After the Confederates’ victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, once again confronted each other across the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia. The battle, which cost Hooker nearly 16,000 casualties and Lee some 12,300 losses, had proved indecisive. The two armies maintained an uneasy stalemate, occupying virtually the same ground they had held since December 1862. Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, stood fifty-three miles to the north, while Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, lay fifty-seven miles to the south. The rival presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, pondered their next moves. Lee issued his initial orders for the northern offensive on 3 June, an advance into Pennsylvania.
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