Victory at Chancellorsville gave Lee and his men a false sense of optimism that they could defeat the Union Army anywhere and at any time. Nevertheless, Lee's army was meagerly fed, largely from the unravaged fields of Alabama and Georgia. The Virginia countryside was devastated. Lee's Commissary-General wrote, "If General Lee wants rations, let him seek them in Pennsylvania." Lee therefore had to move his army out of Northern Virginia and give it time to recuperate by also removing the Union Army. For these and other reasons, Chancellorsville set in motion Lee's plan to threaten Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia by invading Pennsylvania. In that campaign, three months after Chancellorsville, Lee suffered his first major defeat at Gettysburg. It proved to be the beginning of the end for the South." -- From the book jacket.