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The Civil War #13
Rebels Resurgent: Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville
A gripping, comprehensive account of the Civil War, including eyewitness testimony, profiles of key personalities, period photographs, illustrations and artifacts, and detailed battle maps. Fully researched, superbly written.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 18, 2018
This is part of a, admittedly slow and leisurely, reread of mine of the excellent Time-Life Civil War set. It had been about a decade since I had read the whole series as a set, and had only ever read this particular volume once before.
I had entirely forgotten that this was one of the best volumes of the set.
It is strange that two of the most dramatic battles of the Civil War, indeed of all of Western military history in the age of muskets, have received relatively little historiographical attention in comparison to other campaigns. This book takes a look at the two battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia and their campaigns and does so in supreme style.
Fredericksburg, the oft ignored and overlooked, catastrophic Union defeat in mid December of 1862 receives half of the attention of the book. And is, in my regard, the better half of the work.
A great deal of attention is paid to Ambrose Burnside's ascension to command of the AoP, as well as the harbingers of his time at the helm with a look back at his somewhat incompetent, mediocre at best handling of his role during the Antietam Campaign. His odd decision to reorganize the Federal forces into three, clunky and chain of command rendering Grand Divisions is explored, as well as his own psyche. Burnside was, on a personal level, a great human being and a genuinely good man. (Following the war he would, with some backing from former Rebs like Beauregard, help form the National Rifle Association, designed to arm former slaves against the KKK), and he strove to see to the needs of his men. He was personable, a chubby, jolly man, and highly intellectual (he even designed his own breech loading rifle, which sadly made him little money though it was a fantastic firearm).
However, he was also a man who suffered from crippling self doubt, giving him an uneven temperament under stress which saw him overcompensate in social interaction to appear more in charge than he felt.
He also did not perform well under pressure.
While he did notable work early in the war off the Carolina coast, he had an overwhelming material superiority, and faced a cautious, outmatched foe. While at First Manassas, he showcased his typical workmanship with a very botched handling of the opening hour of the battle.
In short, he never should have been Army commander.
The ensuing campaign was an utter disaster for Federal arms. The Battle of Fredericksburg itself was the first 'modern' battle in American history. It showcased an attempt to bridge a fast current river under fire, an artillery bombardment of an urban center, a river crossing assault, an extended urban battle, and the main engagement itself was won primarily by Confederate artillery fire, as artillery was the king of this encounter.
At the southern end of the Rebel lines, Burnside's forces hit Stonewall Jackson's Corps and broke his first line, however lack of support, and rapid Southern usage of reserves plugged the hole and tossed out the formerly victorious Yankees with both sides losing 3,000 men in the morning encounter.
To the north, directly across from the ruins of Fredericksburg, wave after wave of Union infantry divisions were smashed by converging Rebel artillery fire and a sheer curtain of rifle fire. Here the Rebels lost a little over 1,000 men, while mowing down roughly 9,500 Federal troops.
The battle was a lopsided massacre and, alongside dour news from Tennessee a couple weeks later, served to plummet Northern morale.
Burnside was relieved not long afterwards (he would go on to serve ably in east Tennessee, before leading an independent Corps alongside the AoP in Grant and Meade's Overland 1864 campaign and the beginning stages of the Petersburg operations. He would, however, fail spectacularly again, at the cost of thousands of lives, and be drummed out of the service).
His replacement was Joseph Hooker. Here the book fell a little flat for me.
Hooker is one of the unsung Federal generals of the war, nay, indeed all of American military history. Granted, he would lead the Army to yet another stinging defeat, but he would perfect it's organization (building upon McClellan's earlier efforts), streamline and make far more efficient the Army's chain of command, it's communication services, build a modern General Staff, perfect the Army's artillery organization, and, finally, make good the Cavalry.
Hooker restored the Army's confidence and ensured that, for the rest of the war, it was a well oiled military machine. It is telling that following Hooker, the Army never needed another major period of reorganization.
Much like Philip II built the Army that Alexander conquered the world with, so Hooker built the Army that, finally, bested Lee and won the war.
As is often the case in this series, page and word count limits forced a contraction of information that rather hurt the telling of the Chancellorsville Campaign. As the book itself stated, this campaign was the intellectual high water mark of the war, a chess match between generals, and tactically the most complex battle of the entire war.
Severely outnumbering Lee (130,000 men to 58,000) Hooker swung wide around the Rebel positions along the Rappahannock River in late April 1863, and then cut downwards, hoping to envelope Lee's army from the rear (all the while several Corps' were to pin Lee in place along the river and across from Fredericksburg itself).
However, when the Federal vanguard reached the Chancellorsville crossroads in the Wilderness, Lee had already moved his army to block the Federal encirclement. The opening fighting on 1st of May deflated Hooker's nerve, and he surrendered the initiative by pulling back to defensive positions centered around Chancellorsville. Hooker hoped that Sedgwick and his VI Corps would move timely enough to now seize the heights beyond Fredericksburg, and sweep down upon Lee's rear.
