Battle of Chancellorsville

The Battle of Chancellorsville

Union General Joseph Hooker

The Union losses to General Lee’s Army were irritating President Lincoln. He had recently accepted MG Burnside’s resignation, following his loss at the battle of Fredericksburg. Burnside had removed much of the leadership, laying fault on them for the failure at Mud March. General Joseph Hooker a United States Military Academy graduate had served in the Seminole and Mexican-American Wars prior to getting out of the military. He returned to serve in the Civil War. He demonstrated his leadership abilities at the Battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

Needing a new commander for the Army of the Potomac Lincoln turned to General Hooker to command, due to his reputation for aggressive fighting. President Lincoln wrote a letter to General Hooker in response to a quote in the New York Times where Hooker stated the country needed a dictator. The following was the President’s response:

“I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.” 1

The Army of the Potomac’s moral had dropped and Soldiers were walking off. President Lincoln needed someone that could raise the moral and train the Army to defeat General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army.

Often referred to as General Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory of the civil war, The Battle of Chancellorsville could have seen much different results had General Hooker consistently followed the six principles of mission command. I will utilize understand, visualize, describe and lead, four of the mission command principles, to analyze General Hooker’s mission command techniques. Straying from these principles caused his commanders to question his ability to command and inevitably was the reason for defeat by a much-outnumbered force.

UNDERSTAND

General Hooker started with a very clear understanding on the operational environment. He saw that the moral of his troops was extremely low after their defeat at Fredericksburg. He first ensured all of the Soldiers received regular meals and a furlough. He began preparing for the mission and realigning his troops in January, immediately upon taking command of the Army of the Potomac. He initiated an intelligence branch, which played a major role in the onset of the battle, with enemy deception. He consolidated the once spread out cavalry units into a Cavalry Corps. He also identified other Corps by issuing Corps insignia crests. This helped to instilled Es Sprit De Corps among the Soldiers.