Hooker arrived at Chancellorsville on the morning of April 30. He was in high spirits and issued this order to his army:
GENERAL ORDERS No. 47.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Camp near Falmouth, Va., April 30, 1863.
It is with heartfelt satisfaction the commanding general announces to the army that the operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defenses and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him. The operations of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps have been a succession of splendid achievements.
By command of Major-General Hooker:
S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant General.
It should be a military commandment that no celebratory orders are issued until after a battle is won. However, Hooker had reasons for confidence. He had successfully placed Lee between his 70,000 men and Sedgwick’s 40,000 men south of Fredericksburg. If he and Sedgwick could simply coordinate their attacks, numbers alone stood a good chance of winning the coming battle for him, Lee being outnumbered more than two to one.
However, in the order issued by Hooker there is an indication that something was beginning to go wrong with Hooker internally. He boasts that Lee would either have to fly or come out from his defenses and give battle on the ground occupied by the Army of the Potomac. That was an odd formulation for a man leading a force that outnumbered Lee so vastly, and yet expected that Lee would be the one attacking. Hooker was already ceding the initiative to Lee, the most dangerous thing that any Union General could do during that conflict, because Lee rarely failed to make use of any opportunity granted to him.
“My plans are perfect…”
– Joseph Hooker
“Man proposes, God disposes”
– Thomas à Kempis – “The Imitation of Christ”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man_proposes,_God_disposes
“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.”
– Patton’s Weather Prayer
https://the-american-catholic.com/2020/12/16/pattons-weather-prayer-4/
“The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation because she never cackles until the egg is laid. A hen at least will wait ‘til she’s produced something. Hooker’s cackling plenty, and he hasn’t produced anything on the battlefield yet.”
Abraham Lincoln