The Road to Chancellorsville…

It’s early May 1863, Fighting Joe Hooker steals a march on Robert E. Lee.  Selected by President Lincoln to head up the Union armies after the disaster at Fredericksburg in December, General Hooker formed a bold plan; a secreted grand movement of the Union army around the flank of the enemy.  This would leave the Confederates with two choices, Fighting Joe told the President; to flee or be destroyed.

Re-enactors storm the “stone wall” during a reenactment in Fredericksburg, VA. 2012

Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County Virginia was just a simple cross roads in 1863 named for a tavern there, the Chancellor’s, along the Orange Turnpike ten miles west of Fredericksburg.  The Chancellor’s Tavern lay just outside an area famously called, the wilderness.  This dense, second growth forest was Hooker’s last obstacle on May 1st 1863 as the Union army moved east and sought to out flank and crush the Confederates at Fredericksburg…

Virginia’s Spotsylvania County was witness to intense fighting throughout the American Civil War.  Within the area of a few square miles you encounter the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Combined these four battles accounted for over 110,000 casualties during the war making this area of Virginia some of the most bloodied ground in America.

The Civil War 150 Pinhole Project returns to this area in May of 2013 for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville.  Click the Follow icon at bottom right so you can receive an email when the story and images of the battlefield and reenactment of this epic battle are posted in mid May.

Link here for the National Parks Battlefields and 150th Chancellorsville Reenactment:

http://www.nps.gov/frsp/index.htm

http://battleofchancellorsville.com

The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg, 2012