Hooker's plan for the spring and summer campaign was both elegant and promising. He first planned to send his cavalry corps deep into the enemy's rear, disrupting supply lines and distracting him from the main attack. He would pin down Robert E. Lee's much smaller army at Fredericksburg while taking the large bulk of the Army of the Potomac on a flanking march to strike Lee in his rear. Combined with the Union force facing Fredericksburg, Hooker planned a double envelopment, attacking Lee from both his front and rear. Defeating Lee, he could move on to seize Richmond.

“My plans are perfect,” Hooker boasts, “and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.” Part of Hooker’s confidence may be due to the fact that Lee’s valuable officer, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, is away on a resupply mission, leaving Lee with only 60,000 troops to confront Hooker’s 130,000 men.

Hooker starts his campaign on April 27 and marches his men toward the Rappahannock. Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick’s Sixth Corp erects pontoon bridges below Fredericksburg. At first light Howard’s Eleventh Corps led Hooker’s flanking column west out of the camps at Brooke’s Station. The Federal Second, Fifth and Twelfth Corps follow.