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Article: Chancellorsville 1863: the Souls of the Brave.
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The battle of Chancellorsville, fought in the thick forests and tangled underbrush of the Virginia wilderness, was a Confederate masterpiece. During the first week of May 1863, Robert E. Lee and his able lieutenants thoroughly whipped "Fighting Joe" Hooker and an army twice the size of their own. As Ernest B. Furgurson persuasively argues, Chancellorsville was the true highwater mark of the Confederacy.
Hooker seized the initiative in the final days of April. He stealthily pushed nearly 80,000 men across two rivers, the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, threatening Lee's left flank, while John Sedgwick's 45,000 troops kept the pressure on Fredericksburg. Hooker's ...