American Civil WarStuff Happened · War
Battle · Eastern Theatre
Battle of Chancellorsville
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Hooker’s great gamble
The Finest Army on the Planet
Hooker (North) swings the bigger army behind Lee, a brilliant plan that marches two-to-one numbers into a forest that erases the edge.
2The audacity of the outnumbered
Splitting an Army Already Too Small
Outnumbered two to one, Lee divides his force twice in two days, and Stuart’s (South) scouts find the open Union flank that makes it possible.
3Dusk on the Orange Turnpike
Jackson Comes Out of the Woods
Jackson marches twelve miles unseen and shatters Howard’s (North) XI Corps from the side in under an hour, the war’s most famous maneuver.
4The cost of the masterpiece
Shot by His Own Men
Jackson is wounded by his own men in the dark; Stuart (South) takes the corps, Hooker (North) is concussed on his own porch, and the Union line buckles.
5A victory too expensive to keep
The General Loses His Nerve
Hooker (North) quits with the bigger army intact. Lee wins his masterpiece and pays with a fifth of his army and Stonewall Jackson, dead by May 10.