Battle of Chancellorsville • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
The “Jackson’s Impact” and “High Drama, Human Tragedy” wayside markers are along the Fairview walking trail. The trailhead is at Stop 10 on the Battle of Chancellorsville Auto Tour.
The Jackson’s Impact marker (facing right) is next to the High Drama, Human Tragedy wayside marker (on left).
Jackson’s Impact wayside marker
Text from the marker:
Jackson’s Impact
Around you is tangible and dramatic evidence of the impact “Stonewall” Jackson’s flank attack had on the Union army. The artillery emplacements (lunettes) in front of you were constructed at a fairly leisurely rate on May 1 and 2, 1863. They face South, toward the expected direction of any Confederate attack.
The lunettes to your left were dug by frantic Union artillerymen during the night of May 2-3, 1863. They face west – in the direction of Jackson’s surprise assault against the Union right flank. Few attacks of the war so quickly and thoroughly changed the axis and the course of a battle.
On the morning of May 3, 1863, Union cannon and troops at Fairview came under furious attack. Lee assaulted Fairview from the south, while Jackson’s force (now commanded by J.E.B. Stuart) attacked from the west and southwest. For several hours, Fairview became the focal point of the battle as Lee struggled to destroy Hooker’s army.
High Drama, Human Tragedy wayside marker
Text from the marker:
High Drama, Human Tragedy
The climactic fighting of the Battle of Chancellorsville took place in the woods and fields around Fairview. Here on the morning of May 3, 1863, Union troops struggled to maintain their position long enough to allow General Hooker time to establish a new line a mile to the north.
The Confederates fought desperately to reunite the two wings of Lee’s command and to finish what Jackson had begun the night before – the destruction of Hooker’s army. The Confederates drove the Federals from Chancellorsville, but Hooker escaped, his army intact.
…our line melted away as if swallowed up by the earth…. Every man went on his own hook, crawling over and under everything before us… The woods were afire, and … there was a rush for the clearings and road, and then we stood huddled together under the pitiless rain of cannester and shell till the flames swept by…[The Yankees’] charred bodies dotted the ground and we could see by the ashes where they had scratched the leaves away in a vain attempt to save themselves from the more awful fate of burning alive.
Nicholas Weeks, 3rd Alabama Infantry
From the caption to the drawing:
Artist Alfred Waud sketched Union troops fighting in the Chancellor clearing behind you, on May 3.
Location of the Markers
The markers are along the Fairview walking trail about 600 feet from the trailhead.
(go to the main Stop 10 page)
(return to the main Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour page)