DK - The American Civil War

BURNSIDE TAKES THE OFFENSIVE

KIRKLAND

MEMORIAL AT

FREDERICKSBURG

Although the fire from the Union guns
on Stafford Heights made it impossible
for Confederate troops to advance in
the open to the riverbank and contest
the crossing, the buildings of
Fredericksburg, now deserted by the
civilians, made excellent cover for
sharpshooters of the Mississippi brigade.
Northern engineers struggled to
complete the
pontoons under
their harassing fire.
Union artillery
reduced much of
the town to rubble,
but the sharpshooters were not driven
out until a Union advance guard
crossed by boat and flushed them out.

Burnside’s advance
The bulk of the Union Army began
marching over the pontoon bridges
on December 12, many soldiers looting
the abandoned Virginian homes. The
battle was fought on December 13.
Burnside’s best hope rested on Major
General William Franklin’s Grand
Division, which had crossed the river

south of Fredericksburg. Burnside

thought that the Confederate right

flank in front of Franklin was weakly

held, but Jackson had amassed his

forces around the peak of Prospect Hill.

When a Confederate officer expressed

anxiety about their situation, Jackson

put him firmly in his place. He was

proved right, because the Union troops’

frontal assaults on

his well-placed

infantry and

cannon were

systematically

repulsed. Startled

early on by an unexpected flank attack

from Confederate horse artillery,

Franklin cautiously held many of his

soldiers back in defensive positions.

The breakthrough occurred when

a rush through an undefended wooded

valley by Major General George

Meade’s troops penetrated deep into

the Confederate army’s lines. But

Franklin failed to reinforce Meade,

and his men were soon driven back

by counterattacks and suffered heavy

losses as a result. Nothing on Jackson’s

flank, however, equaled the appalling

slaughter inflicted by Longstreet’s

corps at Marye’s Heights. Union

brigades were thrown forward in

frontal assaults uphill across open

ground swept by Longstreet’s artillery.

They then faced a line of 2,000 North

Carolina and Georgia infantry

positioned in a sunken road behind a

stone wall. Under General Thomas

Cobb, the Confederate infantry

maintained a rapid rate of fire. The

advancing Union ranks were cut

down, most of the men not even

coming to within 300ft (90m) of the

wall before they fell or fled. By

nightfall, the Union Army had suffered

12,700 casualties to Confederate losses

of 5,400. On December 15, Burnside

withdrew back across the river.

AFTER

The slaughter at Fredericksburg was

greeted with jubilation in the South and

consternation in Washington. Lincoln

came in for heavy criticism and anti-war

sentiment flourished in the Union ranks.

BURNSIDE’S HOPES DASHED

Ambrose Burnside dreamed of redeeming his

reputation with another crossing of the

Rappahannock River that would outflank

Lee. However, attempting this maneuver in

January 1863 his army merely became

bogged down on muddy roads. After this

“Mud March” was called off, Burnside

was doomed. On January 26, he was replaced

by Major General “Fightin’ Joe” Hooker.

SOLDIER’S BRAVERY

A story surfaced 17 years after the Battle of

Fredericksburg, telling how Confederate soldier

Richard Kirkland—”the Angel of Marye’s

Heights”— had risked his life to take water to

wounded Union troops. Kirkland’s selfless

act is now commemorated by a monument in

front of the stone wall at Fredericksburg.

“It is well that war is so terrible.

We should grow too fond of it.”

ROBERT E. LEE TO JAMES LONGSTREET DURING THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

PONTOONS

TECHNOLOGY

The military use of floating bridges dates

back to ancient times, Persian ruler Xerxes

famously building one to cross the

Hellespont in 480 BCE. Originally, they were

improvized by laying wooden planks over a

line of moored boats. By the 19th century,

however, army engineers had purpose-built

flat-bottomed pontoons as part of their

standard equipment. Mounted on wheels

for ease of mobility, they were threaded

together on a cable with wooden beams

laid across them to form a roadway.

Defending the sunken road

Confederate infantry take turns loading and

shooting, maintaining a constant fire from behind

the stone wall on Telegraph Road at the foot of

Marye’s Heights. Repeated Northern assaults over

open ground failed to reach the sunken road.

The percentage of Union troops

killed, wounded, or captured.

The percentage of Confederates

killed, wounded, or captured.

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