Salem Church: Chancellorsville's Forgotten Fight
Virginia
Four miles west of Fredericksburg, on the third and fourth of May, eighteen sixty-three, a battle unfolded that most history books fold into a footnote. The Battle of Salem Church was fought alongside one of the Civil War's most celebrated Union disasters, the Chancellorsville campaign, and its obscurity reflects how completely Chancellorsville overshadowed everything around it.
The setup requires understanding what General Joseph Hooker was trying to do. Hooker had replaced Burnside in January and spent the spring rebuilding the Army of the Potomac into a formidable force. His Chancellorsville plan was bold: send the bulk of his army on a wide flanking march around Lee's left while leaving a force at Fredericksburg to pin the Confederates in place. The pinning force was the Sixth Corps under Major General John Sedgwick.
On the morning of May third, Sedgwick's men did something remarkable: they stormed Marye's Heights, the same ridge that had broken the Union army the previous December. They took it. Sedgwick then pushed west along the Orange Plank Road, racing to link up with Hooker at Chancellorsville and catch Lee between two Union forces.
He never got there. Confederate Brigadier General Cadmus Wilcox mounted a delaying action that slowed Sedgwick's advance just long enough for Major General Lafayette McLaws to arrive with reinforcements and dig in along a ridge at Salem Church. When Sedgwick attacked in the afternoon, he hit a prepared Confederate line that stopped him cold.
The following day, May fourth, Lee pulled forces away from Chancellorsville, where Hooker had stalled, and converged on Sedgwick from three sides. The Union commander found himself in the trap he had been trying to create for Lee, enemies in front, enemies behind, and the Rappahannock at his back. Sedgwick managed to hold a defensive line anchored on the river until nightfall, then retreated across at Banks Ford.
Salem Church still stands. The church was repaired after the war, and bullet holes from the fighting can still be seen in it today.
