Chancellorsville battlefield
Photos in the museum
Auto tour marker
Visitor’s Center
The end of the year is approaching and I am going back through my photos trying to spot any posts that I should have made but didn’t. This is one – my brief stop at the Chancellorsville Battlefield on my way south with Rusty in October. We had to get both the dog and the car to Florida for the winter, so I drove both down. Mostly it was long hours of tedious driving, but I did stop in Chancellorsville after my overnight in Alexandria VA.
I was pressed for time so I didn’t do much more than tour the visitor’s center and drive part of the self-guided auto tour.
For a detailed description of the Battle of Chancellorsville, I refer you to the Wikipedia article here. The nutshell summary, though, is that this was a major Confederate victory just months before Gettysburg. Some historians describe this as Robert E. Lee’s “perfect battle” due to his brilliant strategy in outwitting and outfighting a vastly superior Union force. But he lost his best general, Stonewall Jackson, and the confidence in his invincibility that was engendered here may have resulted in his catastrophic loss at Gettysburg just two months later.
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought a year later, was very close to the Chancellorsville battlefield – just a few miles down the road. That was also a major Civil War battle that interests me but I did not have time to visit it. Next time.