Return to Chancellorsville

In a couple of weeks I'll be preaching revival services at a church in Northern Virginia near the historic Chancellorsville Battlefield. This campaign took place during April and May of 1863. The most famous action of the battle was Stonewall Jackson's flank attack that took place on May 2 after a 12-mile circuitous march around the Union forces. 

This will initiate a Confederate offensive that will carry them from Chancellorsville north across the Potomac River (for the second time) and to Gettysburg, where they will finally give up that initiative on July 3rd after Pickett's Charge. Here the Union Army will finally get the victory that it had sought here at Chancellorsville. It came close to actually winning the Battle of Chancellorsville several times, but it will take another several months -- two months to be exact --  before they have their victory on Northern soil at Gettysburg.

Incidentally, Chancellorsville was not really a town at all at the time. If it had a train (which it did not) it would have been called a whistle stop since it was only one large mansion and a few scattered houses and outbuildings. Here's what it looked like then ...

... and now.

I can't wait to visit this historic battlefield again.