Couch exploded. There was some discussion among Sykes, Couch and Warren about disobeying the order. However, Slocum’s corps was also withdrawing. If Couch disobeyed, Hancock’s right flank would be vulnerable. He had to comply. By late in the afternoon, when most of the deployment had taken place, a courier delivered another message from Hooker to Couch, instructing him to “hold [his] position until 5 p.m.” Couch was appalled by Hooker’s indecisiveness. He gave the courier a message of his own: “The enemy are on my right and rear. I am in full retreat.”

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Riding to the Chancellor house to voice his objection, Couch was unprepared for what Hooker then said: “It is all right, Couch. I have gotten Lee just where I want him, he must fight me on my own ground.”

Couch recalled later, “To hear from his own lips that the advantages gained by the successful marches of his lieutenants were to culminate in fighting a defensive battle in that nest of thickets, was too much, and I retired from his presence with the be-
lief that my commanding general was a whipped man.”

With his brilliant flanking maneuver, Hooker had Lee exactly where he wanted him. Unfortunately, when the time came to press the advantage, Fighting Joe became timid and unresponsive. It is hard to reason why. Hooker certainly was not a coward; his battlefield exploits prove that. What was it then? Did he have last-minute misgivings about his plan? Did he finally realize that victory–or defeat–was his and his alone? His loud boastings about making “Bobby” Lee run would now come back to haunt him. Maybe the mystique of Robert E. Lee shook Hooker. Lee was an imposing figure on the battlefield–and, as Hooker was to find out, off it as well. There is no doubt that the thought of Lee preoccupied Hooker. Why he decided to stop and pull back will never be known for certain. As historian Edward J. Stackpole wrote: “The conclusion is inescapable. Hooker lost his nerve!” Maybe it was that simple.

Satisfied that Sedgwick’s and Reynold’s corps were just performing a feint at Fredericksburg, Lee confidently rode toward Chancellorsville on the afternoon of May 1. However, he was perplexed at the Union army’s retreat. Could it be a ruse? Lee thought Hooker’s main thrust would be toward Gordonsville. Why was he withdrawing when he certainly had the initiative? As the Federals were retreating, the Rebels pressed onward. A.P. Hill ordered Brig. Gen. Henry Heth to push three brigades from the Plank Road to the Turnpike, link up with McLaws, and move on Chancellorsville. On the Plank Road, Rode’s division, with Ramseur’s brigade in the vanguard, would advance in the same direction. Wright’s butternuts would strike at the Yankee flank and rear.

As darkness approached, both armies dug in for the night. Morale in the Army of the Potomac was sinking rapidly. One soldier in Meade’s corps remarked, “All enthusiasm vanished, all the bright hopes of success disappeared.” On the Confederate side, Lee and Jackson met on the Plank-Furnace crossroads. Both men moved off the main thoroughfare to confer. Lee was concerned about Sedgwick’s and Reynold’s corps near Fredericksburg; it would not be long before each of them figured there was a thin line of Early’s men holding it. Lee took tremendous risks. He was forced to when confronting a numerically superior Union army. And he was about to undertake another one. He would attack. But where? He could not conduct a frontal assault; that would be suicidal. It would have to be a flank attack.

As if by an act of providence, Jeb Stuart arrived bringing just the news Lee wanted to hear: Fitz Lee’s horsemen had discovered the Yankee right flank was unprotected. Jackson’s chaplain, Tucker Lacy, had a brother who lived nearby. He provided them with a guide, Charles Wellford’s son, to show them a passable route. Together with Jackson’s mapmaker, Jed Hotchkiss, they rode off to find the road to outflank Hooker’s army.

If Lee’s audacious plan worked, he could drive the Federals back across the Rappahannock. Everything hinged on “Old Jack’s” veteran infantrymen being able to march unseen around the exposed Yankee flank and strike them where they least expected it. Spreading his blanket on the ground and using his saddle as a pillow, Lee lay down to get a few hours of sleep before dawn. In the distance, the bark of occasional cannon fire could be heard. The first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville was over.

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