each week American artifacts takes viewers into archives museums and historic sites around the country the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville was fought April 30th to May 6th 1863 in Spotsylvania County Virginia many historians consider the battle to be Confederate General Robert E Le's greatest Victory facing a Union Army more than twice the size of his own Lee divided his forces sending 27,000 men under Stonewall Jackson on a 12m march to deliver a flank attack next we follow two National Park Service historians on a tour as they walk the same ground exactly 150 years after Jackson launched his attack just a couple uh things to think about before we get started with the tour uh number one we're going to be covering ground that many people have never gotten a chance to walk and the reason for that is that all this ground is not National Park Service ground much of this is private property uh we are on those properties at the uh as guests at the behest of the families that own them and are the stewards of History okay guys ready welcome to the 150th anniversary of the battle of Chancellorsville one of the great Hallmark moments of American History if not all military history what Stonewall Jackson did 150 years ago this evening literally caught the imagination of the entire English-speaking world this was the very Pinnacle of Stonewall Jackson's career 150 years ago this day May 2nd in 1863 a Confederate Army outnumbered almost two and a half to one matched wits with the Union Army of the bomac and its brand new Commander Major General Joseph Hooker Hooker had the advantage of numbers he had the advantage of supplies he had the advantage of high defensible ground and he had a strong centralized location that covered all avenues of approach from the East and the south from which the Confederates were coming and yet Robert ele and his chief lieutenant Thomas Jonathan Jackson Stonewall Jackson were able to hatch one of the most audacious plans ever considered despite the fact that they only had about 40,000 men on this entire Battlefield to confront almost 85,000 Union Soldiers Robert ele and Stonewall Jackson determined to split their forces right in the face of their enemy and 13,000 Confederates stayed about six miles away from us out in front of Chancellorsville to hold the attention of the Union Army and while everybody was rigidly focused to the east Stonewall Jackson took 27,000 Confederates on a 12m March in Broad daylight clean around the Union Army and 150 years ago this very moment his Vanguard was arriving less than a mile away from us and setting up their positions 27,000 Confederates would soon fill the woods Stonewall Jackson had three divisions under his command the lead division under a man named Robert EMT roads took the front line and spread out on either side of the orange Turnpike modern day route three behind him came Jackson's Old division led by a brand new Commander named Raleigh Colston neither rhs nor coulston had ever LED their troops into combat before as a division Commander the third and largest division was lagging behind under the very capable leadership of a Major General named Ambrose Powell Hill AP Hill though he and Stonewall Jackson had clashed numerous times they were ideological opposites they still had a profound respect for each other as professional soldiers Hill was going to be the mobile reserve for Jackson's Strike Force by 5:15 on the afternoon of May 2nd 1863 Stonewall Jackson had 20,000 men in line and 7,000 closing in behind them when he decided that the special moment had come to strike a decisive blow at at 5:15 that afternoon he asked his lead division Robert rhs if he was ready to go when rhs said that his men were Jackson simply said then you may proceed and that Unleashed thousands of Confederates through the woods behind us they were supposed to maintain silence as long as possible which meant that they could not raise the Rebel Yell they could not use the bugles as they pushed forward each Commander driving his own men in the direction of the Union lines the Confederate line is about 2 miles long from flank to flank it extended on either side of the turnpike it extended well over Hills and watersheds through swamps and woods to the point where the right flank could not see the Left Flank Stonewall Jackson himself stuck close to the road and could only command a brief or small portion of the line that he could directly interact with as a result the commanders out on the flanks are going to have to know what Jackson's intentions are Jackson would have to share his plans the normally secretive Stonewall Jackson would have to elaborate for those commanders who were going to be moving through the woods parallel with the highway but unable to watch the highway and that would be critical for Jackson's success all of the commanders out here understood their Commander intent before they started as this line picked up speed and in momentum heading towards the unsuspecting Union right flank their stealth was somewhat betrayed by Nature itself as the Confederate soldiers scared up the deer underfoot as well as the fox and the birds and the squirrels and all of them came barreling over the hilltop behind you and directly into the Union camps creating pandemonium Union soldiers were amazed at nature