Instead, Sedgwick dithered for all of 2nd May, while Stonewall Jackson took his Corps of 26,000 men (meaning Lee divided his Army in the face of a superior opponent, a terrifically dangerous gamble), and marched all day to position himself firmly over Hooker's exposed right flank which was subsequently destroyed in the surprise Rebel offensive that followed late that evening.
However, Jackson was mortally wounded in a tragic friendly fire incident, a d command devolved to Jeb Stuart, who had a hell of a task to unite the still divided wings of Lee's Army in the face of a still superior, and dug in, foe.
And still Sedgewick dithered.
3rd of May saw Stuart relentlessly hammering the Federal right, while Lee pounded the center, eventually collapsing the Federal positions. Hooker was wounded by a Southern shell, and he ordered a pull back to cover the Army's crossing points on the Rappahannock. Stuart and Lee's halves united around Chancellorsville late in the day and the Rebel Yell was so thunderous it was heard for many miles around.
Then Sedgewick finally stopped dithering.
The Union VI Corps shoved aside Early's Division guarding the heights, and made it's way towards Lee's rear. However the march was so slow that Lee, again, hastily divided his forces in front of a superior foe and, using interior lines, rapidly sealed off Sedgewick's march around Salem Church. 4th of May saw the Rebels push the VI Corps back to a crossing point on the Rappahannock, Early retook Fredericksburg, and Lee pressed upon Hooker's defenses around his final positions. Sedgewick managed to withdraw north of the river after dark, however, and Hooker relented and called off the battle.
The Northerners lost 17,000 men to a toll of 13,000 Southerners, making it the bloodiest single battle of the war thus far.
And yet another despairing Union whipping.
Lee, however, lost Stonewall Jackson who died a few days afterwards of his injuries, and the loss in Rebel field officers was immense.
Overall this was a very good book, and while these volumes are slim, and well illustrated, they pack an intense amount of information inside of them making them all worthy reads individually.
It is still true that these two campaigns still don't receive the attention they deserve while Antietam, Shiloh and Gettysburg still get an exorbitant amount of ink spilled in their favor.
I had entirely forgotten that this was one of the best volumes of the set.
It is strange that two of the most dramatic battles of the Civil War, indeed of all of Western military history in the age of muskets, have received relatively little historiographical attention in comparison to other campaigns. This book takes a look at the two battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia and their campaigns and does so in supreme style.
Fredericksburg, the oft ignored and overlooked, catastrophic Union defeat in mid December of 1862 receives half of the attention of the book. And is, in my regard, the better half of the work.
A great deal of attention is paid to Ambrose Burnside's ascension to command of the AoP, as well as the harbingers of his time at the helm with a look back at his somewhat incompetent, mediocre at best handling of his role during the Antietam Campaign. His odd decision to reorganize the Federal forces into three, clunky and chain of command rendering Grand Divisions is explored, as well as his own psyche. Burnside was, on a personal level, a great human being and a genuinely good man. (Following the war he would, with some backing from former Rebs like Beauregard, help form the National Rifle Association, designed to arm former slaves against the KKK), and he strove to see to the needs of his men. He was personable, a chubby, jolly man, and highly intellectual (he even designed his own breech loading rifle, which sadly made him little money though it was a fantastic firearm).
However, he was also a man who suffered from crippling self doubt, giving him an uneven temperament under stress which saw him overcompensate in social interaction to appear more in charge than he felt.
He also did not perform well under pressure.
While he did notable work early in the war off the Carolina coast, he had an overwhelming material superiority, and faced a cautious, outmatched foe. While at First Manassas, he showcased his typical workmanship with a very botched handling of the opening hour of the battle.
In short, he never should have been Army commander.
The ensuing campaign was an utter disaster for Federal arms. The Battle of Fredericksburg itself was the first 'modern' battle in American history. It showcased an attempt to bridge a fast current river under fire, an artillery bombardment of an urban center, a river crossing assault, an extended urban battle, and the main engagement itself was won primarily by Confederate artillery fire, as artillery was the king of this encounter.
At the southern end of the Rebel lines, Burnside's forces hit Stonewall Jackson's Corps and broke his first line, however lack of support, and rapid Southern usage of reserves plugged the hole and tossed out the formerly victorious Yankees with both sides losing 3,000 men in the morning encounter.
To the north, directly across from the ruins of Fredericksburg, wave after wave of Union infantry divisions were smashed by converging Rebel artillery fire and a sheer curtain of rifle fire. Here the Rebels lost a little over 1,000 men, while mowing down roughly 9,500 Federal troops.
The battle was a lopsided massacre and, alongside dour news from Tennessee a couple weeks later, served to plummet Northern morale.
