14
14
0
On December 11, 1862, the Battle of Fredricksburg in Virginia began between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside. From the article:
"Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, involved nearly 200,000 combatants, the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle. Ambrose Burnside, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than 120,000 troops to cross the Rappahannock River, where they made a two-pronged attack on the right and left flanks of Robert E. Lee’s 80,000-strong Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg. On both ends, Lee’s rebel defenders turned back the Union assault with heavy casualties (nearly 13,000), particularly from their high position atop Marye’s Heights. The results of the battle sent Union morale plummeting and lent much-needed new energy to the Confederate cause after the failure of Lee’s first invasion of the North at Antietam the previous fall.
Battle of Fredericksburg: A New Union Commander
Before the fall of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had twice offered Ambrose Burnside overall command of the Union’s Army of the Potomac due to frustration with its present commander, George B. McClellan. Burnside turned it down both times–once after the failed Peninsula Campaign and again after the Confederate victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)–insisting that McClellan was the man for the job. In September 1862, Burnside led the left wing of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Antietam, during which his forces struggled to capture what became known as “Burnside’s Bridge.” When McClellan declined to press his advantage and pursue Robert E. Lee’s defeated Army of Northern Virginia after Antietam, Lincoln reached the limits of his patience. On November 7 he removed McClellan from command and appointed the reluctant Burnside to his post.
Burnside may have doubted his own qualifications to command the Army of the Potomac, but he nonetheless acted quickly to move the large force into Virginia in an advance toward the Confederate capital of Richmond. By mid-November, he had moved two advance corps to Falmouth, located on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg. In response, Lee rushed his troops to dig in positions in the hills south of the Rappahannock before the bulk of Burnside’s army could arrive.
Battle of Fredericksburg: An Ill-Fated Advance
Unfortunately for Burnside, the section of the Rappahannock near Falmouth was too deep to ford, so he was forced to wait for pontoon bridges to arrive in order to cross the river. Due to a miscommunication between Burnside and Henry Halleck, general in chief of all Union armies, the pontoons were delayed in arriving, and James Longstreet’s Confederate corps had ample time to occupy a strong position on Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg. On December 11, as Burnside crossed the Rappahannock with more than 120,000 Union troops, Lee offered only a token resistance in order to give Stonewall Jackson’s corps time to connect with Longstreet’s, stretching out the Confederate line by some three miles.
On December 13, Burnside ordered his left wing (led by General William B. Franklin) in an attack on Lee’s right, commanded by Jackson, while the rest of his army attempted to assault Longstreet’s First Corps at Marye’s Heights. Though a division led by General George Meade managed to temporarily break Jackson’s line, Franklin failed to send 50,000 more troops forward when given the opportunity, and Jackson was able to launch a successful counterattack. Meanwhile, Longstreet’s artillery mowed down ranks of attacking Union soldiers from their strong position on high ground. By the time darkness fell, there had been no change in position. The Union had suffered nearly 13,000 casualties, most of them in front of Marye’s Heights, while the Confederates counted fewer than 5,000.
Impact of the Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was a crushing defeat for the Union, whose soldiers fought courageously and well but fell victim to mismanagement by their generals, including confused orders from Burnside to Franklin. Burnside accepted responsibility for the defeat, though many blamed Lincoln for pressuring him to go ahead with an impossible offensive. In the rush of political recriminations that followed, a majority of Republican senators voted to remove Secretary of State William Seward, who had become the primary target for their frustrations over the administration’s conduct of the war. Led by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, the senators pressed Lincoln to reorganize his cabinet, and when he refused, Chase offered his resignation. Seward had also offered to resign, but Lincoln refused in both cases, smoothing over the cabinet crisis and deftly limiting the political repercussions of the defeat at Fredericksburg. In January 1863, the president named Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
On the Confederate side, the victory at Fredericksburg restored Confederate morale after Lee’s unsuccessful campaign into Maryland in the fall. At the head of a rejuvenated Army of Northern Virginia, Lee would follow up with an even more smashing success over a numerically superior Union force at Chancellorsville in May 1863 before launching a second invasion of the North through Pennsylvania. In July, Lee’s army would again meet the Army of the Potomac–by that time under the command of George Meade, who replaced Hooker after Chancellorsville–in the decisive Battle of Gettysburg."