gone arai until they realized that Jackson's men were right behind them acting as beaters to the hunt all right let's talk about the target of Jackson's attack uh the line of the 11th core was positioned right about where we were standing and stretched out all along the turnpike where some of you have actually ended up parking now the 11th core here at Chancellorsville has quite a reputation to overcome uh they're known in the aftermath of this battle as the Flying Dutchmen Dutchman being a a mutation of Deutsch to mean German uh the 11th core is known to be a largely German core out of about 13,000 men in this core 5,000 of them are German immigrants or uh some kind of German American their Commander however Oliver Otis Howard is not German and that becomes problematic to the men of his core they can't identify with him and he can't seem to identify with them at all uh he's known to be over Pious and uh that doesn't very sit very well with many of the men here in the Army so as a core this uh section of the line has some inner turmoil to confront within themselves so these aren't exactly troops uh that you're going to place on the front lines uh back here in the far kind of rear of the army these men aren't expected to see much action at the beginning of the battle of course they are the far right flank uh a vulnerable position that Lee and Jackson Target uh mainly because all the men here are facing to the South just stretched out again along the orange Turnpike modern day Route 3 facing to the South they're facing to the South because that's where the enemy is but they have very few men actually turned back to meet any kind of an attack from the west and this is why Jackson uh pinpoints this section of the line but you might have to ask yourself how do you not see 27,000 Confederates heading right at you well the thing is they did many members of the 11th Corps had warning that Jackson's men might be coming right at them as soon as 8:00 a.m. Jackson's men are spotted moving west and south hooker sends a message Joseph Hooker sends a message to Oliver Otis Howard about 9:30 a.m. telling him uh to make dispositions to be prepared there might be a flank attack uh heading your way and I can tell your lines are not uh disposed currently to meet an attack from that direction Howard then orders his reserve artillery 18 guns to face to the west and then sends a message back to Hooker saying that he is making dispositions and will be prepared uh to meet an attack should it come at him but is he really uh at the end of the day uh he has not really made any significant changes to his line uh to really meet an attack from the West uh despite several warnings about 2:45 p.m. a major Owen rice sends a message um to Howard a large body of the enemy is massing in my front for God's sake make dispositions to receive him that seems like a pretty clear warning right it gets worse uh the order a Cavalry Patrol down the turnpike and that Cavalry Patrol returns saying that the road is blocked by confederate artill confederate infantry and artillery the commander out here on this portion of the line uh complains that he can't get a proper reconnaissance the reconnaissance just told him there were too many Confederates to to clear the way uh in the center of the line uh Carl schz who's in command there is concerned he sends Captain Hubert leather breaches dilger out to look at the territory to be prepared to meet an attack from the rear just in case it should come dilger runs into preparing Confederates escapes circuitously to the chancellor house to Federal headquarters uh where he tries to report what he's seen that he was almost captured and just barely escaped and there's a huge body of Confederates and he's only turned away surely his his tail is nothing but a tall tail he reports then to headquarters of the uh 11th Corp to find that Howard has gone South to a Conflict at Catherine furnace members of the third Union Corps have gone down to harass Jackson's rear guard and Howard has himself gone down with some of his reserves to help in that fight down at Katherine furnace so the commander of the 11th Corps is not even here on the field uh to be watching over his men doer you can imagine rather distraught uh somewhat disappointed and a little beside himself returns to his battery and decides to hold it in Readiness he knows that something's coming and he's going to be waiting and ready for for it so clearly something is going on out in the woods ahead many members of the 11th Corp are aware so why are the warnings not heated why doesn't Howard pay any attention why don't the why don't Howard subordinate officers out here many of them pay close attention well to speak proudly they have somewhat insufficient information knowing there's a body of Confederates in front of you doesn't tell you how many Confederates are out there in front of you should you be concerned or is this just a screening mve is this a diversion is this a faint until you can get a proper reconnaissance which tells you a a good number of men how many men are out there what they consist of how do you make preparations what's more they've heard news from headquarters despite the fact that Joseph Hooker sent a warning to Howard that an attack may be coming he's later changed his mind decided that the Confederates are