General Lee Captured 19,500 firearms at the Battle of Chancellorsville

1srelluc

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Nov 21, 2021
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Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
From General Lee's after battle report, which can be found here:

https://leefamilyarchive.org/reference/books/report/index.html


"The loss of the enemy in the battle of Chancellorsville and the other engagements was severe. His dead, and a large number of wounded, were left on the field.

About five thousand prisoners, exclusive of the wounded, were taken, and thirteen pieces of artillery. Nineteen thousand five hundred stand of arms, seventeen colors, and a large quantity of ammunition, fell into our hands."


Pretty darn impressive for just one battle and it pretty much squares with the number of Yankee killed/wounded/missing (17K+) during the campaign.

Battle of Chancellorsville - Wikipedia
 
From General Lee's after battle report, which can be found here:

https://leefamilyarchive.org/reference/books/report/index.html


"The loss of the enemy in the battle of Chancellorsville and the other engagements was severe. His dead, and a large number of wounded, were left on the field.

About five thousand prisoners, exclusive of the wounded, were taken, and thirteen pieces of artillery. Nineteen thousand five hundred stand of arms, seventeen colors, and a large quantity of ammunition, fell into our hands."

Pretty darn impressive for just one battle and it pretty much squares with the number of Yankee killed/wounded/missing (17K+) during the campaign.

Battle of Chancellorsville - Wikipedia
But - the north had the ability to refill its ranks.
And - the south lost Stonewall Jackson.
 
Once Grant took over a loss was just another battle he just attacked again. Thats what beat the Confederates using the overwhelming advantages in manpower and equipment the North had.
Grant was like a Pit Bull. Once he engaged, he didn’t let lose.
He also tied up Lees forces at Petersburg allowing Sherman and Sheridan to tear up the south
 
Yup before Grant the Union would withdraw and lick its wounds and let the South reorganize
I was an annual ritual. Engage in a major battle, fall back to DC to lick your wounds, come back in the spring
 
Lee lost his most trusted general though. General T.J. "stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot by his own nervous troops while touring the line after the battle.
 
Lee lost his most trusted general though. General T.J. "stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot by his own nervous troops while touring the line after the battle.

What Grant had to say about Stonewall Jackson….

I question whether his campaigns in Virginia justify his reputation as a great commander. He was killed too soon, and before his rank allowed him a great command. It would have been a test of generalship if Jackson had met Sheridan in the Valley, instead of some of the men he did meet.

From all I know of Jackson, and all I see of his campaigns, I have little doubt of the result. If Jackson had attempted on Sheridan the tactics he attempted so successfully upon others he would not only have been beaten but destroyed. Sudden, daring raids, under a fine general like Jackson, might do against raw troops and inexperienced commanders, such as we had in the beginning of the war, but not against drilled troops and a commander like Sheridan. The tactics for which Jackson is famous, and which achieved such remarkable results, belonged entirely to the beginning of the war and to the peculiar conditions under which the earlier battles were fought. They would have insured destruction to any commander who tried them upon Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Meade, or, in fact, any of our great generals.
 
Sheridan would have been hanged as a war criminal and so would drunken Grant for ordering Union troops to loot, pillage and rape and commit arson on innocent folks in the Shenandoah Valley but the victors write the history books.
 
From General Lee's after battle report, which can be found here:

https://leefamilyarchive.org/reference/books/report/index.html


"The loss of the enemy in the battle of Chancellorsville and the other engagements was severe. His dead, and a large number of wounded, were left on the field.

About five thousand prisoners, exclusive of the wounded, were taken, and thirteen pieces of artillery. Nineteen thousand five hundred stand of arms, seventeen colors, and a large quantity of ammunition, fell into our hands."

Pretty darn impressive for just one battle and it pretty much squares with the number of Yankee killed/wounded/missing (17K+) during the campaign.

Battle of Chancellorsville - Wikipedia
Lee was great at killing Americans. Must be why he's such an inspiration to the budding terrorist movements among the MAGA folks.
 
Yep.

Here's something post-war for you to mull-over as far as the lack of Yankee morals went.

The occupation Yankees were paying $5.00 a head for the locals to dig-up dead Yankees and put them in what would become the National Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia.

Culpeper National Cemetery - Wikipedia

My wife's family hired former slaves to do the replanting and did quite well at first.....It was mostly farmers in the area trying to reclaim their fields and would bring the remains in for hard cash which was hard to come by at the time.

The whole area was the site of huge Yankee camps, battlefields, and sites of field hospitals. Thousands of dead Yankees were buried in shallow graves in the area who died from both battle wounds and disease, some were just laying in the woods.

Then the occupation Yankees started stealing the money (it was paid out in cash) for their drinking and carousing around to where they would not pay so the farmers just started disposing of the bodies like they would any other battlefield trash they would dig-up that was in the way and deposit them on the edges of their fields along stone walls and such.

A old relic hunting trick was to search the edges of rock walls, there you would find all kinds of stuff that was tossed there if someone had not beat you to it first. ;)
 
Sheridan would have been hanged as a war criminal and so would drunken Grant for ordering Union troops to loot, pillage and rape and commit arson on innocent folks in the Shenandoah Valley but the victors write the history books.

The North got tired of playing nice
They went to a policy of bringing the traitors to their knees
 
Sheridan would have been hanged as a war criminal and so would drunken Grant for ordering Union troops to loot, pillage and rape and commit arson on innocent folks in the Shenandoah Valley but the victors write the history books.
Actually that conduct was pretty tame for a civil war. The ACW was the most civil civil war that I can think of. Rebels were usually executed out of hand when captured and hatred and murder usually ran rampant on both sides.
 
Sheridan would have been hanged as a war criminal and so would drunken Grant for ordering Union troops to loot, pillage and rape and commit arson on innocent folks in the Shenandoah Valley but the victors write the history books.

The South got off incredibly lightly compared to most regimes which commit treason.
 

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