The only exception was Brig. He granted liberal furloughs and organized his soldiers into corps, with each corps having its own distinctive patch to establish unit pride. There was some discussion among Sykes, Couch and Warren about disobeying the order. campaign pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, Gen. Robert As the first salvo exploded over the Wilderness area near Chancellorsville, a Federal officer looked at his watch and remarked, Twenty minutes past eleven; the first gun of the battle of Chancellorsville. Early anxiously watched as the Yankees deployed along a four-mile front. With that, the blue horde would traverse the Rappahannock, then the Rapidan, and march in a southeasterly direction toward the vital crossroads at Chancellorsville. Then Fighting Joe learned that Stoneman’s cavalry had never reached the other side of the river and that his artillery was mired in ankle-deep mud.