retreating and in a show of confidence has emanated that message quite clearly out of headquarters so Oliver Rus Howard is under the impression that surely hooker would have told him if there were danger coming Howard subordinates are sure that are quite certain that surely Howard would have told them if something was coming they're listening from the top down not from the bottom up and in doing so and also in trying to prevent a panic no one wants to be that officer who overreacted to a report but in this case maybe better to overreact to underreact because when Jackson's attack hits as Frank has described there are only really two regiments turned back to meet this attack on the end of the line many of the men through here besides those currently standing in in Readiness many of these men are eating dinner cooking rations when the the Stampede of animals breaks through their lines they laugh and jeer as soldiers what do you think their first thought is dinner exactly um of course things become pretty clear soon there after that that is not the case uh there are two artillery shots in the Rebel Yell that break as the attack hits the line and it becomes very clear this is not dinner this is something much worse these men have no time to react some of them will fire a few shots if they can and then the line largely breaks and runs Sergeant Otto hinger of the 41st New York is facing south at the end of the line he said a panicked fear overcame us how crazily we plunged away the rest of the division running with us with that vote of confidence we're going to follow them and head down this path let us is the head thank you thank you all right ladies and gentlemen can you hear me okay can you hear me okay outstanding as we go into an operation anything that can go wrong must go wrong and we learn to overcome we improvise and we adapt and we Triumph somebody took my speaker so you are stuck with my voice so Stonewall Jackson struck right at the most vulnerable moment of the Union 11th corp's encampment General Charles devans division located on the hill where we just came his troops were overrun in less than 10 minutes Charles devans the division Commander was shot in the foot thought that he was grave enough to leave the field his replacement Nathaniel mlan had a much more serious wound and had to be carried from the field after that it didn't matter the division dissolved and did not exist the next division in line belonged to General Carl schz his troops were located around this brief opening this was called the Hawkins far it still belongs to the Hawkins family [Music] today a gentleman named Thomas Downer Liv just in the hollow right below us and his wife was a Hawkins at the time of the battle shortz had several brigades around the house but his he started to get an inkling of some of the things going on to the West he started to shift one Brigade and face them du West he put them in this little field this was the Brigade of Vladimir kranos ski oh W they formed up about 75 yards away from the tree line just under this little rise they sent skirmishers forward to check out the woods and we were instantly met by advancing Confederates and driven back into the field the Confederates Advanced to the edge of the trees and kow's Brigade met them they exchange fire at less than 75 yards the effective rifle range is about 300 yards this was deadly Point Blank combat and the losses accumulated quickly but not as quick as you might imagine with the Confederates hidden in the trees and the federals exposed in an open field that slight rise would make the difference and give just a little bit of protection to the federals out here as the Confederates were styed for a few seconds remember the Confederate line is about two miles from flank to flank krisn nowski has a brigade front of about 300 to 400 yards the Confederates off to the north of us easily swept past this spot and threatened to come in on the the flank or rear of the federals located here when Kinowski realized that his Brigade had been compromised he immediately went to the Troops and ordered them to withdraw the colonel the commanding officer of the 26 Wisconsin a colonel named Jacobs decided that he was in a stand up fight and would not back off even when Kowski came to him directly and ordered him to pull back he refused the order because it seemed cowardly Kowski was compelled to ride down the Lake of the LW Under Fire grasping at the neck of his horse for cover and screaming at the men for god sakes men run and they backed off this hill as fast as possible 26 Wisconsin had 650 men in this field they left almost 200 of them in just a 15 foot wide swap the loss of that one regiment exceeds the losses of at least two entire brigades it's all Heavy action at Chancellorsville this was a terrible bloodletting for them and when they were swept off this field you can imagine the men heading downhill into a valley with the Confederates having the advantage of height and position to fire into them on Retreat and the loss was going to get worse and pandemonium and panic will spread as regiments fracture and fall apart and try to get off this field as fast as possible what we're going to do is follow in Jackson's footsteps and pursue this we've broken One Union Division and now a second division is tumbling it will take