“ill-fated battle-field”
After the Union loss at Chancellorsville the press and public in Seneca Falls, New York received all sorts of feedback and formed opinions about the debacle. Here’s a start.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in May 1863:
The Killed and Wounded.
The slaughter at Fredericksburg under HOOKER is without a parallel since the commencement of the war. Almost the entire nation is in mourning over the loss of the brave ones who were so ingloriously sacrificed upon that ill-fated battle-field. As the smoke of battle clears away, we begin to realize more fully the horrors of this bloody drama. Our losses are very large, and it is believed that 30,000 is not too high an estimate for the number in killed, wounded and missing. The telegrams from Washington placing the losses at 10,000 are believe [sic] to be destitute of the truth, and circulated to relieve HOOKER of the curse of an inglorious defeat.
A correspondent of the New York Times, who professes to have excellent facilities for forming a just judgment in this matter, says competent judges put down the grim total at about Seventeen thousand, but this evidently is under the mark. Dr LETTERMAN, medical director of the army, this correspondent says, estimates the total number of wounded alone at ten thousand. – Add to this prisoners and wounded now in rebel hands, and we have some some seven thousand more, to say nothing of the number killed.
150 years ago today people in the Confederate capital could also read an opinion about its victory and General Hooker’s ignominy. The Richmond editors agree Hooker is cursed but don’t think the Lincoln Administration is going to shield him.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch May 7, 1863:
The last victory
We have a few more details this morning of the resent victory on the Rappahannock.–The marÅavres [?] and achievements of our army during the powerful contest are of the most brilliant character. The enemy, in his own efforts to retrieve his fortunes, has added immensely to the splendor of the triumph. To Gen. Sedgwick, one of their ablest and most accomplished commanders, was assigned the task of assailing the rear of our army with a large force of fresh troops. They gained some advantages over our command at Fredericksburg; but were afterwards repulsed, and by a prompt and rapid movement by Gen. Lee were routed and forced to retreat rapidly across the Rappahannock, under cover of their guns on its north bank. Saturday and Sunday are amongst the most brilliant in the annals of the Southern Confederacy, already illumined with triumphs which, for number and magnitude, are not surpassed in history.
This terrible defeat is a sad finale for the thousands of men in the Yankee army whose terms of service were on the eve of expiring. Hooker could not afford to wait till they were at liberty to leave him. He felt the necessity of bringing all the men he could against the brave army of Gen. Lee, and they were led to slaughter.
on the Highway to Hades?
So far as his reputation is concerned, Hooker might well envy the dead. He obtained command of the army he has led to defeat by defaming his brother officers and the assiduous obtrusion of his own conceits of strategy on the Government. He was gratified with the chance of winning renown by retrieving the fortunes of the oft-defeated Federal army of the Potomac. He has met a well merited fate, and must now go to the Yankee Hades of all defeated Generals.
What our enemies propose next, and how long they will extend the time for the capture of Richmond, we shall perhaps soon learn. They have displayed great perseverance in this object so dear to them, and may not be willing yet to abandon it. It is probable that Rosecrans will be the next star in the Yankee heavens. Let us hope, however, that there will be time to sink him below the horizon before the new ” On to Richmond” can be planned.
The blow on the Potomac will be salutary in its effects upon the enemy and upon our own men. It will cheer ours as much as it will depress his, and give tone to the summer campaign. If it does the situation of affairs will undergo a great improvement, both at home and abroad.
The glorious [Confederate] Army of the Potomac merits the lasting gratitude of the nation. It has won a renown equal to that of any army the world ever saw.
knows his wounded
Jonathan Letterman “is known today as the “Father of Battlefield Medicine.” His system enabled thousands of wounded men to be recovered and treated during the American Civil War.” His system of triage, field hospitals, and an ambulance corps was proving to be effective by the December 1862 battle in Fredericksburg.
The Times correspondent’s 17,000 figure of total losses was quite accurate, as was Dr. Letterman’s estimate of 10,000 Union wounded. The Confederate total losses were over 13,000, but I guess you could say their sacrifice was a lot more glorious because they pushed the Federals back across the Rappahannock – again.
