“Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.”
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Horace Greeley, re: Chancellorsville
"My God! It is horrible--horrible; and to think of it, 130,000 magnificent soldiers cut to pieces by less than 60,000 half-starved ragamuffins."
labels: 1863, Chancellorsville, Horace Greeley, quotes
Arms & the Men
In the midst of one of his most brilliant maneuvers, Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men on the night of May 2, 1863 during the the Battle of Chancellorsville. Dr. Hunter H. McGuire performed surgery on Jackson in a field hospital near Chancellorsville, where he amputated Jackson's twice wounded left arm and removed a ball from the General's right hand. Major General Robert E. Lee decided that Jackson should recuperate in a safe place well behind friendly lines. He selected the Chandler plantation in the rural community of Guinea Station, Virginia, as the best location for Jackson, because of its proximity to the railroad to Richmond and its familiarity to the wounded general.
Jackson's chaplain, B. Tucker Lacy, had a brother who owned a house near the hospital, and took Jackson's severed limb to his brother's family cemetery for burial. Lacy comforted the pious Jackson, holding devotions with him for the first two days spent at Guinea Station, but the chaplain soon returned to army headquarters. He requested that General Lee send another doctor to relieve the weary McGuire, who tried to provide round-the-clock care. In their conversation about Jackson's condition, Lee told Lacy, "He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm."
(info from the National Park Service, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park)
Monday, April 14, 2008
Chancellorsville: Robert E. Lee, astride Traveller
Chancellorsville, May 1863, according to a staff officer:
- "The fierce soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of battle, the wounded crawling with feeble limbs from the fury of the devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse. One long, unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the earth blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose high above the roar of battle, and hailed the presence of the victorious chief. He sat in the full realization of all that soldiers dream of—triumph; and as I looked upon him in the complete fruition of the success which his genius, courage, and confidence in his army had won, I thought that it must have been from such a scene that men in ancient days rose to the dignity of gods.”
labels: 1863, Chancellorsville, quotes, Robert E. Lee, Traveller, Virginia