BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

Battle of Fredericksburg

On December 13th, 1862, the Army of the Potomac under Major General Ambrose Burnside hurled wave after wave of Union soldiers against Confederate positions at Fredericksburg, Virginia. After days of delay bringing pontoon bridges forward, Federal engineers finally laid crossings over the Rappahannock River while skirmishers and artillery fought from house to house. Once across, Union brigades advanced through town and up toward Marye’s Heights, only to find Robert E. Lee’s men strongly entrenched behind a stone wall and on the high ground above. The result was slaughter, as repeated frontal assaults struggled across open fields swept by canister and rifle fire, piling bodies in front of the Confederate line. By nightfall, the Union army had gained almost nothing in terrain while suffering heavy casualties that stunned the Northern public. Fredericksburg became a grim lesson in the cost of attacking prepared defenses and marked a low point in Union morale and confidence in its leadership.