First Day at Chancellorsville

<i>"If possible before the battle I will try to be better posted about the rebble armey."</i><br>- Local spy Isaac Silver<br><br>Both armies employed soldiers as spies or scouts, but some of the most valuable information came from local civilians. The Chancellorsville Campaign literally swung on the intelligence of Unionists within Confederate lines.<br><br>Preceding the Battle of Chancellorsville, local loyalists Ebenezer McGee and Isaac Silver employed tactics of astonishing simplicity. Silver was somehow able to observe Confederate camps and collect information about various units. Silver wrote his "reports" in pencil, without a cipher, and gave them to McGee. McGee carried them across the Rappahannock and delivered them to the Union army. <br><br>Silver's reports accurately detailed the location and strength of much of the Confederate army, which was particularly valuable in the virtually impenetrable Wilderness. Sliver continued his activities until war's end, but McGee was fatally wounded while working as a scout in 1864.