Army of the Potomac (Department of the Potomac)

Hooker: February - June 1863

The Army of the Potomac was the main army in the Eastern Theater for most of the Civil War, tasked with protecting the national capital of Washington and with capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond

After Burnside's massacre at Fredricksburg and the farce of the "Mud March" the Army of the Potomac was at its lowest point. Officers were resigning and men were deserting.

Hooker rebuilds    February - June 1863

To the surprise of many, Hooker turned the army around. He provided fresh vegetables, back pay and corps badges, and within a short time the army's confidence was soaring and they were looking for a fight. Hooker provided that, too, with a good plan that stole a march on Robert E. Lee and might have done everything that Hooker was boasting if he had not had a crisis of confidence in the woods outside Chancellorsville. As he followed up Lee's resulting invasion of the north the fighting with Washington became more fierce than that with Lee, and Hooker asked to be relieved. He was, and George Meade received a late night summons at his tent to take over the Army just hours before the greatest battle of the war.

February 1863

March 1863

April 1863

May 1863

June 1863