It was a landmark engagement in the history of warfare. It served as the single greatest display of Robert E. Lee's tactical genius and Stonewall Jackson's troop leadership. But while it was the high point of Civil War battlefield success for the South, Chancellorsville ultimately turned out to be a devastating blow to the future of the Confederacy. Basing his work on extensive new research, including unpublished diaries and letters, Furgurson presents Chancellorsville not as a single episode but as a series of distinct and bloody clashes. Combining an authoritative military analysis with wrenching eyewitness narratives, Chancellorsville 1863 makes clear why Lee's brightest victory predetermined his defeat at Gettysburg. - Jacket flap.