Inspired by their attack, regiments from Lane's and Archer's brigades rallied and formed a new defensive line in the gap. [20], Burnside organized his Army of the Potomac into three so-called Grand Divisions, organizations that included infantry corps, cavalry, and artillery, comprising 120,000 men, of whom 114,000 would be engaged in the coming battle:[4][6]. Feger Jackson attempted to flank a Confederate battery, but after his horse was shot and he began to lead on foot, he was shot in the head by a volley and his brigade fell back, leaderless (Col. Joseph W. Fisher soon replaced Jackson in command). The Union lost 1,100 killed, wounded and missing. This was not true, however, as the entire VI Corps and Brig. Gen. Charles Griffin to relieve Sturgis's men. Rable, pp. [70], In November 2012, during archaeological investigations at the construction site for a new courthouse, remains of Union artifacts were recovered. Archer frantically sent messages to the rear, calling on John Brockenbrough and Edmund Atkinson's brigades for help. [35], The Confederates withdrew back to the safety of the hills south of town. [34], Early's division began a counterattack, led initially by Col. Edmund N. Atkinson's Georgia brigade, which inspired the men from the brigades of Col. Robert Hoke, Brig. Hooker's Center Grand Division crossed on December 13, using both the northern and southern bridges. Robert E. Lee, watching the carnage of the Confederate counterattack from the center of his line, a position now known as Lee's Hill[33], After the battle Meade complained that some of Gibbon's officers had not charged quickly enough. So he decided to cross directly at Fredericksburg. Goolrick, p. 87, cites 7,000. They advanced slowly through heavy artillery fire, crossed the canal in columns over the narrow bridges, and formed in line, with fixed bayonets, behind the protection of a shallow bluff. [49] The falling of darkness and the pleas of Burnside's subordinates were enough to put an end to the attacks. [46], Seven Union divisions had been sent in, generally one brigade at a time, for a total of fourteen individual charges,[47] all of which failed, costing them from 6,000 to 8,000 casualties. These included ammunition, smoking pipes, and food tins. Having grown angry with Major General George B. McClellan's unwillingness to pursue General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln relieved him on November 5, 1862, and replaced him … 85–86; Rable, pp. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. Jackson, on the other hand, received reinforcements quickly, and his troops surrounded the Gibbon's men on three sides – leaving many of them exposed in the open field. Shows the field of action for the first Battle of Fredericksburg, December 12-13, 1862. When the Union army was finally able to build its bridges and cross under fire, direct combat within the city resulted on December 11–12. However, Burnside demurred and the order did not reach Franklin until 7:15 or 7:45 a.m. [44], A soldier in Hancock's division reported movement in the Confederate line that led some to believe that the enemy might be retreating. Miles, realized that the tactics were not working. The fighting which ensued in the streets and buildings of Fredericksburg was the first true urban warfare of the Civil War. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles on the right. Gen. John Gibbon launched their assault against Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Confederates holding the southern portion of the Army of Northern Virginia's line at Fredericksburg. 264–66; Welcher, p. 712; Goolrick, p. 87. Massed artillery provided almost uninterrupted coverage of the plain below. 51–52; Eicher, p. 398; Goolrick, pp. [16], As Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner arrived, he strongly urged an immediate crossing of the river to scatter the token Confederate force of 500 men in the town and occupying the commanding heights to the west. Burnside's speed and superior numbers were meaningless without the pontoon boats that he needed to cross the Rappahannock River. Committing his reserve at 1:45 p.m., Gibbon sent forward his brigade under Col. Adrian R. Root, which moved through the survivors of the first two brigades, but they were soon brought to a halt as well. In May 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had scored a smashing victory over the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville. Brig. Gen. William Barksdale, in command of the town defenses. It was fought in Virginia during December 1862. 706–707. Brimming with confidence, Lee decided to go on the offensive and invade the North for a second time (the first invasion had ended at Antietam the previous fall). 