just a little bit of effort to destroy this as well ready let's do it Hey sir oh thank you I want you to appreciate the size of your group in 1863 you are about the size of a regiment so when we talk about these various units these regiments representing States you're about the size of one of those units out on this field and there are a mirriad of others all of them integrated with groups just about your size to the point where we're no longer talking about hundreds we're talking about thousands of people interacting on this field all at the same time it is confusion at its best and it's true leaders they're going to be able to draw some kind of force or momentum out of that confusion Carl short attempted to make a stand on this property and within 10 minutes his troops were crushed and reeling backwards past the Hawkins bar the modern house stands right next door to what was the foundation of the original historic structure it was a very small building it was very discreet Mr Downer was not here but his wife holda Hawkin was her brother Alexander Hawkins was and probably between a dozen to two dozen refugees were all taking shelter in this one little building that was not enough this also served as the headquarters for General shortz on May 2nd when action erupted over the hills it would have been out of sight you could hear the action without experiencing it without seeing it without being intimidated by it one of the staff officers who had walked into the house heard the commotion and stepped out to investigate the battle came so quickly that he never had a chance to come back and get his stuff so in fact the staff officer left his sidearms and his sword behind for the Hawkins as a treasure as you look back up into the trees and realized where Kowski had met the Vanguard of Jackson's own SWOT you could have seen that battle perfectly from the house Mrs Hawkins literally stood at the door and announced for everyone inside my God here they come and moments later the federals flooded right past here second after them the Confederates hot in Pursuit the hawkins's gathered by the door and encouraged the Confederates rooting them on Alexander Hawkins had served in the Confederate Army and he had been given a discharge because of health reasons but this night 150 years ago he was rejuvenated caught up in the electricity of the moment and he joined the attack as well starting from right here the Confederates have reinforcements as they go charging down this Hillside in the aftermath of this the ground around us was strewn with all the dead and the wounded and the detrius of battle this landscape was scarred and punished and abused the wounded were gathered off this field and brought to the Hawkins Farmhouse what had been a home had become a headquarters and now it was transformed into a hospital and surgeons worked around the clock to save lives they couldn't bring everybody into the building and they filled the entire grounds around us with Wounded lying in road waiting for their turns as the weather turned ugly Confederates tried to help by putting pup tets over them it didn't work but it was a good gesture this was a place of suffering and a place of death after the war this also became a landmark of the battle of catersville veterans came back here North and South members of the Union 11th Corps came here in the 1880s and they met with the survivors of the Hawkins family and the ladies of the Hawkins family were still full of them and fight and they said in honesty that they were surprised to see these Yankees after they had been so full of brodo about having Robert E Lee right where they wanted him here it seemed absurd but as the Union Soldiers laughed and agreed with them eventually they reached dayon and when those veterans left they admitted that they left in good stead with the Hawkins family they had blighted this landscape but it was that Spirit of the people who live here and continue to live here that were able to resurrect this out of that wreckage and bring it back to fruition everything you see around you is literally a testimony to a Phoenix rising out of the ashes and a nation reunited and a nation that grows stronger as these fields Prosper but the attack is Just Begun two Union divisions have broken and are fleeing for their lives there's yet one more left out here to the east all right as we come through here one of my first quotations is about the Woodline uh around gold gold run uh the run that we just crossed uh the woods in this area going to act According to some Southerners here like a strainer on the retreating 11th core uh one Southerner wrote the lean and lesser Dutchmen escaped while we secured the fat ones those are not very nice terms but another wrote pretty similarly we captured piles of fat knapsacks and piles of fatter Dutchmen oh Howard is going to ride into the retreating men uh somewhere in in this area and again attempts to rally the troops he's tucked a flag under the stump of his arm he had lost one arm uh wounded in the Peninsular campaign uh brandished a pistol and yelled for his men to stop rally and stand with him his effective war cry halt halt I'm ruined I'm ruined it's maybe not the most inspiring war cry um that you've heard I suspect that many of these men are not at all concerned about Howard's reput James Peabody uh