Chancellorsville

This is the best battle history I've ever read; it's probably the best work of military history I've ever read (and there's been a few). Sears takes you into the mind of the combatants during Chancellorsville and explains lucidly why they did what they did. This battle has had a few volumes on it - mostly sharply critical of the Union commander Joe Hooker, mostly based on some well-chosen phrases from disgruntled Union officers. Sears unpicks that carefully woven fabric of falsehood, though also shows why Hooker failed.

Perhaps the emphasis is more on the North with Robert E Lee shown as a courageous commander whose splitting of forces and flank attacks are, really, more to the Union plan than his own. This is not to belittle Lee, but does provide some well-needed balance from the hyperbole of many writers about Chancellorsville.

Buy it


Lifts the fog from this complicated battle   January 15, 1997
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Want to get a clear understanding of this complex Civil War campaign? Painlessly? This is the book. Sears has a way of explaining a complex and chaotic event in a logical and very readable way. The book is very detailed, but Sears never lets you get lost in it. I had a mental picture of this campaign pieced together from a large assortment of other sources. That picture has been profoundly changed by this book and it has my highest recommendation.