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen F. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen TSgt David L. SPC Woody Bullard Lt Col Charlie Brown SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SFC Shirley Whitfield PVT Mark Zehner SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan LTC Greg Henning Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell SPC Douglas Bolton Alan K.. CPL Dave Hoover. Sgt Randy Wilber
"Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, involved nearly 200,000 combatants, the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle. Ambrose Burnside, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than 120,000 troops to cross the Rappahannock River, where they made a two-pronged attack on the right and left flanks of Robert E. Lee’s 80,000-strong Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg. On both ends, Lee’s rebel defenders turned back the Union assault with heavy casualties (nearly 13,000), particularly from their high position atop Marye’s Heights. The results of the battle sent Union morale plummeting and lent much-needed new energy to the Confederate cause after the failure of Lee’s first invasion of the North at Antietam the previous fall.
Battle of Fredericksburg: A New Union Commander
Before the fall of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had twice offered Ambrose Burnside overall command of the Union’s Army of the Potomac due to frustration with its present commander, George B. McClellan. Burnside turned it down both times–once after the failed Peninsula Campaign and again after the Confederate victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)–insisting that McClellan was the man for the job. In September 1862, Burnside led the left wing of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Antietam, during which his forces struggled to capture what became known as “Burnside’s Bridge.” When McClellan declined to press his advantage and pursue Robert E. Lee’s defeated Army of Northern Virginia after Antietam, Lincoln reached the limits of his patience. On November 7 he removed McClellan from command and appointed the reluctant Burnside to his post.
Burnside may have doubted his own qualifications to command the Army of the Potomac, but he nonetheless acted quickly to move the large force into Virginia in an advance toward the Confederate capital of Richmond. By mid-November, he had moved two advance corps to Falmouth, located on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg. In response, Lee rushed his troops to dig in positions in the hills south of the Rappahannock before the bulk of Burnside’s army could arrive.
Battle of Fredericksburg: An Ill-Fated Advance
Unfortunately for Burnside, the section of the Rappahannock near Falmouth was too deep to ford, so he was forced to wait for pontoon bridges to arrive in order to cross the river. Due to a miscommunication between Burnside and Henry Halleck, general in chief of all Union armies, the pontoons were delayed in arriving, and James Longstreet’s Confederate corps had ample time to occupy a strong position on Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg. On December 11, as Burnside crossed the Rappahannock with more than 120,000 Union troops, Lee offered only a token resistance in order to give Stonewall Jackson’s corps time to connect with Longstreet’s, stretching out the Confederate line by some three miles.
On December 13, Burnside ordered his left wing (led by General William B. Franklin) in an attack on Lee’s right, commanded by Jackson, while the rest of his army attempted to assault Longstreet’s First Corps at Marye’s Heights. Though a division led by General George Meade managed to temporarily break Jackson’s line, Franklin failed to send 50,000 more troops forward when given the opportunity, and Jackson was able to launch a successful counterattack. Meanwhile, Longstreet’s artillery mowed down ranks of attacking Union soldiers from their strong position on high ground. By the time darkness fell, there had been no change in position. The Union had suffered nearly 13,000 casualties, most of them in front of Marye’s Heights, while the Confederates counted fewer than 5,000.
Impact of the Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was a crushing defeat for the Union, whose soldiers fought courageously and well but fell victim to mismanagement by their generals, including confused orders from Burnside to Franklin. Burnside accepted responsibility for the defeat, though many blamed Lincoln for pressuring him to go ahead with an impossible offensive. In the rush of political recriminations that followed, a majority of Republican senators voted to remove Secretary of State William Seward, who had become the primary target for their frustrations over the administration’s conduct of the war. Led by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, the senators pressed Lincoln to reorganize his cabinet, and when he refused, Chase offered his resignation. Seward had also offered to resign, but Lincoln refused in both cases, smoothing over the cabinet crisis and deftly limiting the political repercussions of the defeat at Fredericksburg. In January 1863, the president named Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
On the Confederate side, the victory at Fredericksburg restored Confederate morale after Lee’s unsuccessful campaign into Maryland in the fall. At the head of a rejuvenated Army of Northern Virginia, Lee would follow up with an even more smashing success over a numerically superior Union force at Chancellorsville in May 1863 before launching a second invasion of the North through Pennsylvania. In July, Lee’s army would again meet the Army of the Potomac–by that time under the command of George Meade, who replaced Hooker after Chancellorsville–in the decisive Battle of Gettysburg."