in this area watches Howard and decided he was completely confused and bewildered again not necessarily the most inspiring he later added none of us knew or cared where he went again not not a great Commendation on your commanding officer it does present to us a very comical uh picture but if we stand in Howard's boots for a minute uh we might get a different perspective so you're brand new to this core command uh you don't get along very well here your men don't like you you don't really like them uh you don't get along on good terms you had some warning of this but you didn't heed it because headquarters your commanding officer uh the men that you trust didn't think it was true didn't pay any kind of attention to it now you've returned to your core to find that it's a complete disaster your routed troops are running for their lives you can't really fix your mistake at this point can you he wrote later that he wanted to die he said it was the only time I ever weakened that way in my life before or since but that night I did all in my power to remedy the mistake and I sought death everywhere I could find an excuse to go on the field so we get a sense from Howard uh that he's kind of a man in a difficult position he's got a wrecked core in front of him he's trying to remedy the mistake but clearly he doesn't know exactly the best way to do it uh he doesn't succeed Howard is largely ignored as his troops saw practicality instead and continue to stream on past him right here uh he and Colonel Joseph Dickinson of Joseph hooker's staff are swinging Sabers and firing pistols again still trying to stop the men as Howard heads to his reserve artillery finding his Methods at the moment I think ineffective Dickinson encourages him to fire on his men to stop the route and the Confederate Advance Howard says no Colonel I will never fire at my own men so even in the midst of chaos somewhat Panic uh Howard may not be the biggest fan of his men but he certainly not going to fire on them it gives us I think uh in examining just what Howard does to try to remedy his mistake a slightly more complex view of the man uh this isn't simply a core commander who abandons all sense of the sight of his his command fleeing although perhaps he should have expressed a little better judgment um before this point uh now as we move into this area in particular in this open field that we're standing in uh we have the 27th Pennsylvania the 29th New York are going to be thrown ahead head near Wilderness Church by colon Colonel adus busck to buy time in order to present a firmer line they succeed in momentarily throwing back uh the front line on its heels but the Confederates are too many in number and have pretty great momentum on hand uh two regiments simply isn't going to cut it uh one man said the enemy literally swarmed on every side after losing half their number the two regiments were forced to retire so they break and run past this point and keep in mind that many of these Union soldiers are looking for a rallying point we often have a view of the 11th Corp as men who simply ran as soon as they encountered the Confederates but many of these men are looking for a place to form and very soon they're just about to find it on the rise that is just ahead of you all so we'll turn it over to Frank who will lead us to our next stop as you see the meadow in front of you and across the valley you can see the sun starting to glint on the far edge of the Hawkins Farm where you would have had shortz's camps where Kinowski made his stand for just a brief moment beyond that Fila made his stand for just a brief moment as Fila fell back from his initial position he was able to inflict some loss on the Confederates but the Confederates pressed on anyway as they get to the Wilderness Church you heard what Beth told us that Adolphus Bush Beck the federal Brigade Commander detached two regiments and threw them at the church in essence threw them into the midst of this Confederate Mall these jaws of death it was a blood sacrifice just for a couple of minutes a couple of minutes for the federals to assume a position on this Ridge where we are in the course of that little exchange you heard that the federals suffered Grievous losses but I want you to keep in mind that while the federal line is cracking the Confederates are exhausted they have been fighting and adrenaline has carried them this far and the question is how much further can it carry them on this hill is a break point Adolphus busck had anticipated defending this position as early as May 1st 150 years ago last night his troops took position here and 150 years ago this day he unlike many of those around him fortified this position he's one of the only commanders in the 11th Corps to build a line perpendicular to the highway where all the others were stationed along the highway facing due south the regrettable thing about Bush Beck's line is that it did not face West it faced East it faced towards Chancellorsville it faced towards the Confederate Army and where the threat loomed that morning no one anticipated Jackson going 12 miles and circumventing the entire Union force to strike them from 180 degre difference so as the federals ran up onto this Hilltop what they encountered was a very slight line of rifle pits barely scraped out of the ground the Union