Which Confederate general won the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863?

Robert E. Lee won the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. From April 30 to May 6, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia defeated the much larger Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, in Virginia.

Lee’s victory depended on bold decisions. Despite being outnumbered by more than two to one, he divided his forces and approved Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s famous flank attack against the exposed Union right on May 2. The maneuver badly disrupted the Union XI Corps and forced Hooker onto the defensive. Fighting continued around Chancellorsville, Salem Church, and Fredericksburg before Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock River.

The Confederate victory came at a terrible cost. Jackson was accidentally wounded by Confederate troops that night; his left arm was amputated, but he died of pneumonia eight days later. Lee called the loss like losing his right arm. Chancellorsville is often described as Lee’s greatest battlefield victory, but its casualties weakened the Confederacy before the Gettysburg Campaign. James Longstreet was Lee’s subordinate, not the battle’s overall Confederate commander.