Battle of Chancellorsville • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • The Armies
Three wayside markers are at Stop 8 on the Battle of Chancellorsville Auto Tour.
Jackson Attacks wayside Marker
Text from the marker:
Jackson Attacks
“You can go forward then.” With those words “Stonewall” Jackson unleashed one of the most famous and successful attacks of the Civil War. On the afternoon of May 2, 1862, Jackson led 30,000 men of his Second Corps to a point just beyond the Union army’s right flank, located in this vicinity. He deployed his men astride the Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3) in three lines of battle, each one-half mile or more in length.
Two hours before sunset, Jackson struck. As his men struggled through the tangled woods, they drove deer, rabbits, and turkeys ahead of them. The frightened animals bounded into the Union camps, causing the Northern soldiers to cheer. Their merriment quickly turned to fear as the Confederates stormed out of the woods screaming the Rebel Yell. Jackson was upon them!
The Flying Dutchmen wayside marker
The view east past the Pressing the Attack and Flying Dutchmen wayside markers toward the Wilderness Church.
Text from the marker:
The Flying Dutchmen
The target of Jackson’s attack was General Oliver O. Howard’s Eleventh Corps, which extended for more than a mile along the Orange Turnpike. The Eleventh Corps was relatively new to the Army of the Potomac. Its 11,000 men included a large percentage of German immigrants – men with names like Peisser and Buschbeck, Schurz and Schimmelfennig.
Union pickets had warned Howard of the enemy’s approach, but he had ignored their reports. Headquarters had assured him that the Confederate army was in retreat. Now, as the Southerners bore down upon Howard’s flank, the men of the corps broke ranks and fled. Although the general and his officers eventually restored order, they could not restore the corps’ reputation. From then on, the Eleventh Corps would be known derisively as “the Flying Dutchmen.”
“Why did we run? Well, those who didn’t are there yet!”
-Private William B. Southerton,
79th Ohio Volunteers
From the caption to the drawing at left:
Clutching a Union banner under the stump of his amputated right arm, General Howard endeavored to rally his panic-stricken troops near Dowdall’s Tavern. ‘I felt…that I wanted to die,’ Howard wrote, ‘…and I sought death everywhere I could find an excuse to go on the field.
From the caption to the main drawing:
The Eleventh Corps, caught off guard by Jackson’s unexpected attack, fled toward Chancellorsville in panic.
Pressing the Attack wayside marker
Text from the marker:
Pressing the Attack
That evening, as the fighting subsided, Confederate officers reassembled their commands in the clearing surrounding Wilderness Church, one-half mile in front of you. The attack had taken a heavy toll on the army’s organization. Units had become mixed. Some men wandered off in search of food or water; others plundered abandoned Union camps.
It would take time to get his corps back into fighting trim, but Jackson could not wait. The Confederate army was divided. Decisive action by Hooker might yet turn the Confederate victory into a defeat. Jackson had to strike before the enemy could regain his balance.
As darkness descended on the battlefield, Jackson ordered General A.P. Hill to slice behind the Union forces at Chancellorsville and sever their supply line across Rappahannock River. “Press them, Hill!” he snapped, “Cut them off from United States Ford! Press them!” From Wilderness Church, the Confederates moved forward again into the gathering night.
From the caption to the photograph:
Wilderness Church as it appeared after the war. Jackson’s troops reorganized in the church clearing following their attack on the Eleventh Corps.
Location of the Wayside Markers at Stop 8
Stop 8 on the Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour is just north of Plank Road (Virginia Route 3) about 0.6 mile west of the intersection with Orange Plank Road and 2.7 miles east of the intersection with Brock Road. Plank Road is a divided highway; eastbound visitors will not be able to turn left into the drive but need to go to a turnaround about 0.1 mile east of the stop and then return westbound. (38°18’55.6″N 77°40’53.1″W)
(go to the main Stop 8 page)
(go to the main Chancellorsville Battlefield Auto Tour page)