Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103250229
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT C. WHISONANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Of course the expected frontal assault must be launched to eject the invader. But instead of the expected came the unexpected: a lightning-quick enveloping attack from the west that smashed into the invader's right flank, panicked and crushed an entire corps, and led to the complete withdrawal of the invading army.
Sounds familiar.
Except the time was May 1863, not February 1991. The invader was Fighting Joe Hooker's Army of the Potomac, facing Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and the Army of Northern Virginia. And the battle is called "Chancellorsville."
Hooker had taken command earlier that year and whipped the Union army back into shape after the debacle at Fredericksburg. By spring, the Federals were on the offensive, hoping to outflank Lee and bring him out of his defenses at Fredericksburg.
Well-handled at the beginning, Hooker's army forded the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, arriving at Chancellorsville by April 30. But there Hooker lost his nerve and, as Lee hurried to meet him, took a defensive stance.
On the night of May 1, Lee conferred with Jackson, now commanding the left wing of the Southerners. By a campfire, Jackson proposed and Lee approved an audacious plan to surprise the Federals. The result was a kind of 19th-century blitzkrieg, later called by experts a military masterpiece.
The next day, while part of Lee's army remained along Hooker's front to hold his attention, Jackson's men moved out - southward! Confused Union leaders believed the Confederates were withdrawing.
But Jackson's foot cavalry soon wheeled to the west and then northward. Two hours before dusk, Stonewall's soldiers burst from the woods onto the right flank of the Union army, catching Gen. O.O. Howard's unprepared XI Corps listening to band music and eating supper.
Many Federal units simply broke and fled. That evening after dark, Jackson himself reconnoitered the terrain, hoping to follow up his great victory - and was felled by "friendly fire." Several days of fighting followed. On the night of May 5, Hooker ordered a general retreat across the Rappahannock.
February, 1991: An Iraqi army entrenched in Kuwait faces allied forces concentrated to the south. Iraqi preparations for the expected frontal assault are extensive, including oil-filled trenches, barbed wire, and mines.
G-day begins as expected, with some coalition troops attacking northward into the main Iraqi positions. Amphibious landings from the east seem imminent.
Meanwhile, mobile armored units of the coalition have slipped westward across the Iraqi front. Undetected, they now begin the dash north to envelop the enemy. During the next few days, U.S., British and French forces completely turn the Iraqi right flank and pile-drive eastward into the surprised Republican Guard.
It's all over in 100 hours.
Later, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf properly calls his troops' performance magnificent, and observes that Desert Storm tactics will be studied in military colleges for years to come. Of course, he's right. But then, this battle has been studied for years already.
by CNB