Osprey Trade Editions : Chancellorsville 1863

Following the debacle of the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Burnside was replaced as commander of the Army of the Potomac by General Joseph Hooker. Having reorganised the army and improved morale, he planned an attack that would take his army to Richmond and end the war. Although faced by an army twice his size, the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee split his forces: Jubal Early was left to hold off Sedgwick's Fredericksburg attack, and 'Stonewall' Jackson was sent with 26,000 men in a wide envelopment around Hooker's right flank. Carl Smith's powerful narrative details how at dusk on 2 May Jackson's men crashed into the Federal right flank, and how stiffening Federal resistance slowed the Confederate advance the next day. This victory was Lee's masterpiece - but Jackson, his most capable commander, died of his wounds on 10 May, a scene powerfully depicted by the artist Adam Hook. The text is also supported by five other specially commissioned battlescenes and a wide range of contemporary photographs showing the men who fought at Chancellorsville. Maps and birds-eye views are distributed throughout the book so that the reader can easily track the progress of the armies.