The Battle of Chancellorsville

Beth Parnicza speaking at the Charlottesville Senior Center Wednesday.

Beth Parnicza speaking at the
Charlottesville Senior Center
Wednesday.

Regular listeners of our podcasts might know Rick Britton.He’s a Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer. An award-winning historian, Rick also organizes a “Civil War Lecture and Day-Trip Series” in conjunction with the Charlottesville Senior Center.

On Wednesday, September 21st, NPS historian Beth Parnicza-a recent university graduate whose poise and depth of knowledge were admired by all-delivered a talk on the Chancellorsville campaign and battle. Fought in 1863 over the first four days of May, Chancellorsville pitted Robert E. Lee’s 60,000-man Army of Northern Virginia against “Fighting Joe” Hooker’s 134,000. Amazingly, Lee was able to defeat Hooker and drive him back over the Rappahannock. Was Chancellorsville truly Lee’s masterpiece? Listen and hear what this young historian has to say!

On Wednesday, September 28th, Rick Britton will conduct a tour of the Chancellorsville Battlefield. The tour will take in the Visitors Center in the morning, and hear a presentation on “Stonewall” Jackson’s mortal wounding. After a picnic lunch the tour will spend the afternoon on this well-preserved Virginia battlefield. Bus tour departs from the Charlottesville Senior Center at 9:00 am. There is a fee for the tour. Call 974-6538 for more information.

This is part six of a seven part series for 2011. You can listen to all seven parts of this series here.