Editing Battle of Chancellorsville (section)

==Aftermath==
{{Blockquote|My God! It is horrible—horrible; and to think of it, 130,000 magnificent soldiers so cut to pieces by less than 60,000 half-starved ragamuffins!
| source = [[Horace Greeley]], ''New York Tribune''<ref>Gallagher, p. 52.</ref>
}}

===Casualties===
{{Further-text|'''[[:File:Chancellorsville ARMY OF THE POTOMAC (Casualties).png|Detailed Union casualties]]''' and '''[[:File:Chancellorsville ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA (Casualties).png|Detailed Confederate casualties]]'''}}

{| class=wikitable
!bgcolor="#99ccff"|Senior officer casualties
|-
|<gallery mode="packed" heights="160" style="text-align:center; margin: 0px;">
File:HGBerry.jpg|Maj. Gen.<br />[[Hiram G. Berry]], killed
File:Major General Charles Devens of 3rd Massachusetts Rifles Battalion and 15th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in uniform - J.W. Black, 173 Washington St., Boston LCCN2016649627.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Charles Devens]], wounded
File:Amiel Weeks Whipple.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Amiel W. Whipple]], mortally wounded
File:Gershom Mott - Brady-Handy.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Gershom Mott]], wounded
File:WilliamHays.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[William Hays (general)|William Hays]], wounded
File:Stonewall Jackson.jpg|Lt. Gen.<br />[[Stonewall Jackson]], mortally wounded
File:Image of Lieutenant General A.P. Hill.jpg|Maj. Gen.<br />[[Ambrose P. Hill]], wounded
File:Henry Heth.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Henry Heth]], wounded
File:William Dorsey Pender.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[William D. Pender]], wounded
File:Samuel McGowan (general).jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Samuel McGowan (general)|Samuel McGowan]], wounded
File:Dodson Ramseur.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Stephen D. Ramseur]], wounded
File:RFHokecommons.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Robert F. Hoke]], wounded
File:Francis Redding Tillou Nichols.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Francis T. Nicholls]], wounded
File:EAO'Neal.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Edward A. O'Neal]], wounded
File:Paxton-Elisha Franklin.jpg|Brig. Gen.<br />[[Elisha F. Paxton]], killed
File:Stapleton Crutchfield.JPG|Col.<br />[[Stapleton Crutchfield]], wounded
</gallery>
|}

Lee, despite being outnumbered by a ratio of over two to one, won arguably his greatest victory of the war, sometimes described as his "perfect battle."<ref>Dupuy, p. 261.</ref> But he paid a terrible price for it, taking more casualties than he had lost in any previous battle, including the stalemate at the [[Battle of Antietam]]. With only 60,000 men engaged, he suffered 13,303 casualties (1,665 killed, 9,081 wounded, 2,018 missing),<ref name=casualties/> losing some 22% of his force in the campaign—men that the Confederacy, with its limited manpower, could not replace. Just as seriously, he lost his most aggressive field commander, Stonewall Jackson. Brig. Gen. [[Elisha F. Paxton]] was the other Confederate general killed during the battle. After Longstreet rejoined the main army, he was highly critical of Lee's strategy, saying that battles like Chancellorsville cost the Confederacy more men than it could afford to lose.<ref>Smith, p. 127.</ref>

Of the 133,000 Union men engaged, 17,197 were casualties (1,606 killed, 9,672 wounded, 5,919 missing),<ref name=casualties/> a percentage much lower than Lee's, particularly considering that it includes 4,000 men of the XI Corps who were captured on May 2. When comparing only the killed and wounded, there were almost no differences between the Confederate and Federal losses at Chancellorsville. The Union lost three generals in the campaign: Maj. Gens. [[Hiram G. Berry]] and [[Amiel W. Whipple]] and Brig. Gen. [[Edmund Kirby (army officer)|Edmund Kirby]].<ref>Smith, p. 120.</ref>

===Assessment of Hooker===
{{Quote box
| align  = right
| width  = 25%
| quote  = Lee's Chancellorsville consisted of a pastiche of unbelievably risky gambits that led to a great triumph. Hooker's campaign, after the brilliant opening movements, degenerated into a tale of opportunities missed and troops underutilized.
| source = Robert K. Krick, ''Lee's Greatest Victory''<ref>Krick, p. 9.</ref>
}}
Hooker, who began the campaign believing he had "80 chances in 100 to be successful", lost the battle through miscommunication, the incompetence of some of his leading generals (most notably Howard and Stoneman, but also Sedgwick), but mostly through the collapse of his own confidence. Hooker's errors included abandoning his offensive push on May 1 and ordering Sickles to give up Hazel Grove and pull back on May 2. He also erred in his disposition of forces; despite Abraham Lincoln's exhortation, "this time put in ''all'' your men," some 40,000 men of the Army of the Potomac scarcely fired a shot. When later asked why he had ordered a halt to his advance on May 1, Hooker is reputed to have responded, "For the first time, I lost faith in Hooker."<ref>Esposito, text for map 91; Foote, p. 315; Hebert, p. 199.</ref> However, [[Stephen W. Sears]] has categorized this as a myth:

