Nearly two years after this campaign, in his testimony before the
Committee on the Conduct of the War, Hooker thus speaks about the
general result of the movement:--
"I may say here, the battle of Chancellorsville has been associated with
the battle of Fredericksburg, and has been called a disaster. My whole
loss in the battle of Chancellorsville was a little over seventeen
thousand."
"I said that Chancellorsville had been called a disaster. I lost under
those operations, one piece artillery, I think five or six wagons, and
one ambulance." "In my opinion, there is nothing to regret in regard to
Chancellorsville, except to accomplish all I moved to accomplish. The
troops lost no honor, except one corps, and we lost no more men than
the enemy; but expectation was high, the army in splendid condition,
and great results were expected from it. It was at a time, too, when the
nation required a victory." "I would like to speak somewhat further of
this matter of Chancellorsville. It has been the desire and aim of
some of Gen. McClellan's admirers, and I do not know but of others, to
circulate erroneous impressions in regard to it. When I returned from
Chancellorsville, I felt that I had fought no battle; in fact, I had
more men than I could use; and I fought no general battle, for the
reason that I could not get my men in position to do so; probably not
more than three or three and a half corps, on the right, were engaged in
that fight."
And he repeats his understanding of his manoeuvring as follows: "My
impression was, that Lee would have been compelled to move out on the
same road that Jackson had moved on, and pass over to my right. I should
add in my testimony that before leaving Falmouth, to make this move, I
had a million and a half of rations on board lighters, and had gunboats
in readiness to tow them up to points on the Pamunkey River, in order to
replenish my provisions, to enable me to reach Richmond before the enemy
could, in case I succeeded in throwing him off that line of retreat.
When I gave the order to Gen. Sedgwick, I expected that Lee would be
whipped by manoeuvre. I supposed that he would be compelled to march
off on the same line that Jackson had. He would have been thrown on the
Culpeper and Gordonsville road, placing me fifty or sixty miles nearer
Richmond than himself."
Criticism upon such an eccentric summing-up of the results of the
campaign of Chancellorsville, is too unprofitable a task to reward the
attempt. But assuredly the commander of the gallant Army of the Potomac
stands alone in his measure of the importance of the movement, or of the
disastrous nature of the defeat.