When Stonewall Jackson successfully outflanked and attacked Hooker’s Union army at Chancellorsville, the Confederacy won a stunning, but costly, victory because Jackson was mortally wounded—ironically by his own men.
On the following day, Lee continued his assault on the Union lines, and Joseph Hooker became a casualty of war when a Confederate shell struck the Chancellor House, giving him a concussion. The Union army was forced to withdraw from Chancellorsville, despite General Sedgwick’s success of driving the Jubal Early’s Confederates out of Fredericksburg.
At Salem Church Sedgwick’s advancing Union force was eventually stopped. On Tuesday, May 5, 1863 the Union Army of the Potomac, held in check by Lee, began re-crossing the Rappahannock in defeat. The following day a disappointed Lincoln would leave Washington to confer with Joseph Hooker.