Battle of Fredericksburg

General George McClellan was able to stop the advance of the southerners in the battle of Entity, but failed to build on success, and in early November 1862 was dismissed. In his place was appointed General Ambrose Burnside . He did not enjoy authority in the army and did not possess military talents, and it is still unknown why Lincoln entrusted him with the post of army commander. Burnside himself did not aspire to this role, but accepted the offer, because otherwise the title of commander in chief would have gone to Joseph Hooker, whom Burnside did not like. On November 7, Burnside took command of the army. ^[3]

On November 10, 1862, Burnside presented his plan of attack. He offered to make a distracting attack in the direction of Culpeper, then suddenly turn to Frederiksberg, cross the Rappahannock River at Frederiksberg, cut off Lee's army from Richmond and defeat in battle. On November 14, Burnside received the consent of the president and immediately set out on a campaign. Already on November 17, his army reached Falmouth on the eastern shore of Rappahanok, but there was a delay due to difficulties crossing the river.

General Lee was in the headquarters of the 1st Corps in Culpeper and missed the advance of the Burnside army - on November 17 he did not know about her appearance at Rappahanok. However, Jeb Stewart soon discovered the northerners, and General Lee urgently sent General Longstreet to Frederiksberg, who arrived on November 21 . Burnside was still preparing to cross the river, although his plan had actually failed.

On November 26, Lee ordered General Jackson to join the 1st Corps. Jackson arrived at the position on the night of November 29 and joined on the right to the Longstreet Corps. Jackson himself did not approve of the chosen position, proposing to retreat to the North Anna River, however, the Confederate leadership did not allow the enemy to go inside the territory.

Burnside made an attempt to circumvent the position of the southerners, crossing the Rappahanok at Port Royal (20 km from Falmouth), but Lee beat Burnside and sent Daniel Hill's division to Port Royal. Then Burnside decided to attack directly through Fredericksburg, explaining this in a report like this:

I found out that the enemy sent a significant part of his forces down the river and to other places, thereby weakening himself from the front; and also found out that he did not expect the crossing of our entire army at Frederiksberg; and I hoped that by quickly throwing our troops forward at this place we would be able to cut off the enemy forces downstream and upstream and at heights outside the city, and in this case we could fight with great advantages on our side ^[4] .

At a meeting of the military council, Burnside, despite the objections of the generals, ordered a frontal attack on the heights of Marie, against the Longstreet Corps.

Federal Army

Burnside grouped his Potomac army into three so-called grand divisions , totaling 120,000, of which 114,000 were involved in the upcoming battle.

• The right-wing grand division , under the command of Major General Edwin Sumner , consisted of the II Corps (Gen. Darius Couch ): the divisions of Winfield Hancock, Oliver Howard and William French; and IX Corps (Brigadier General Orlando Wilcox): divisions of William Burns, Samuel Sturgis and George Getty . They were given the cavalry division of General Alfred Pleasanton .
• The Central Grand Division , under the command of Major General Joseph Hooker, consisted of the Third Corps (Brigadier General George Stoneman ): the divisions of David Byrne , Daniel Sickles and Amiel Whipple; and V Corps (Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield ): the divisions of Charles Griffin , George Sykes and Andrew Humphries . They were assigned a cavalry brigade under the command of William Averell.
• The left grand division , under the command of Major General William Franklin , consisted of I Corps (Major General John Reynolds ): the divisions of Abner Doubleday , John Gibbon and George Mead ; and VI Corps (Major General William Smith ): the divisions of William Brooks, Elbion Howe and John Newton . They were assigned a cavalry brigade under the command of George Bayard.
• The eleventh corps of Gene Major Franz Siegel was left in reserve. The 12th corps of Gen. Major Henry Slocam was at Hapers Ferry all the time.