{{Blockquote|Nothing has been more damaging to General Joseph Hooker's military reputation than this, from John Bigelow's ''The Campaign of Chancellorsville'' (1910): "A couple of months later, when Hooker crossed the Rappahannock [actually, the Potomac] with the Army of the Potomac in the Campaign of Gettysburg he was asked by [[Abner Doubleday|General Doubleday]]: 'Hooker, what was the matter with you at Chancellorsville? ... Hooker answered frankly ... 'Doubleday ... For once I lost confidence in Hooker'."<ref name=Sears504>Sears, p. 504.</ref>}}

Sears's research has shown that Bigelow was quoting from a letter written in 1903 by an E. P. Halstead, who was on the staff of Doubleday's I Corps division.<ref name=Sears504/> There is no evidence that Hooker and Doubleday ever met during the Gettysburg campaign, and they could not have done so since they were dozens of miles apart. Finally, Doubleday made no mention of such a confession from Hooker in his history of the Chancellorsville campaign, published in 1882.<ref name=Sears505>Sears, p. 505.</ref> Sears concludes:

{{Blockquote|It can only be concluded that forty years after the event, elderly ex-staff officer Halstead was at best retailing some vaguely remembered campfire tale, and at worst manufacturing a role for himself in histories of the campaign.... Whatever Joe Hooker's failings at Chancellorsville, he did not publicly confess them.<ref name=Sears505/>}}

Lincoln later told Connecticut Representative Deming that he believed the war could have been terminated at Chancellorsville had Hooker managed the battle better: specifically, "when Hooker failed to reinforce Sedgwick, after hearing his cannon...." However, he added, "I do not know that I could have given any different orders had I been with them myself. I have not fully made up my mind how I should behave when [[minié ball|minie-balls]] were whistling, and those great oblong shells shrieking in my ear. I might run away."<ref>''Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln'' by Carpenter, Francis Bicknell, 1830–1900. Published 1866, pages 219–221</ref>

===Union reaction===
The Union was shocked by the defeat. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] was quoted as saying, "My God! My God, what will the country say!?" A few generals were career casualties. Hooker relieved Stoneman for incompetence and for years waged a vituperative campaign against Howard, whom he blamed for his loss. He wrote in 1876 that Howard was "a hypocrite ... totally incompetent ... a perfect old woman ... a bad man." He labeled Sedgwick as "dilatory." Couch was so disgusted by Hooker's conduct of the battle (and his incessant political maneuvering) that he resigned and was placed in charge of the [[Department of the Susquehanna]], commanding only [[Pennsylvania]] [[militia]].<ref name="Hebert pp. 231, 235">Hebert, pp. 231, 235, 245; Sears, p. 433; Eicher, pp. 489, 523; Furgurson, p. 332; Krick, pp. 127, 203; Cullen, p. 50.</ref>

President Lincoln chose to retain Hooker in command of the army, but the friction between Lincoln, general in chief [[Henry W. Halleck]], and Hooker became intolerable in the early days of what would become known as the [[Gettysburg campaign]] and Lincoln relieved Hooker of command on June 28, just before the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]. One of the consequences of Chancellorsville at Gettysburg was the conduct of [[Daniel Sickles]], who undoubtedly recalled the terrible consequences of withdrawing from Hazel Grove when he decided to ignore the commands of his general and moved his lines on [[Battle of Gettysburg, second day|the second day of battle]] to ensure that a minor piece of high ground, the Peach Orchard, was not available to the enemy's artillery.<ref name="Hebert pp. 231, 235"/>

===Confederate reaction===
The Confederate public had mixed feelings about the result, joy at Lee's tactical victory tempered by the loss of their most beloved general, Stonewall Jackson. The death of Jackson caused Lee to make the long-needed reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia from two large corps into three, under [[James Longstreet]], [[Richard S. Ewell]], and [[A.P. Hill]]. The new assignments for the latter two generals caused some command difficulties in the upcoming [[Gettysburg campaign]], which began in June. Of more consequence for Gettysburg, however, was the supreme confidence that Lee gained from his great victory at Chancellorsville, that his army was virtually invincible and would succeed at anything he asked it to do.<ref>Eicher, pp. 489; Cullen, pp. 49–50, 69.</ref>

Lee later wrote "At Chancellorsville we gained another victory; our people were wild with delight—I, on the contrary, was more depressed than after Fredericksburg; our loss was severe, and again we gained not an inch of ground and the enemy could not be pursued.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://leadershipcenter.wharton.upenn.edu/research/gettysburg-lee-moves-north-measuring-performance-effectiveness/|title = Gettysburg: Lee Moves North Measuring Performance and Effectiveness|date = January 15, 2015}}</ref>