Soldiers took position on the outside of the Earthworks and faced over them back towards the Confederates it's not much of a line it's hardly defensible as a log work or as a rifle but what it gives them is a psychological advantage it is a defense and it is a rallying point on which men could glom on it's a place where officers could stop and grab men and assert command there was probably about 1500 men who stood up on this hill but in the next couple minutes that might swell to 2,000 some thought it may have even swollen up to 3,000 and they held about a 600 yard to a thousand yard front it's the first sizable Union force to face the Confederates head on they had The High Ground and Jackson's men would have to come across this Meadow as the first Confederate thrust followed the Germans through the strainer of the woods they entered into this field and charged this hill and they got to the foot of this hill and were met with a blistering fire and for the first time this day the Confederates backed off they felt back into the trees to regroup the 11th Corp had repulsed an attack think about those words the 11th Corp had repulsed an attack at this point some of the commanders on this Hilltop perhaps became a little bit too giddy for their own good luck General Carl Schwarz saw this as the turning point of the battle and he rode boldly up on the hilltop in front of these men and told them it was time to Counterattack and take back their camps to go back to the Hawkins farm and he charged down the hillside shouting at the top of his lungs and as he got about halfway down the hill he realized he was alone so he turned around and he came back up here and he explained to the people around him what he expected and then he shouted Harrah and charged off again and the men watched him go he turned around and came back and tried to a third time and again he was unsuccessful and at that point he loped off to the rear defeated the soldiers around him did not follow him some of them didn't even know who he was because he wasn't their division Commander these are funin V's men Adolf and Stein's troops didn't recognize Carl's shirts they certainly weren't going to follow him especially into a nightmare Counterattack like this at the same time many the soldiers who did recognize a commanding officer also recog recognized that the circumstances were bigger than their generals expectations one soldier on this Hillside said there was no sense in seeking danger danger was coming to us and in fact it was it only took a moment for the Confederates to reorganize and prepare for a much bigger more ambitious attack four Confederate brigades gathered in front of us several thousand men and they would come charging headlong across this Meadow again while two brigades of louisianans and North Carolinians would start to expand the line further north and go around the Union force and jeopardize their flank meanwhile two more brigades of North Carolinians and Georgians would start filtering their way across the highway and feel for the the other Union flank with Do's Brigade Ram zor's Brigade to the South with these North Carolinians louisianans coming in on the right from the north the bush back line This brief bit of resistance cannot hold any longer fighting along the line gets very hot and then the flanks begin to collapse they can't withstand the pressure one New York Soldier wrote the the revs were so close on to us that we had to run for our sweet lives again with Confederates on each flank there's nobody behind this Ridge line what's going to stop the 11th core this time where else can they rally there is no good point and so from here the 11th core is really running a gauntlet of fire to the rear and an attempt to escape with their lives Jackson's flank attack is simply too overwhelming the line stretches for too long it overlaps every ounce of resistance that the 11th core attack to have in the process I think you all remember me mentioning leather breaches doer uh reconnaissance earlier on in the day and how he held his battery uh in Waiting he knew that an attack was coming and he had set himself up uh pretty get close to the turnpike um and held his ground he was a crucial part with his artillery of this bush back line crucial part of holding the line here in the process of overwhelming this line Jackson's men are going to aim for jer's cannon that would be a great prize they shoot the wheel horses to trap them but doer abandons three guns huls the rest Away by hand members of the 73rd Pennsylvania drag two guns away and only one of D's guns will fall to the Confederates doer fights a stiff rear guard with his with his battery in order to try to keep the Confederates back uh during their Retreat for his stiff resistance he'll earn the Medal of Honor for this action but with The Gap left uh both by the third core which again had been drawn down toward Katherine furnace and with some of headquarters' decisions thereby creating that Gap there's only now a lot of space for the 11th core to run through there's nothing to stop uh stop the retreat there's no good rallying point um these men are running for their lives this point where we're standing right here this very ground is the last substantive resistance in this flank attack it also does tangle up much of Jackson's core so you can