The Battle of Chancellorsville: A Perfect but Flawed Campaign

Chancellorsville is often touted as Robert E. Lee’s 'greatest victory,' but cost the Army of Northern Virginia 13,000 men plus the irreplaceable Stonewall Jackson.

By Kevin M. O’Beirne The Chancellorsville campaign has been called many things, from “a stupendous defeat” for the curiously cautious “Fighting Joe” Hooker, to Robert E. Lee's "greatest victory.” The campaign was exceedingly complex and some of its students tend to focus on its more romanticized aspects: the aggressive Lee dividing his army twice in the face of an enemy that outnumbered him more than two to one; Stonewall Jackson’s famous flank attack on XI Corps, Hooker’s alleg