Chancellorville 1863

After Burnside's fiasco at Fredericksburg, the new leader of the Army of the Potomac, Joe Hooker made a better plan.  He left apart of his army at at Fredericksburg while his main force went upstream to cross Rappahannock unmolested.  Then he proceeded to stuff everything up & make Lee look like a genius.  Lee left a small force at Fredericksburg to watch Sedgewick & marched west to meet Hooker.  Hooker immediately recoiled back into the wilderness.  Lee faced Hooker with 10,000 men & sent Jackson on a flank march though back roads with 30,000 men to attack the Federal right flank. The terain hid both Lee's weakness & Jackson's march.  Jackson's flank attack is legendary.  It drove the Union right back in chaos.  But attacking in such country also totally disorganised the Rebs & Jackson himself fell to friendly fire.  The Union were actually in a good position with interior lines between the two CSA wings, but Hooker didn't have the nerve to use it & pulled back allowing the CSA to rejoin their armies.  He then meekly retired over the Rappahannock.

The wilderness now is still mainly mostly woods with some clearings, but now it is mature woodland with not a lot of undergrowth.  In 1863 it was regrowth after the ground had been raped & pillaged by the early colonists & had a tangled undergrowth.

Jackson's route went along this road though it was little more than a goat track in 1863. 

Hazel Grove was one of good fields of fire on the battlefield.  Hooker gave it up without a fight.