Burnside was relieved not long afterwards (he would go on to serve ably in east Tennessee, before leading an independent Corps alongside the AoP in Grant and Meade's Overland 1864 campaign and the beginning stages of the Petersburg operations. He would, however, fail spectacularly again, at the cost of thousands of lives, and be drummed out of the service).
His replacement was Joseph Hooker. Here the book fell a little flat for me.
Hooker is one of the unsung Federal generals of the war, nay, indeed all of American military history. Granted, he would lead the Army to yet another stinging defeat, but he would perfect it's organization (building upon McClellan's earlier efforts), streamline and make far more efficient the Army's chain of command, it's communication services, build a modern General Staff, perfect the Army's artillery organization, and, finally, make good the Cavalry.
Hooker restored the Army's confidence and ensured that, for the rest of the war, it was a well oiled military machine. It is telling that following Hooker, the Army never needed another major period of reorganization.
Much like Philip II built the Army that Alexander conquered the world with, so Hooker built the Army that, finally, bested Lee and won the war.
As is often the case in this series, page and word count limits forced a contraction of information that rather hurt the telling of the Chancellorsville Campaign. As the book itself stated, this campaign was the intellectual high water mark of the war, a chess match between generals, and tactically the most complex battle of the entire war.
Severely outnumbering Lee (130,000 men to 58,000) Hooker swung wide around the Rebel positions along the Rappahannock River in late April 1863, and then cut downwards, hoping to envelope Lee's army from the rear (all the while several Corps' were to pin Lee in place along the river and across from Fredericksburg itself).
However, when the Federal vanguard reached the Chancellorsville crossroads in the Wilderness, Lee had already moved his army to block the Federal encirclement. The opening fighting on 1st of May deflated Hooker's nerve, and he surrendered the initiative by pulling back to defensive positions centered around Chancellorsville. Hooker hoped that Sedgwick and his VI Corps would move timely enough to now seize the heights beyond Fredericksburg, and sweep down upon Lee's rear.
Instead, Sedgwick dithered for all of 2nd May, while Stonewall Jackson took his Corps of 26,000 men (meaning Lee divided his Army in the face of a superior opponent, a terrifically dangerous gamble), and marched all day to position himself firmly over Hooker's exposed right flank which was subsequently destroyed in the surprise Rebel offensive that followed late that evening.
However, Jackson was mortally wounded in a tragic friendly fire incident, a d command devolved to Jeb Stuart, who had a hell of a task to unite the still divided wings of Lee's Army in the face of a still superior, and dug in, foe.
And still Sedgewick dithered.
3rd of May saw Stuart relentlessly hammering the Federal right, while Lee pounded the center, eventually collapsing the Federal positions. Hooker was wounded by a Southern shell, and he ordered a pull back to cover the Army's crossing points on the Rappahannock. Stuart and Lee's halves united around Chancellorsville late in the day and the Rebel Yell was so thunderous it was heard for many miles around.
Then Sedgewick finally stopped dithering.
The Union VI Corps shoved aside Early's Division guarding the heights, and made it's way towards Lee's rear. However the march was so slow that Lee, again, hastily divided his forces in front of a superior foe and, using interior lines, rapidly sealed off Sedgewick's march around Salem Church. 4th of May saw the Rebels push the VI Corps back to a crossing point on the Rappahannock, Early retook Fredericksburg, and Lee pressed upon Hooker's defenses around his final positions. Sedgewick managed to withdraw north of the river after dark, however, and Hooker relented and called off the battle.
The Northerners lost 17,000 men to a toll of 13,000 Southerners, making it the bloodiest single battle of the war thus far.
And yet another despairing Union whipping.
Lee, however, lost Stonewall Jackson who died a few days afterwards of his injuries, and the loss in Rebel field officers was immense.
Overall this was a very good book, and while these volumes are slim, and well illustrated, they pack an intense amount of information inside of them making them all worthy reads individually.
It is still true that these two campaigns still don't receive the attention they deserve while Antietam, Shiloh and Gettysburg still get an exorbitant amount of ink spilled in their favor.
August 30, 2017
Damn, Burnside! Betcha would like a do over on Fredericksburg! Charge the men up Marye's Heights en masse with no cover into to maw of an entrenched enemy? Really? In your defense, it was military doctrine at the time. Lee would make the same mistake at Gettysburg. Surprisingly, Lee is revered today whereas Burnside has been consigned to the dustbin of history.
August 5, 2018
Fredericksburg and Chancellorville. Well written, clear and detailed.
September 22, 2021
Like the other books in the Time Life Civil War series, this book is a good overview of these two campaigns but it is also very brief and doesn't go into a lot of detail. People who haven't read a lot about the war would probably find it more interesting.
March 20, 2013
Even though I know the outcome, I'm getting tired of the south always winning lol.
August 4, 2016
Great series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews