “General Jackson, what do you propose to do?” Jackson: “Go around here.” He pointed to the line Hotchkiss had shown. Lee: “What do you propose to make this movement with?” Jackson, without hesitation: “With my whole corps.” Lee: “What will you leave me?” Jackson: “The divisions of Anderson and McLaws.”
This was a stunning proposal. Jackson was not suggesting the modest turning movement Lee envisioned to force Hooker’s retreat, but rather a full-scale descent with the vast bulk of Confederate strength, thirty-one thousand men, to cut off Hooker from the river.
Four times previously Lee had rejected Jackson’s proposals to annihilate a Federal army. Now Jackson saw a fifth opportunity, and this time he pressed hard for it.
Jackson’s boldness and audacity astonished Lee. But he saw what Jackson saw—that Hooker had placed himself in a perilous position, with only a single river crossing and the possibility, if Jackson got on his rear, of being forced away from the Rappahannock. If this plan succeeded, Hooker would have nowhere to retreat and could be annihilated between Jackson on the west and Lee on the east.
Though Lee had rejected past opportunities, this time, knowing that his army was in desperate straits and recognizing that Jackson had seen a chance to transform the situation, Lee answered calmly: “Well, go on.”
Thus commenced the war’s only occasion in which Lee accepted a Jacksonian plan aimed at destruction of the enemy army.
Jackson’s corps began to move forward at about 7 a.m. As the head of the column swung southwest toward Catharine Furnace, Stonewall Jackson rode a short distance behind with his staff. Lee stood by the road to say goodbye. Jackson drew rein, and they talked briefly. Jackson pointed ahead. Lee nodded, and Jackson rode on. One of the most spectacular marches in the history of warfare had begun.
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