This rolling farmscape was essentially the clear field of view Jackson’s men had as they force-marched along the plank road around the Union right flank. Much of the 128,000 man force representing five Union corps arrayed against Lee’s two divisions would have been visible here. Jackson’s men knew they were outflanking their enemy, and, given how long it took for his march to take place, its not surprising that Union troops took note of the move as well.
With the late discovery of Union forces crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers in force—around 128,000 troops—Lee rapidly dispatches Stonewall Jackson and his corps to the West. Jackson leads three divisions on a long march around the Union right flank on 1 May, his units in position to strike late in the evening of the 2nd. Meanwhile, Lee took personal command of Lafayette McLaws and Anderson’s Divisions as they sought to hold back on-again-off-again attacks by the Union II, III, V, and XII Corps toward Fredericksburg. Jackson’s violent assault upon MG Howard’s IX Corps completed disrupted Hooker’s plan and he pulled his men into a tight perimeter, allowing Lee to consolidate his forces and focus them against the disordered Union lines. MG Sedgewick’s attack through Fredericksburg in the afternoon of 3 May was too little too late, and Lee handily redeployed his forces to crush the isolated Union force near Salem Church in the closing act of the Battle of Chancellorsville.
What remains today of Catharine Furnace, an iron-smelting facility before and during the Civil War. This was essentially the deepest point of penetration of Union MG Dan Sickles’s III Corps, sent by Hooker to harass Jackson’s flank march. It was also at the intersection from which this picture was taken that Jackson’s force turned south, moving them beyond Union interference and placing them, via Brock Road, on the Union right flank.
Another view of Jackson’s supporting artillery position at Hazel Grove facing Slocum’s XII Corps at the far end of the clearing on 3 May. This spot was only a couple miles from where Jackson’s flank march concluded and he’d formed his corps for the attack into Howard’s relatively unprotected right flank the previous night.
View from the Union side of the battlefield on the grounds of the Chancellor House. This looks southwest toward where Sickles’s III Corps had deployed. The road running left to right would have been the Orange Turnpike and Jackson’s assault into the Union XI Corps would have taken place just off to the right of this picture, about a mile or so down the road. The woodline on the far edge of the clearing masked the route of Jackson’s flanking march early in the fight.
The crossroads in the left center of this picture was a significant feature of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The road leading off to the right of the frame is the Orange Turnpike which ran through the center of the entire battlefield from West to East. The road heading off into the cut in the trees center frame leads to the plank and Furnace roads used by Jackson in his long march. The road heading opposite the trees leads back to the fords across the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers, the direction from which Hooker’s force had arrived at this place and the way they would have to retreat in the end. In the foreground lies what’s left of the Chancellor House, an impressive structure once upon a time, the occupants of which seem to have benefited greatly from proximity to the Turnpike and crossroads until fate placed them in the middle of a furious hail of lead. The Chancellor House burned during the battle, the ruins lying in state for years after the war.
On the night of 2 May 1862, MG Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, scouting ahead of his lead elements at night, was mortally wounded by Confederate pickets near Mountain Road. Jackson’s staff, following his death, had the monument to this momentous (and potentially decisive) event placed here near the Orange Turnpike to make it more visible and accessible to the public. No other single death may have had such a significant impact upon the course of the Civil War and Lee would time and again wish that he still had this aggressive, dependable lieutenant by his side.
Salem Church as it appears today. The ridge upon which this stout place of worship was constructed was where Lee halted the too-late attack by MG Sedgewick’s II Corps, advancing from Fredericksburg in the afternoon of 3 May. Had he been given the order to attack a day sooner, when Lee’s forces were strung out and pressed hard, the battle might have turned out very differently.
Battle scars inflicted on 3 May 1862 remain today in the brick walls of Salem Church.