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen F. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen TSgt David L. SPC Woody Bullard Lt Col Charlie Brown SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SFC Shirley Whitfield PVT Mark Zehner SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan LTC Greg Henning Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell SPC Douglas Bolton Alan K.. CPL Dave Hoover. Sgt Randy Wilber
Battle of Fredericksburg
Posted from history.com
Civil War
American History
Military History
Combat
Strategy
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 6
7
7
0
5
5
0
SGT (Join to see) Not a shining moment for the Union Army. The units in our area took heavy losses. The regiment flag of the 83rd PA was shredded. We just visited of county historical society and its part of an exhibit. The 83rd Pennsylvania suffered the second-highest number of battle deaths among Union Army infantry regiments during the war, second only to the 5th New Hampshire.
(5)
(0)
COL Korey Jackson
LTC Greg Henning, SGT (Join to see) ,
The reports of Fredercksburg refugees gathering at old Salem Church sure sound miserable.
From the NPS websight:
"When a battle in Fredericksburg loomed imminent, the citizens were advised to leave for safer places. The exodus from town in the biting cold was a pitiful sight. One Confederate officer described the scene:
'Snow was falling, and one of the most dismal scenes of war was presented to us; the road was quite filled with wagons and carts and people on foot, unhappy refugees from Fredericksburg. Old Salem Church was crowded, and around it shelters of quilts and blankets has been erected, under which the banished women and children crouched in the bitter cold.'
All day long on December 11 these freezing, hungry people listened to the bombardment and watched the plumes of black smoke that billowed up from their beloved town. The worst fears of the refugees were realized when they returned to Fredericksburg after the battle. The town was in ruins from the bombardment and the subsequent looting by Federal troops. Salem Church now became a make shift storehouse for the furniture of some of the region's homeless families. "
As it so happens, I very recently learned one of my wife's ancestral cousins, John Higley, was with the 86th Pennsylvania, was badly wounded in the fighting of early May 1863 at that same Salem, Virginia; was evacuated to the Union's General Hospital at Lookout Point, Maryland, died there from his wounds (vulnus sclopet) in August 1863, and now lies buried at Arlington National Cemetery. During Higley's summer at that sweltering army hospital overlooking the confluence of the Potomac and Chesapeake, his regiment - the 86th Pennsylvania - along with the 83rd Pennsylvania and all those other units, was heavily engaged at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The reports of Fredercksburg refugees gathering at old Salem Church sure sound miserable.
From the NPS websight:
"When a battle in Fredericksburg loomed imminent, the citizens were advised to leave for safer places. The exodus from town in the biting cold was a pitiful sight. One Confederate officer described the scene:
'Snow was falling, and one of the most dismal scenes of war was presented to us; the road was quite filled with wagons and carts and people on foot, unhappy refugees from Fredericksburg. Old Salem Church was crowded, and around it shelters of quilts and blankets has been erected, under which the banished women and children crouched in the bitter cold.'
All day long on December 11 these freezing, hungry people listened to the bombardment and watched the plumes of black smoke that billowed up from their beloved town. The worst fears of the refugees were realized when they returned to Fredericksburg after the battle. The town was in ruins from the bombardment and the subsequent looting by Federal troops. Salem Church now became a make shift storehouse for the furniture of some of the region's homeless families. "
As it so happens, I very recently learned one of my wife's ancestral cousins, John Higley, was with the 86th Pennsylvania, was badly wounded in the fighting of early May 1863 at that same Salem, Virginia; was evacuated to the Union's General Hospital at Lookout Point, Maryland, died there from his wounds (vulnus sclopet) in August 1863, and now lies buried at Arlington National Cemetery. During Higley's summer at that sweltering army hospital overlooking the confluence of the Potomac and Chesapeake, his regiment - the 86th Pennsylvania - along with the 83rd Pennsylvania and all those other units, was heavily engaged at the Battle of Gettysburg.
(4)
(0)
LTC Greg Henning
COL Korey Jackson - The third day of Gettysburg Lee's Generals saw the Union positions and understood what happen to the Union forces at Fredercksburg. Third day was a huge loss for Lee.
(2)
(0)
3
3
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google