Confederate Army

Robert Lee's North Virginia Army numbered approximately 85,000, of which 72,500 were involved in the battle. The army consisted of two corps ^[5] :

First Corps of Lieutenant Longstreet:

• Lafayette Mac Lowes Division: Brigades of Joseph Kershaw , William Barksdale , Thomas Cobb , Paul Semms and 4 Henry Cabell batteries.
• Division of Richard Anderson : Cadmus Wilcox , William Mahone , Winfield Featherstone , Ambrose Wright and Edward Perry Brigades.
• George Pickett's Division: Brigades of Richard Garnett , Lewis Armistead , James Kemper , Mickey Jenkins and Montgomery Corse .
• John Hood Division: Brigades of Evander Low , Jerome Robertson, George Anderson and Henry Benning.
• Robert Ransom Division: A team of Robert Ransom and John Cook.

Jackson's Second Building Stone Wall :

• Daniel Hill Division: Brigades of Robert Rhodes , George Dols , Alfred Colkitt , Alfred Iverson and Brian Grimes .
• Ambrose Hill Division: Brigades of John Brockenbro , Maxi Gregg , Edward Thomas , James Lane , James Archer and William Pender .
• Jubal Airlie Division:
• division of William Tagliaferro .

Artillery reserve under com. Brig. General William Pendleton.

Jeb Stuart Cavalry .

On the night of December 11, Burnside gave the order to cross the Rappahannock. Grand Division General Franklin without interference crossed three pontoon bridges. Sumner’s Grand Division was in a more difficult position: it was forced to cross directly opposite Frederiksberg , where General Lee stationed the Barksdale Mississippi Brigade. At about 5 a.m. on December 11, the northerners began crossing and stumbled upon the fire of the Barksdale shooters. The northerners decided to knock out the shooters with artillery and organized a bombardment of the city with the fire of 150 guns. They almost completely destroyed the city, but did not cause significant damage to the Barksdale shooters. Burnside then launched a direct attack with the forces of the 7th Michigan and 20th Massachusetts regiments. The Mississippians immediately departed, not accepting the battle. In this shootout they lost 20 people, delaying the advance of the northerners for a day.

The crossing of the Sumner Grand Division began on the morning of December 12 and ended at 5 pm.

The Telegraph Road, which ran at the foot of the Marie Heights, had a great influence on the course of the battle. It was a stretch of approximately 600 meters in length that ran along the recess, and the edges of the recess were reinforced with a stone wall. The road was 25 feet wide and the stone wall was 4 feet high. It could be turned into a serious fortification, but no one paid attention to this wall before the battle ^[6] .

As early as December 10, General Longstreet proposed using the Barksdale brigade to slow down the offensive of the federal army, and asked McLose about any intermediate position between the city and the heights of Marie. McLose pointed to the Telegraph Road. Therefore, when the people of Barksdale retreated from Frederiksberg on the evening of December 11, they took up a position behind a stone wall on the Telegraph Road. At night, the Barksdale Brigade was replaced by the Thomas Cobb Brigade ^[6] .

Thus, by the beginning of the battle on December 12 only 6 brigades of the North Virginia Army had some kind of earthen fortifications and the Cobb brigade on the Telegraph Road was one of them ^[7] .

Franklin Attack

At 8:00, General Franklin received an order from Burnside to send a division to the attack. Franklin decided that he was required to hold a demonstration and sent Mead’s division to the attack, which they had to support from the flanks of the Gibbon and Doubleday divisions (16,000 in all). At 10:00, the Mead division launched an offensive. At 11:00 two guns under the com. Major John Pelham opened fire on them and forced them to stop. Palham managed to delay Mead’s division for almost an hour. ^[8]

Mead resumed the offensive, but his division came under artillery fire. The shootout lasted almost two hours, after which Mead threw his division into an attack on Ambrose Hill's division and managed to disperse the Southerners' front line. They went to the second line - Maxi Gregg's brigade, and threw her back. General Gregg received a wound from which he died two days later. Hill's line of defense was torn in two. However, the Mead division was upset, reinforcements did not fit, and the Jubal Earley division came to the aid of the southerners. Mead’s division was under fire from three sides and began to retreat.

