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I just got back from touring the Joseph Hooker Memorial in Washington D.C. It is quite an impressive sight, I must say. Some might say it's a bit overdone, but I think it's perfectly fitting for the man who saved the Union during the Southern Rebellion and then, as President, oversaw the victory over the British Empire and the conquest of Canada.

But it all got me thinking. Hooker's rise to success and power came with his defeat of Robert E. Lee's rebel army at the Battle of Chancellorsville. From what I've read, Lee was actually a pretty good general. Even though Hooker outnumbered him by two-to-one, it struck me that if everything had gone wrong for Hooker and gone right for Lee, then Hooker might have actually LOST the Battle of Chancellorsville. Had that happened, history would have been completely different.

So, what about it? What if Hooker had lost the Battle of Chancellorsville?
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