396–97; O'Reilly, p. 21; Welcher, pp. At 3 p.m., the Union artillery began a preparatory bombardment and 135 infantrymen from the 7th Michigan and the 19th Massachusetts crowded into the small boats, and the 20th Massachusetts followed soon after. [24], River crossings south of the city by Franklin's Left Grand Division were much less eventful. General Burnside, who by this time was focused on his attacks on Marye's Heights, was dismayed that his left flank attack had not achieved the success he assumed earlier in the day. When the Union Army finally crossed over the Rappahannock River … The engineers constructing the bridge directly across from the city came under punishing fire from Confederate sharpshooters, primarily from the Mississippi brigade of Brig. 198–245. McClellan had stopped General Robert E. Lee's forces at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, but had not been able to destroy Lee's army, nor did he pursue Lee back into Virginia aggressively enough for Lincoln. The event was noted in the diaries and letters of many soldiers at Fredericksburg, such as John W. Thompson, Jr., who wrote "Louisiana sent those famous cosmopolitan Zouaves called the Louisiana Tigers, and there were Florida troops who, undismayed in fire, stampeded the night after Fredericksburg, when the Aurora Borealis snapped and crackled over that field of the frozen dead hard by the Rappahannock ..."[56], Western view from Fredericksburg down Telegraph Road with Marye's Heights visible in the distant center, Marye's House upon Marye's Heights was the center of the Confederate position during the battle. 25–32; Eicher, p. 397; Welcher, p. 700; Kennedy, p. 145; Salmon, p. 145. [72], American author Louisa May Alcott fictionalized her experience nursing soldiers injured in the Battle of Fredericksburg in her book Hospital Sketches (1863). O'Reilly, p. 363; Eicher, p. 403; Goolrick, p. 85; Rable, p. 254; Marvel, pp. Burnside suddenly turned reluctant, lamenting to Hall in front of his men that "the effort meant death to most of those who should undertake the voyage." By this time, however, it was too late to accomplish any further offensive action. Mackowski, Chris, and Kristopher D. White. 187–245, 499; Goolrick, p. 71; Welcher, p. 708; Rable, pp. A fortuitous Union breakthrough had been wasted because Franklin did not reinforce Meade's success with some of the 20,000 men standing in reserve. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. In addition to his numerical advantage in troop strength, Burnside also had the advantage of knowing his army could not be attacked effectively. Lincoln himself wrote, "If there is a worse place than hell, I am in it. Gen. J. H. Hobart Ward. Confederate armies had been on the move earlier in the fall, invading Kentucky and Maryland. The Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11, 1862 – December 15, 1862) was a major battle in the American Civil War fought at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gen. Abner Doubleday's division of the I Corps had been mostly idle, suffering only a few casualties from artillery fire while they waited in reserve. The casualties sustained by each army showed clearly how disastrous the Union army's tactics were. His formidable defensive line had an unforeseen flaw. Union soldiers held their fire as it was obvious what Kirkland's intent was. 709–10. These are the sources and citations used to research Battle of Fredericksburg. O'Reilly, pp. Set the record straight with these ten key facts. [18], The boats and equipment for a single pontoon bridge arrived at Falmouth on November 25, much too late to enable the Army of the Potomac to cross the river without opposition. Gen. George D. Bayard, a cavalry general mortally wounded by a shell while standing in reserve near Franklin's headquarters. Lee commanded the only sizeable force that could oppose him, but his army was divided: Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s Corps was a week's march away from Fredericksburg in the Shenandoah Valley. The next day the Federal forces retreated across the river, and the campaign came to an end. Many took the train to Richmond, while others sheltered on friends’ farms or in … It is remembered as one of the most one-sided b… The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The shelling of Fredericksburg was arguably the first time a commander deliberately ordered a large-scale bombardment of a city during the Civil War. Communications between Burnside's staff engineer Cyrus B. Comstock and the Engineer Brigade commander Daniel P. Woodbury indicate that Burnside had assumed the bridging was en route to Washington based on orders given on November 6. The Iron Brigade (formerly Gibbon's command, but now led by Brig. Brig. But when he saw how slowly Burnside was moving (and Confederate President Jefferson Davis expressed reservations about planning for a battle so close to Richmond), he directed all of his army toward Fredericksburg. Burnside's men had suffered considerably more in the attack originally meant as a diversion than in his main effort. Gen. James A. Hardie, who delivered the order, did not ensure that Burnside's intentions were understood by Franklin, and map inaccuracies about the road network made those intentions unclear. