More from the Virginia Trip: Fredericksburg

I finally had time on this Sunday evening to continue my blog of my trip to Virginia back awhile ago. I was there on business but Virginia is full of Civil War sites which are way more interesting than pictures of office buildings and insurance brokers!

Fredericksburg is located on the south bank of the Rappahannock river about 50 miles south of Washington DC and 50 miles north of Richmond VA.

In December 1861 the Union Army of the Potomac under its latest commander, General Ambrose Burnside was looking for some way to get through or past Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and capture the Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia. General Burnside decided to suddenly move his army south and east from it positions facing Lee and slip across and around behind the Confederates by attacking across the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg. Burnside actually caught Lee somewhat by surprise when he moved his army but unfortunately the pontoon bridges that the Federals needed didn’t show up on time (actually for more than a week). Rather than risk a crossing without the bridges Burnside waited for them which allowed Lee to move his army into very strong positions in and behind Fredericksburg. At this point Burnside should have come up with another plan rather than try to frontally attack Lee’s dug in army but he didn’t’ The Union government and press were demanding decisive action and action they would get. On December 11 1861 the Army of the Potomac forced the river and occupied the town and on December 13^th they attacked Lee's army which was on the heights behind the town. It was the worst one sided slaughter of the war.

The most memorable portion of the battle is the attack on Marye’s Heights across a half mile of open ground. The Confederate defensive line was centered on a low stone wall half way up the hill backed up by massed cannons which covered the whole field.

This is the stone wall right after the battle.

Here is the stone wall from about the same spot in 2008:

It wasn’t a very tall wall:

There were a number of houses on the hillside when the battle was fought and amazingly one of them survived nearly intact:

There were a lot of holes of course but the ones on the outside were patched up. These on the inside weren’t:

Confederate General Thomas Cobb had his HQ set up behind the house next door to this one. Unfortunately a Union cannon hit the house and the splinters killed the general:

The Federal troops came on wave after wave and they were cut down wave after wave. Even the famed Irish Brigade could get no closer than 30 yards from the wall. The Confederates marveled at the extreme bravery of the Union troops who did all that human flesh and courage could do to carry out a pointless suicide attack. All told the Union lost more than 12,000 men in these futile assaults. As he looked on at the carnage his men were visiting on Federal troops General Lee said “It is well that war is so terrible otherwise we should grow too fond of it”.

Currier and Ives print of the Battle of Fredericksburg

The movie Gods and Generals does a very good reenactment of the Battle of Fredericksburg.