By May of 1863, the Stone Wall at the base of Marye's Heights above
Fredericksburg loomed large over the Army of the Potomac, haunting its
men with memories of slaughter from their crushing defeat there the
previous December. They would assault it again with a very different
result the following spring when General Joe Hooker, bogged down in
bloody battle with the Army of Northern Virginia around the crossroads
of Chancellorsville, ordered John Sedgwick's Sixth Corps to assault the
heights and move to his assistance. This time the Union troops wrested
the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the
enemy's rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem
Church. Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second
Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863 is the first book-length
study of these overlooked engagements and the central roles they played
in the final Southern victory.
Once Hooker opened the campaign with a brilliant march around General
Lee's left flank, the Confederate commander violated military principles
by dividing his under-strength army in the face of superior numbers. He
shuttled most of his men west from around Fredericksburg under Stonewall
Jackson to meet Hooker in the tangles of the Wilderness, leaving behind
a small portion to watch Sedgwick's Sixth Corps. Jackson's devastating
attack against Hooker's exposed right flank on May 2, however, convinced
the Union army commander to order Sedgwick's large, unused corps to
break through and march against Lee's rear. From that point on,
Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front tightens the lens for a thorough
examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to
the breakthrough, inland thrust, and ultimate bloody stalemate at Salem
Church.
Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated
the pivotal roles Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church played in the
campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief--and the
Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their
extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling
narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner
little more than a footnote to the larger story of Jackson's march and
tragic fatal wounding.
The success at Second Fredericksburg was one of the Union army's few
bright spots in the campaign, while the setback at Salem Church stands
as its most devastating lost opportunity. Instead of being trapped
between the Sixth Corps' hammer and "Fighting Joe" Hooker's anvil, Lee
overcame long odds to achieve what is widely recognized as his greatest
victory. But Lee's triumph played out as it did because of the pivotal
events at Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church--Chancellorsville's
forgotten front--where Union soldiers once more faced the horror of an
indomitable wall of stone, and an undersized Confederate division stood
up to a Union juggernaut.