imagine Stonewall Jackson beginning this attack with a 2 Mile front by the time it reaches here it's very much reduced it's down to about 600 yards that's a sizable collapse because at each point of resistance the flanks of Jackson's line have had to fold in to try to turn the tide against the Union forces who have stood to fight so you might think that the 11th Corp has run for their lives and put up almost no resistance but here we see they've actually not only put up some STS of resistance they've actually caused in some small way at least for Jackson's line to trip up for Jackson's flank attack uh to dwindle they've not simply run and left their comrades uh to Jackson's flank attack and I think that's worth noting worth remembering 150 years later the 11th core casualties were pretty bad with 2,400 casualties taken here killed wounded and captured a thousand of which were prisoners you can imagine so many of these men simply SW up within Jackson's flank attack as it sweeps forward that's out of about 13,000 total uh in the core so Jackson's attack had effectively wrecked an entire Union Army Core disabled 13,000 men caught hooker in the Union Army off guard the effect of Jackson's flank attack is not simply in casualties it's a psychological Victory as well can you imagine being a member of the 12th Corp member of the second core and you see Howard's men running back in on your lines completely terrified how would you stand to watch all of your comrades running back towards you terrified out of their minds think you'd be a little shaken by what you're seeing but although this is a big success for the Confederates this attack doesn't solve all of the Confederate problems in fact in many ways it fects up it sets up several problems for May 3rd so even though it wiped out a core this attack failed to wipe out the Union Army truly uh one of Jackson's goals he so far has only set the 11th Court to running largely due in part to the 11th core's own stiff resistance Frank of the 1500 or so Union soldiers who stood on this Ridge this evening in 1863 onethird of them never left this spot over 500 casualties accumulated up on this little Ridge just in the course of maybe 20 minutes of combat this was fighting at its worst it was intense and when the Union Soldiers broke they fled they were candid about their leaving they said it would have been Madness to have stayed any longer than they did and that they ran for their very lives one Union soldier confronted with this afterwards said in all honesty yes I ran for those who didn't run are there yet still so the 11th Corp has gotten a hard shift in history but at the same time we can see that in the course of our walk just this evening getting a glimpse of just some of their experience that they did all that could possibly be done under the circumstances and the biggest part of that circumstance is Stonewall Jackson Stonewall Jackson had launched a masterful attack this evening 15 years ago the Confederates gained the upper hand on an overall Battlefield where they were outnumbered 2 and a half to one they brought 20,000 Confederates to confront 11,000 Union Soldiers on the right flank they were able to bring their forces to bear on just minute portions of that Union force the vast array of the 11th core had been along the axis of the highway facing south not facing west Into the Danger itself as units tried desperately to pull out of their lines and confront the Confederates each and every one of them was consumed in turn one right after the other the Confederates fought with unity the federals fought in bits and pieces this is all attributable to exactly the designed to the Confederate Commander this was an ideal attack this was the height of Stonewall Jackson's Effectiveness Stonewall Jackson brought something to this attack that he brought to many of his attacks in the course of 1861 and 1862 and now 1863 that had made him a living legend literally a legend throughout the entire English-speaking World Jackson had captured and fascinated people all around this globe with a simple knowledge that this man could win and continue to win consistently but Jackson also recognized that he had something that very few other officers had he was able to take a static situation or a situation that even favored his opponent and he would be able to confound it and create opportunity out of nothing he had created his own opportunities this day as he had created on many different battlefields before here but the other battles were different than Chancellor's Ville the other battles Jackson had found a double-edged sword he had used all of his resources to create the decisive moment and when that moment had come he had found that he had exhausted his resources so that he had nothing left to exploit that moment this day he was going to arrange things differently he not only empowered the units on his flanks to understand what the purpose of the attack was and to make independent moves to exploit any opportunity as it comes forward but he also was able to use two divisions to get us here and to crush the 11th Corp Robert EMT rhods had led this attack and following behind him was Raleigh coulston their lines had become confused during the course of this fight through this Valley they had become inextricably mixed by this point where commanders