The Battle of Chancellorsville

In late April 1863, the Union army crossed the Rappahannock River above Fredericksburg, and although outnumbered, Confederate General Robert E. Lee met the Union columns in the woods and fields around the crossroads at Chancellorsville. From May 1 to 6, 1863, the six-day Battle of Chancellorsville left behind human wreckage unmatched in Virginia to that time. Lee won an unlikely victory but lost Stonewall Jackson. The Union army, under General Joseph Hooker, retreated in a gloomy rain but would soon be ready to fight again at Gettysburg. Chancellorsville, the home of the Chancellor family, stood at the battlefield's key crossroads, and battle and fire engulfed the house, leaving it a ruin. Fairview showed the shifting fortunes of the Union army, where Union artillery struggled to stop the Confederate tide.

Virginia · United States