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Joseph Hooker, the commander of the Federal Army of the Potomac, stated before the battle of Chancellorsville, “I have the finest army on the planet. I have the finest army the sun ever shone on. … If the enemy does not run, God help them. May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.” Such braggadocio did not go well with Hooker’s Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee. Lee kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and was not at all amused by what he read.
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