Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the 270th episode of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

As y'all recall in the last show we talked about the fierce fighting at Chancellorsville

during the morning hours of May 3rd, 1863.

By 10 a.m. in some of the bloodiest combat of the entire war, the Confederates had managed

to seize control of Hazel Grove, Fairview and the Chancellorsville Crossroads.

Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stewart had succeeded in reuniting two parts of the divided rebel

army.

But it was an accomplishment that the Union soldiers of the Army of the Potomac's second,

third, and twelfth corps had made the Confederates pay an extremely high price for.

Nearly 9,000 of Lee's troops had fallen in about five hours of savage fighting.

The Federals had also lost heavily, suffering about 8,600 casualties.

Many people consider 10 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, May 3rd, 1863, to be the pinnacle of

Robert E. Lee's wartime career.

Outnumbered and with two wings of his army dangerously divided, Lee had nonetheless audaciously

attacked, and his troops had driven Joe Hooker's Federals from their position.

When Lee wrote his horse traveler into the clearing around the burning Chancellor Mansion, his

victorious soldiers raised cheer after cheer for their beloved Chieftain, who they felt,

had personally brought them to this moment of triumph.

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