Page:Civil War The 42nd Infantry Division of Bedford County Virginia.djvu/23



The battle of Chancellorsville was a planned battle on the part of the Union forces. Major General Joseph Hooker was Lincoln's choice as Commander-in-Chief to crush the Confederate army and take Richmond. The Union army still encamped on Stafford Heights and General Lee's troops were still at Marye's heights between Hooker and Richmond.

First off Hooker was told to restore morale and diciplinediscipline [sic] in the Union ranks, then present a battle plan to crush Lee's army. He had 130,000 men, the largest and best equipped and supplied army in the world.

General Lee only had only 58,934 men left after the hard winter; he lost a lot to sickness due to short rations and about 10,000 men went home during the winter months and had not returned. Also he had sent General Pete Longstreet with General Pickett's and General Hood's divisions south of the James river to gather desperately needed supplies and forage for his army. He knew something big was under foot as he could see across to Stafford Heights and see all the movement of troops. But General Lee never let things like that worry him and said until he knew what "those people's" plans were he would not shift any troops.

General Hooker's plan was to leave one division on Stafford Heights in plain sight of General Lee and one division at Hamilton's Crossing below Fredericksburg to hold Lee's attention, then take the rest of his army up the north side of the Rappahannock 20 miles to Kelley's Ford and cross there, then come down to the Rapidan River and cross it at Ely's Ford and march on to Chancellorsville and be behind General Lee before he knew they were there. It was a good plan and had worked up to this point, Hooker had stole a march on the best General in either army, he could now destroy Lee's army, so he thought.

General Lee had not been asleep, General "J. E. B." Stuart had kept him informed about the crossings of the river and he had pulled every troop he dared out of Fredericksburg and had formed a battle line just east of Chancellorsville to try and stop Hooker's forces. He knew he could not hold them back long with Longstreet's men gone. So he told General Stuart to ride around back of Hooker's forces and find him a place in his battle line that was weak and he would hit where he could do the most damage. This Stuart did and found Hooker's left flank weak and not well patrolled. This is what General Lee