27. “Fighting Joe” Hooker Outnumbered His Foe More Than Two to One, and Still Blew It
In December, 1862, the Union’s Army of the Potomac suffered a bloody setback when it crossed the Rappahannock River and attacked the Confederates occupying strong defensive positions near Fredericksburg. The Army of the Potomac got a new commander, Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker. Aware that a frontal assault on the Confederates near Fredericksburg was doomed to fail, Hooker decided to get at them from the rear. He had about 134,000 men, while the Confederates, under Robert E. Lee, had roughly 61,000.
On April 30th, 1863, Hooker left 28,000 men in front of Fredericksburg to keep Lee occupied, and marched westward with 106,000 men to cross the Rappahannock upstream from the Confederates. Hooker’s goal was to fall on Lee’s rear, and catch him in a pincer between the forces under his command and those he had left behind at Fredericksburg. He stole a march on Lee, and got in his rear by crossing the Rappahannock in heavily wooded terrain north of Chancellorsville. Then things began to go wrong.