The Battle of Fredericksburg was one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, fought from 11 December to 15 December 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Union army, led by General Ambrose Burnside, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces. The battle was fought in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War, and the two armies represented the largest number of armed men that had ever confronted each other. The battle was fought between the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee.

Right: Battle of Fredericksburg: The Army of the Potomac crossing the Rappahannock: in the morning of December 13, 1862, under the command of Generals Burnside, Sumner, Hooker & Franklin. Kurz & Allison,  Art Publishers, Chicago, U.S., copyrighted 1888. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Public Domain (copyright expired). Click to enlarge.

The Union army was organized into three grand divisions, each consisting of infantry corps, cavalry, and artillery, comprising 120,000 men, of whom 110,000 were engaged in the battle. The Right Grand Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Edwin V. "Bull" Sumner, consisted of the II Corps and the IX Corps. The Center Grand Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, consisted of the III Corps and the V Corps. The Left Grand Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, consisted of the I Corps and the VI Corps. The Reserve, commanded by Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel of the XI Corps, was in the area of Fairfax Court House. The XII Corps, under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, was called from Harpers Ferry to Dumfries, Virginia, to join the reserve force on 9 December, but none of these troops participated in the battle.

Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had nearly 75,000 men engaged, with 72,500 actually fighting. The army was organized into two corps. The First Corps, led by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, included the divisions of Maj. Gens. Lafayette McLaws, Richard H. Anderson, George E. Pickett, and John Bell Hood, and Brig. Gen. Robert Ransom, Jr. The Second Corps, under Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, included the divisions of Maj. Gens. D.H. Hill and A.P. Hill, and Brig. Gens. Jubal A. Early and William B. Taliaferro. There was also Reserve artillery under Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton, and a cavalry division under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. (McPherson 2003, 570)

Burnside's plan was to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the Confederate capital of Richmond before Lee's army could stop him. However, bureaucratic delays prevented Burnside from receiving the necessary pontoon bridges in time, giving Lee the opportunity to organize his forces to block the crossings. The battle began on 11 December, 1862, with Union troops crossing in pontoon boats and coming under heavy artillery fire from the Confederate forces. Despite the initial resistance, the Union was able to gain a foothold in the city itself. However, Confederate forces had dug in on high ground to the south and west, making it difficult for the Union to advance on the city. 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. The Confederate army, however, had fortified the city, and when Union forces finally crossed the river, they came under heavy fire.

What followed was a series of costly frontal assaults that have become infamous in the annals of military history. On 13 December, Union forces, mainly from the Right and Center Grand Divisions, under the respective commands of Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner and Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, launched a series of frontal assaults against the Confederate position on Marye's Heights that proved to be a disaster for the Union army. The Union troops would march bravely across an open field under heavy artillery fire, but they became sitting ducks as they approached the Confederates and were slaughtered before they could reach the enemy lines.

Despite repeated attempts and heavy losses, Union troops were unable to penetrate the Confederate defenses. The Left Grand Division of Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin was able to pierce the first defensive line of Confederate Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson to the south, but was finally repulsed. Burnside ordered the Right and Center Grand Divisions of Sumner and Hooker to launch multiple frontal assaults against Longstreet's position on Marye's Heights – all were repulsed with heavy losses. On 15 December, Burnside withdrew his army, ending another failed Union campaign in the Eastern Theater.

Right: Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 1862: The dead lay behind the stone wall of Marye's Heights. Source: War History Network license. Click to enlarge.

The Union casualties sustained during the Battle of Fredericksburg were staggering. The Union army suffered close to 13,000 casualties, most lost in front of the stone wall at the base of Marye's Heights. The Confederate army lost close to 5,000. (McPherson 2003, 572) Confederate Brig. Gens. Maxcy Gregg, T. R. R. Cobb, and William Dorsey Pender were all wounded; Cobb and Gregg mortally. Two Union generals were mortally wounded: Brig. Gens. George D. Bayard and Conrad F. Jackson. The casualties sustained by each army showed clearly how disastrous the Union army's tactics were. During a battlefield truce on 15 December, once soldier recounts the horrors of retrieving dead for burial "The corpses were 'swollen to twice their natural size, black as Negroes inmost cases.' Here lay 'one without a head, there once without legs, yonder a head and legs without a trunk ... with fragments of shell sticking in oozing bran, with bullet holes all over the puffed limbs.'" (McPherson 2003, 574)

The Confederate victory at Fredericksburg gave them a much-needed boost in morale and demonstrated the effectiveness of their defensive tactics. The Union forces, on the other hand, were humiliated and demoralized, with thousands of men dead or injured in a battle that offered them no chance of success. After the battle, the Union army retreated across the river, leaving the Confederate forces in control of Fredericksburg. Burnside was heavily criticized for his tactics and blamed for the loss, and he was soon replaced as commander of the Army of the Potomac by General Joseph Hooker. In detailing the failed Union leadership, Bruce Catton writes "One of Humpphrey's colonels remarked that the battle had been a great defeat 'owing to the heavy fire in front and an excess of enthusaism in the rear.'" A war correspondent from the Cincinnati Commercial wired his newspaper "It can hardly be in human nature for men to show more valor, or generals to manifest less judgement, than were preceptible on our side that day.'" (Catton 2022, 435)

Right: Fredericksburg, Virginia 2022: Superintendent's Lodge at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Sunken Road, and reconstructed stone wall. Source: War History Network license. Click to enlarge.

Bibliography

Catton, Bruce. Bruce Catton: The Army of the Potomac Trilogy (LOA #359): Mr. Lincoln's Army / Glory Road / A Stillness at Appomattox. New York: Library of America, 2022.

Fredericksburgva.gov. "Decisive Terrain: The Civil War." Fredericksburg, VA - Official Website | Official Website. Accessed September 29, 2023. https://www.fredericksburgva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1402/Historic-Sites-Decisive-Terrain?bidId=.

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Noxon, J. A. “The Battle of Fredericksburg.” The Military Engineer 25, no. 140 (1933): 151–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44563748.