This day in Providential History, October 16th

In 1781 - George Washington takes Yorktown, from British forces.
In 1793 - Marie Anoinette is guillotined at the pinnacle of the French Revolution.
In 1813 - The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon at Lepzig.
In 1859 - John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia.
In 1923 - Walt Disney is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
In 1939 - WWII: First air attacks on Britian by the German Luftwaffe.
In 1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto is established.
In 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis begins.
In 2006 - A 6.7 Earthquake causes massive damage's to property.



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Part 11 - Chancellorsville

The Battle of Chancellorsville, fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863 was a major battle that also kept turning the ride to the Union favor.  The battle is called 'Lee's Perfect Battle' because of his risky but successful division of his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force. Lee's audacity and Hooker's timid performance in combat combined to result in a significant Union defeat. The Confederate victory was tempered by the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson.

May 1st and 2nd

The Battle of Chancellorsville began with the crossing of the Rappahannock river on April 27, 1863 by the Federal Army of the Potomac under Gen. Joseph Hooker.  The army then crossed the Rapidan River and concentrated their forces near Chancellorsville on April 30th and May 1st.
By May 1, Hooker had approximately 70,000 men concentrated around Chancellorsville. From his Fredericksburg headquarters, Lee decided to violate one of the generally accepted 'Principle's of war' and divide his force in the face of a superior enemy, hoping that aggressive action would allow him to attack and defeat a portion of Hooker's army before it could be fully concentrated against him, it worked.  So Lee left behind a brigade and a division at Mayre's heights to contest any assault that came from Union General Sedgwick's corps.  Lee ordered Stonewall Jackson to march west and link up with Maj. Richard Anderson, assembling 40,000 men to confront Hooker at Chancellorsville.  Providentialy for the Confederates, heavy fog the Rappahannock masked some of these westward movements and Sedgwick chose to wait until he could determine the enemy's intentions.

At the same time General Jackson was marching west to join with Anderson on the morning of May 1, Hooker ordered an advance to the east to strike Anderson, pushing his men out of the impenetrable thickets that characterized the area.  Hooker did this because in the wilderness his advantage of Artillery would be minimized. Despite being in a potentially favorable situation, Hooker halted his brief offensive. His actions may have demonstrated his lack of confidence in handling the complex actions of such a large organization for the first time (he had been an effective and aggressive division and corps commander in previous battles), but he had also decided before beginning the campaign that he would fight the battle defensively, forcing Lee, with his small army, to attack Hooker's larger one.  Lee then prepared for the attack.
For Lee's attack to work, three things had to happen. First, Jackson had to make a 12-mile (19 km) march via roundabout roads to reach the Union right, and he had to do it undetected. Second, Lee had to hope that Hooker stayed tamely on the defensive. Third, Early would have to keep Sedgwick bottled up in Fredericksburg. And when Jackson launched his attack, he had to hope that the Union forces were unprepared.

May 3rd

All of these conditions were met.  The Confederates smashed the Federals.  However, on May 3rd after heavy fighting the Union troops retreated out of Chancellorsville.  Still, Lee could not declare victory, nor was Hooker conceding defeat. During the height of the fighting at Chancellorsville on May 3, he called on Sedgwick to break through and attack Lee's rear. Again that general delayed until it was too late. That afternoon, he finally did attack Early's position (after Early at one point abandoned it himself because of a misinterpreted order from Lee), and broke through. But he did it too late in the day to help Hooker. In fact, a single Alabama brigade slowed the already sluggish advance. 

May 4th

On the evening of May 3 and all day May 4, Hooker remained in his defenses while Lee and Early battled Sedgwick. After breaking Early's defenses on May 3rd, Sedgwick foolishly neglected to secure Fredericksburg. Early simply marched back and reoccupied the heights west of the city, cutting Sedgwick off.
Sedgwick, as it turned out, was as strong on the defensive as he was weak on the attack, and he stood his ground that day before withdrawing back across the Rappahannock at Banks's Ford during the pre-dawn hours of May 5. This was another miscommunication between him and Hooker; the commanding general had wanted Sedgwick to hold Banks's Ford, so that Hooker could withdraw from the Chancellorsville area and re-cross the river at Banks's to fight again. When he learned that Sedgwick had retreated back over the river, Hooker felt he was out of options to save the campaign, and on the night of May 5–6, he also withdrew back across the river.
In the end Jackson was dead after taking friendly fire then being dropped on a root which punctured his lung.  Jackson then contracted Pneumonia.  13,000 casualties for the Confederates and 17,000 for the Federals.

October 11th This Day in Provedential History

In 1138 - A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo Syria.
In 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle by the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
In 1809 - Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand in Tennessee.
In 1958 - Pioneer 1 is launched, however it burns up and falls back to earth.

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Part 10 - Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg overview

Robert E. Lee

Ambrose Burnside

The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia.  It was one of the most bloody battle's of the war.  Ambrose Burnside planned to take the Army of the Potomac and race to Richmond before Lee could stop him.  However bureaucratic delays slowed Burnside down because he could not obtain the necessary pontoon bridges.  Lee caught up to Burnside and blocked his way at Fredericksburg.  When Burnside finally got the bridges the army crossed under fire and from December 11th to the 12th urban fighting ensued.  After driving the confederates out they prepared to assault the strongly fortified Confederate positions south of the city at Marye's Heights.  On the 13th  Gen. William Franklin pierced Stonewall Jackson's line but was finally repulsed.  Burnside launched many head on assaults that did nothing but add to their casualties.
On December 15th Burnside finally retreated having lost 12,653 men.  The Confederates only lost 5,377 men.

Thus ended Burnside's campaign in the Eastern Theatre.

October 9th, This Day in Provedential History

In 1047- Pope Clement II dies
In 1760 - The Seven Years War, Russian forces capture Berlin.
In 1824 - Slavery is abolished in Costa Rica.
In 1854 - The Crimean War The Siege of Sebastopol begins.
In 1914 - WWI Antwerp falls to German troops.

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Part 9 - The Maryland Campaign

McClellan - Lee

The Maryland Campaign, or the Antietam Campaign (September 4–20, 1862) is widely considered one of the major turning points of the American Civil War.

Following up his victory in the Northern Virginia Campaign on September 4, 1862 Lee moved north with his 55,000 man Army of Northren Virginia.  Lee moved north through the Shennandoah Valley.  His objective was to resupply his army outside of the war-torn Virginia theater and to damage Northern morale in anticipation of the November elections. He undertook the risky maneuver of splitting his army so that he could continue north into Maryland while simultaneously capturing the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry.  McClellan accidentally found a copy of Lee's orders, wrapped in three cigars, to his subordinate commanders and planned to isolate and defeat the separated portions of Lee's army.

Battle of Antietam

While 'Stonewall' Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, McClellan moved quickly through the South Mountain.  However Lee found out and though being out numbered heavily, delayed McClellan for more than a day before withdrawing.  This delay allowed Lee enough time to concentrate his forces at Sharpsburg, Maryland(Antietam).  The next day, September 17 was the bloodiest one-day battle in U.S. history.  There were over 22,000 casualties.  Lee, outnumbered two to one, moved his defensive forces to parry each offensive blow, McClellan never deployed all of the reserves of his army to capitalize on localized successes and destroy the Confederates. On September 18, Lee ordered a withdrawal across the Potomac and on September 19 and September 20, fights with Lee's rear guard at Shepherdstown finally ended the long bloody campaign.

Although Antietam was a tactical draw, Lee's Maryland Campaign failed to achieve its objectives.  President Lincoln used this to announce the Emancipation Proclamation which effectively ended any foreign alliance with the Confederates.