The fighting 67clouds of bursting shells, and out of its midst
there soon rose three or four columns of dense
black smoke from houses set on fire by the
explosions. The atmosphere was so perfectly
calm and still that the smoke rose vertically in
great pillars for several hundred feet before
spreading outward in black sheets. ... the dark
blue masses of over 100,000 infantry in compact
columns, and numberless parks of white-topped
wagons and ambulances massed in orderly
ranks, all awaited the completion of the bridges.
The earth shook with the thunder of the guns,
and, high above all, a thousand feet in the air,
hung two immense balloons. The scene gave
impressive ideas of the disciplined power of a
great army, and of the vast resources of the
nation which had sent it forth.
Union troops held the city by evening
and sacked it the next day.
Burnside's final plan called for a flanking
movement that would cut the Army of
Northern Virginia off from the direct routes
to Richmond. The Federal army had been
organized into three Grand Divisions of two
corps each, commanded by William Buel
Franklin (the left), Joseph Hooker (the
center), and Edwin V. Sumner (the right).
On 13 December, Hooker would hold Lee's
attention in front of Fredericksburg while
Franklin worked his way around the enemy's
right near Hamilton's Crossing.
Lee did not complete his defensive
dispositions until the morning of the 13th,
when the last of Jackson's corps reached the
field from down the Rappahannock. The
75,000 men of the Army of Northern
Virginia stretched nearly 7 miles (11km),
their left anchored on high ground
overlooking the Rappahannock and their
right near Hamilton's Crossing. Longstreet's
corps held the left, accounting for 5 miles
(8km) of the front, and Jackson's corps
presented a defense in depth along the
rightmost 2 miles (3.2km) of the southern
front. Longstreet's men occupied several
hills, most notably Marye's Heights west of
the city. Jackson's infantry and artillery
enjoyed less commanding ground. Moreover,
Jackson's final line suffered from a
600-yard (550m) gap that ran through a
boggy area - a weakness the General had
noticed. In 1864, D. H. Hill described a ride
that he and Jackson had taken on the
morning of the 13th: 'As we passed by a flat
boggy piece of ground the General said, "the
enemy will attack at this point."'
The battle opened on the Confederate
right. A mid-morning artillery duel included
a daring set of maneuvers by the youthful
Confederate Major John Pelham, whose
brilliant use of two guns held up George
G. Meade's division of Union infantry for an
hour. About 1 pm, Meade's Pennsylvanians
advanced across an open plain against
A. P. Hill's division. Some of the Federals
struck the gap in the Confederate line,
surging up a wooded hill to a second line of
infantry. A confused South Carolina brigadier
mistakenly thought the Federals to be
Confederates and ordered his men not to
fire. He fell mortally wounded, but two of
Jackson's divisions quickly stopped Meade's
progress. When Grand Division commander
Franklin failed to provide supports for
Meade's hard-pressed units, the Federals
glumly withdrew. A pair of Confederate
brigades pursued their retreating foe until
savaged by northern artillery. Lee witnessed
this counterattack from his headquarters on
Telegraph Hill. A nearby staff officer heard
the commanding general say to James
Longstreet in low tones, 'It is well this is so
terrible! We should grow too fond of it!'
John Gibbon's Union division also
attacked Jackson's line, only to suffer the
same fate as Meade's. This commitment of
just a fraction of his Grand Division seemed
to satisfy Franklin. He suspended active
operations, having failed utterly to execute
Burnside's instructions to turn the
Confederate right.
The focus soon shifted to a series of
Union frontal assaults against Longstreet's
troops on Marye's Heights. The defenders
occupied a splendid position. Infantrymen
crowded behind a stone wall in a sunken
road at the foot of the hill. Other brigades
rested within easy supporting distance to
their right and left. Artillery crowned the