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as a "butchery". The South celebrated their victory while President Lincoln came under increasing political pressure for not … Many on the Union side were also shocked by the destruction inflicted on Fredericksburg. One witness described that "the wonderful spectacle of the Aurora Borealis was seen in the Gulf States. General Ambrose E. Burnside inherited the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. Neither Franklin nor Reynolds took any personal involvement in the battle, and were unavailable to their subordinates at the critical point. Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb of Georgia, who had commanded the key sector of the line, was mortally wounded by an exploding artillery shell and was replaced by Brig. While he rode prominently in front of his lines, the partially deaf Gregg could not hear the approaching Federals or their bullets flying around him. (Although popularly known as Marye's Heights, the ridge was composed of several hills separated by ravines, from north to south: Taylor's Hill, Stansbury Hill, Marye's Hill, and Willis Hill.) At 5 p.m. on December 12, he made a cursory inspection of the southern flank, where Franklin and his subordinates pressed him to give definite orders for a morning attack by the grand division, so they would have adequate time to position their forces overnight. Nearly all the other land associated with Union attacks at Fredericksburg—either on the southern end of the battlefield or in front of Marye's Heights—has been degraded by development. 193–94, 205–14; O'Reilly, pp. Gen. George W. Getty to attack as well, but this time to the leftmost portion of Marye's Heights, Willis Hill. Gen. George Sykes was ordered to move forward with his V Corps regular army division to support Humphreys's retreat, but his men were caught in a crossfire and pinned down. Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a strongly fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye's Heights. He would concentrate his army in a visible fashion near Warrenton, feigning a movement on Culpeper Court House, Orange Court House or Gordonsville. 166–77; Salmon, pp. Gen Nelson Taylor took over command of the division. Gen. George Washington Cullum, the chief of staff in Washington (received on November 9). By coincidence, they attacked the area defended by fellow Irishmen of Col. Robert McMillan's 24th Georgia Infantry. Gen. Nathan Kimball began to move around noon. He later wrote “At Fredericksburg we gained a battle, inflicting very severe loss on the enemy in men and material; our people were greatly elated—I was much depressed. Eicher, pp. 256–59; Goolrick, p. 85; Welcher, p. 711; O'Reilly, pp. Jubal A. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, A piece of artillery forming part of "Longstreet's Line" on Marye's Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg, ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties, Crossing the Rappahannock, December 11–12, Confederate reaction to the news of the victory. Although the fighting on the southern flank produced roughly equal casualties (about 4,000 Confederate, 5,000 Union), the northern flank was completely lopsided, with about eight Union casualties for each Confederate. Gen. John C. Caldwell. 191–203; O'Reilly, pp. Burnside's plan quickly went awry—he had ordered pontoon bridges to be sent to the front and assembled for his quick crossing of the Rappahannock, but because of administrative bungling, the bridges did not arrive on time. On December 9, he wrote to Halleck, "I think now the enemy will be more surprised by a crossing immediately in our front than any other part of the river. From December 11th to December 15th, 1862, the Confederate Army fought the Union Army in and near the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia. By November 23, the corps commanded by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet had arrived and Lee placed them on the ridge known as Marye's Heights to the west of town, with Anderson's division on the far left, McLaws's directly behind the town, and Pickett's and Hood's to the right. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 53,000 acres in 24 states! General Burnside takes Fredericksburg but experiences a disastrous defeat when attacking Confederate forces entrenched in the high ground above the town. 169–70. [26], December 13 began cold and overcast. Gen. Thomas F. Meagher. He first considered a massive bayonet charge to overwhelm the defenders, but as he surveyed the front, he quickly realized that French's and Hancock's divisions were in no shape to move forward again. Welcher, p. 710; O'Reilly, pp. About 600 yards to the west of Fredericksburg was the low ridge known as Marye's Heights, rising 40–50 feet above the plain. 246–73; Goolrick, pp. It was a part of the Chancellorsville campaign. Any further Confederate advance was deterred by the arrival of the III Corps division of Brig. Esposito, in notes for map 73, cites "over 6,000." The first mistake was the huge... Union casualties were more than double that of the Confederates. South of the largest battles of the Potomac, disagreed and insisted they... Who witnessed it, but utterly hopeless S. Hancock to support the attack as well, but their in... ( deduct cavalry of Right and Centre Grand divisions ) according to Livermore p.. 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