The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought December 11-15, 1862, is an interesting one, and I've mentioned it before. It was one of the largest and deadliest of the Civil War, with nearly 200,000 combatants. It featured the first major opposed river crossing in American military history. Also, Union and Confederate troops fought in the streets of Fredericksburg, the Civil War’s first urban combat.
On November 14, Union General Burnside, now in command of the Army of the Potomac, sent a corps to occupy the vicinity of Falmouth near Fredericksburg. The rest of the army soon followed. Lee reacted by entrenching his army on the heights behind the town. On December 11, Union engineers laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River under fire. On the 12th, the Federal army crossed over, and on December 13, Burnside mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye’s Heights that resulted in staggering casualties. Meade’s division, on the Union left flank, briefly penetrated Jackson’s line but was driven back by a counterattack. On December 15, Burnside called off the offensive and recrossed the river, ending the campaign.
The Union army’s main assault against Stonewall Jackson produced initial success and held the promise of destroying the Confederate right, but lack of reinforcements and Jackson’s powerful counterattack stymied the effort. Both sides suffered heavy losses (totaling 9,000 in killed, wounded and missing) with no real change in the strategic situation.
In the meantime, Burnside’s “diversion” against veteran Confederate soldiers behind a stone wall produced a similar number of casualties but most of these were suffered by the Union troops. Wave after wave of Federal soldiers marched forth to take the heights, but each was met with devastating rifle and artillery fire from the nearly impregnable Confederate positions. Confederate artillerist Edward Porter Alexander’s earlier claim that “a chicken could not live on that field” proved to be entirely prophetic this bloody day.
As darkness fell on a battlefield strewn with dead and wounded, it was abundantly clear that a signal Confederate victory was at hand. The Army of the Potomac had suffered nearly 13,300 casualties, nearly two-thirds of them in front of Mayre’s Heights. By comparison, Lee’s army had suffered some 4,500 losses. Robert E. Lee, watching the great Confederate victory unfolding from his hilltop command post exclaimed, “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”
Roughly six weeks after the Battle of Fredericksburg, President Lincoln removed Burnside from command of the Army of the Potomac.
(Adapted from: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/fredericksburg.html?tab=facts)
The Union perspective.
The Confederate perpective.
This shows the flag of the 69th NY, which attacked at the sunken road at Fredericksburg.
The Confederates took up a very strong position on a hill, where they were able to sweep the open field below with cannon fire, and their infantry took shelter behind a stone wall.
Here's a model of the battle, though Union soldiers didn't get that close.
Here's the actual sunken road. Marye's Heights are on the right, and they rise right up in a fairly steep slope.
The Confederates attacked in rows of three or more. The soldier in front fired continuously on the Federals, while those behind him reloaded rifles and passed them forward. This made for almost continuous and unprotected fire on the Union attackers.
Several homes stood right in the midst of all this, and one bullet-riddled one still exists. Our guide told us an interesting story about this house. There were two Confederate units that had fought together for some time, one from Georgia and the other from North Carolina. Apparently, although the NC's considered the Georgians fine fellows, the feeling was not at all mutual, and the reason became apparent at Fredericksburg. Both units were stationed near this house, NC directly behind Georgia. The North Carolinians kept firing into the Georgia line! Finally the Georgia unit leader called the NC leader down to see the problem for himself and the friendly fire was stopped.
I know I've told this story before. This is a statue of the "Angel of Marye's Heights." After the battle on December 13th, the morning of December 14 revealed that over 8,000 Union soldiers had been shot in front of the stone wall at Marye's Heights. Many of those remaining on the battlefield were still alive, but suffering terribly from their wounds and a lack of water.
Soldiers from both sides were forced to listen to the painful cries of the wounded for hours, with neither side daring to venture out for fear of being shot by the enemy. At some point during the day, a South Carolina sergeant, Richard Kirkland (note the name!), allegedly approached Confederate Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw and informed him that he wished to help the wounded Union soldiers.
Kirkland gathered all the canteens he could carry, filled them with water, then ventured out onto the battlefield. He went back and forth several times, giving the wounded Union soldiers water, warm clothing, and blankets. Soldiers from both the Union and Confederate armies watched as he performed his task, but no one fired a shot. General Kershaw later stated that he observed Kirkland for more than an hour and a half. Kirkland did not stop until he had helped every wounded soldier (Confederate and Federal) on the Confederate end of the battlefield.
See that brick building? That's the point the 69th New York made it to, farther than any other unit, before being turned back by heavy Confederate fire from the sunken road. (Unfortunately, you can't tell from my picture how close it is!)
After Fredericksburg, we went on to Chancellorsville, just a few miles up the road. I won't tell you yet another battle story, but here are some of the miles of trenches the Confederates used.
Although we didn't actually tour this battlefied, the battle of The Wilderness has always sounded particularly chilling to me, since a number of wounded soldiers were caught in a forest fire.
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