Salem Church was a Civil War engagement fought in Virginia, 1863. It was a Confederate victory.
After occupying Marye's Heights on May 3, Sedgwick's VI Corps marched out on the Plank Road with the objective of reaching Hooker's force at Chancellorsville. He was delayed by Wilcox's brigade of Early's force at Salem Church. During the afternoon and night, Lee detached two of his divisions from the Chancellorsville lines and marched them to Salem Church. Several Union assaults were repulsed the next morning with heavy casualties, and the Confederates counterattacked, gaining some ground. After dark, Sedgwick withdrew across two pontoon bridges at Scott's Dam under a harassing artillery fire. Hearing that Sedgwick had been repulsed, Hooker abandoned the campaign, recrossing on the night of May 5-6 to the north bank of the Rappahannock.
On May 4, 1863, fighting broke out at Salem Church in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, forming one episode within the broader Chancellorsville Campaign of the American Civil War.
Once Marye's Heights fell into Union hands on May 3, in the wake of the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick led his VI Corps, roughly 23,000 strong, west along the Orange Plank Road, aiming to link up with Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's army near Chancellorsville. Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox, commanding a brigade under Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, slowed this advance through the afternoon, and Sedgwick's men eventually stopped near Salem Church.
Word soon reached Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that Sedgwick had broken through at Fredericksburg. In response, Lee pulled Lafayette McLaws's division away from the lines at Chancellorsville and sent it toward Salem Church. McLaws reached Wilcox's position there just past midday, and his men were bolstered by William Mahone's brigade, part of Richard H. Anderson's division.
Initially, Sedgwick assumed only a single Confederate infantry brigade stood before him, which led him to launch an assault around 3:30 in the afternoon using solely William T. H. Brooks's division. Brooks managed to push back the right side of McLaws's line, but a Confederate counterattack halted the advance and sent Brooks retreating to where he had started. Darkness fell before any additional troops could join the fighting. Overnight, Lee gave orders for Early to strike Sedgwick's left flank come morning, with McLaws simultaneously pressing the Union right. That same night, Hooker sent Sedgwick nothing in the way of fresh instructions, aside from granting permission to withdraw across the river should Sedgwick judge it necessary.
Early moved to retake Marye's Heights at 7 a.m. on May 4, succeeding before pivoting westward and advancing until he reached Sedgwick's primary lines, where intense fire brought him to a stop. Throughout the rest of that morning, Early mounted several attacks against the Union position, none of them coordinated, and each one failed.
By eleven o'clock that morning, Sedgwick found his forces pressed from three sides at once: Lee's main force and the Salem Church to the west, Anderson's division to the south, and Early's men to the east. Word reached Sedgwick that reinforcements had come up from Richmond, and this news deepened his sense that his position was worsening. His line already stretched six miles, manned by 20,000 soldiers now opposed by 25,000 Confederates, and his only means of retreat if things went badly was a single bridgehead. Casualties had climbed past 5,000, and with the possibility of still more Confederate troops arriving, he grew increasingly troubled. He relayed the severity of his circumstances to Hooker and asked that the main army come to his aid. Hooker's response was that Sedgwick should hold off attacking unless the main army moved as well. At the same hour, Lee reached McLaws's headquarters, where McLaws admitted he lacked sufficient strength to attack and asked for additional troops. Anderson received orders to bring up the remaining three brigades of his division and place them between McLaws and Early. Further assaults followed, and these too were repulsed.
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