Place

Chancellor House Site

A cannon in a field at sunset.
The Chancellor House Site was Federal headquarters during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Buddy Secor

Quick Facts

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Chancellorsville was not a town, but an intersection where the Chancellor family lived. A house was constructed about 1816 and occasionally functioned as an inn for travelers on the busy Orange Turnpike. The building burned during the battle. The family rebuilt the house, but that structure also burned down, in 1927. Archaeologists found and marked the outline of the original house.

In 1863 this was a five-way intersection. Today, it is a busy four-way intersection. On the afternoon of April 30, 1863, Union soldiers of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps concentrated at this intersection. General George Meade, commander of the Fifth Corps, was anxious to push on toward Fredericksburg to tighten the vice around Lee's surrounded army, but General Henry Slocum had orders from General Hooker to halt and wait for his arrival. 

About mid-morning on May 3, General Joseph Hooker was standing on the porch of the Chancellor House when an incoming projectile struck a pillar which broke and knocked the general out. During the same intense fighting on the morning of May 3 that raged around the Chancellor House, the dwelling caught fire. Union soldiers rescued the family that had taken cover in the cellar. 

On May 3, Union troops fighting at Fairview fell back to Chancellorsville and eventually to a last line, half a mile to the north.

Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

Last updated: September 26, 2024