could no longer find their commands and soldiers had no idea who to look to for direction seemingly this great moment would lapse as well Paralyzed by their own success but Jackson had a third division his largest division the division of AP Hill and they had yet to be engaged Jackson had used his resources to create the decisive moment as the Sun starts to set over Chancellorsville but now he had the resources he had the men to exploit it the question was what he would be able to do with it next what was the meaning of this why would we come out here 150 years after the event to stand in a meadow filled with ticks and think about these things because it matters and because it's relevant what happened here in 1863 was an inspiration to the soldiers who fought here and it's been an inspiration to every generation of soldiers ever since the United States military still comes out here to study these movements to study the execution the efforts of Stonewall Jackson and his men the Marine Corps basic school and the command and Staff College come out here on a regular basis and many of them actually follow the very footsteps of Jackson's flank March and go the full 12 miles before they even get into the attack and Beth and I have had the great privilege of leading them on many of their Ventures learning and learning from them as well it's relevant to them they can draw understanding in how to manage troops on a battlefield because no matter how sophisticated our Weaponry gets in the end it all boils down to a young man or a young woman with a pack on their back and a helmet on their head and a weapon in their hands to go out and finish the job and it's going to require a leader a commander to take them there and Inspire them to get the job done Jackson's men did that here this spot this moment every generation of Americans have thought about this and have studied this the second world war generation spent a great deal of time studying Stonewall Jackson more than any other commander of the past George S Patton grew up inculcated with Stonewall Jackson from from his very youth when he was a small child his mother taught him to pray on his knees before two pictures of bearded patriarch which in his innocence he thought was God and his son Jesus Christ he later on discovered that God was Robert Elite and that his son was Stonewall Jackson and it still seemed to make sense to the general the commandant of the US Marine Corps Alexander Archer Vander grip Commander at guad Canal Medal of Honor recipient himself also had ancestors that had served under Jackson had crossed these fields and he too had walked them and drawn inspiration his grandfather had become a Methodist Minister following the Civil War kind of a strange man according to Vandergriff he didn't have much Faith or use for mankind but those that he loved he kept very dear and very close to him and every night we would pray to the god of Isaac and Abraham and the god of Robert E le and Stonewall Jackson so Jackson became literally a part of their lives the tapestry of their being and an inspiration the most decorated Marine of the all time Lewis Burl puller chesty puller literally carried a dogeared biography of Stonewall Jackson with him everywhere he went around the world on campaign from guada Canal to Korea and used it as a primer on how to a good leader and to take his men into battle and take them through the greatest Trials of their lives Patton once said to Eisenhower in the next War you will be my Lee and I will be your Jackson and that meant something to them both without any further elaboration in the modern era we still talk in those terms when it came to Desert Storm Norman Schwarz call attributed his success to emulating the movements of Lee and Jackson maneuvering to success what is the movement of Lee and Jackson specifically it was the flank March around Chancellorsville to strike at the weak point and hit it with overwhelming force in Desert Storm the leader of that Strike Force was General Fred Franks commander of the seventh courp Chancellorsville was very real and very palpable to that Commander General Franks attributed his success to aonian movement which I think is one of the greatest phrases ever ever to come out of this Jackson has his own movement now most commanders study the last war but these men draw inspiration from a war that came a century and a half ago a Jacksonian movement think about that it's not a mathuran movement it's not a patoni movement it's aonian movement and you have walked in the very footsteps of it to see exactly where it had come to fruition and reached its success Jackson's days are numbered his hours as a commander are numbered Jackson was going to drive this attack as far as he could take it he would drive it into the woods to the east of us he would drive it into into the night he would drive it literally up to his last ride this evening all right thank you [Applause] everyone this is the second of a two-part program on confederate general Stonewall Jackson's flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville the entire program is available online right now at our website c-span.org slist and watch American artifacts every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. 700 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern here on cpan 3