The attack of the northerners was repelled, they lost 4800 people killed and wounded. Southerners in this battle lost 3,400 killed and wounded.

Sumner Attack

On the right flank of the northerners, Burnside ordered General Sumner’s grand division to launch an offensive at Marie’s heights, and at noon the French division (from the 2nd Corps) began construction. The division was to attack the general positions of General Longstreet , in front of which was a stone wall in the form of an advanced outpost. Longstreet pushed Cobb’s brigade from the Mac Lowes division to the wall, only 2,500 people. ^[9]

French’s division left the city in two columns, crossed the drainage canal and turned in three lines: the first was the Kimball brigade, followed by the Andrews and Palmer brigades. They advanced in open areas under artillery fire, and then under rifle fire from the heights of Marie. Nathan Kimball’s team was able to approach the wall 120 yards before retreating; Andrews’s brigade lasted only a few minutes against the wall and retreated, losing half the personnel, and Palmer’s brigade also withdrew with heavy losses. French’s division lost almost a third of its composition. The losses of the southerners were insignificant, but about 15 minutes after the battles General Cobb was seriously wounded, and the commander of the 24th Georgian regiment, Colonel Robert Macmillan, took command.

Hancock's division replaced French. She also attacked in three teams: the Zuka team was immediately discarded, but the Irish Miger team following her managed to approach the wall 50 yards where she was stopped. On the other side of the wall they were opposed by the 24th Georgian regiment, which also consisted of Irishmen. Miger's team retreated in order, having lost half of the personnel in this attack. The third brigade of General Caldwell attacked the southerners from the left flank, but did not succeed. In total, the Hancock division lost 2100 people (42%).

The third was attacked by Oliver Howard's division . She quickly turned back, and her losses were relatively small.

In the report, Sumner wrote:

These three divisions lost many brave soldiers and officers during repeated and unsuccessful attempts to seize strong natural positions made even more by the tireless labor of many weeks, which were held by the large forces of the enemy, who fought in shelters, supported by the terrifying artillery fire, and these were the properties terrain that we could do little to help our tools ^[10] .

Unable to succeed with the forces of the II Corps, Sumner introduced the IX Corps into battle. The Sturgis division attempted to bypass the stone wall on the right, but was repelled. This failure coincided with the retreat of the Mead division on the left flank, and a slight lull formed in the battle.

Meanwhile, General Lee expressed concern that the northerners would be able to break through the Cobb line.

“General ,” Long Street replied, “ if you collect all the federal soldiers on this field that are now on the other side of the Potomac and direct them to my line, providing me with enough ammunition, I will kill them all before they can get to me. Take a better look at your right flank. There you may be in danger. But everything is in order here.

Yet Lee sent Kershaw’s brigade and two regiments of Ransom’s brigade to help Cobb. At that moment, Cobb was wounded in the leg and left the battlefield, passing command of Kershaw. A few minutes later, Cobb died of blood loss.

Hooker Attack

After 15:00, Burnside decided to resume attacks on both flanks. He sent orders to Franklin to attack the right flank of the Confederate army - but Franklin did not comply with this order. At the same time, Joseph Hooker’s Grand Division was sent to attack Mari’s heights. Hooker tried to refuse, but Burnside insisted on his decision. Charles Griffin's division was sent to the attack, which was defeated in just a few minutes. Then it was decided to bombard the southerners' positions against a stone wall. Hazard's light artillery battery was advanced forward, which suffered heavy losses, but could not significantly damage the stone wall.

The next to attack went the division of Andrew Humphries . Humphries decided to launch a classic bayonet attack (following the example of the French attack on Sanken Road in a battle at Entitym ) and ordered the division to go into battle with unloaded guns. This attack was thrown back by rifle fire, and Humphries retreated, having lost 1,000 killed and wounded in the attack.

At dusk, Hooker sent General Getty's division on the offensive, which was able to come close to the positions of the southerners, but was abandoned, like all the previous ones. After that, Hooker ordered to stop useless attacks.

In a fruitless attack, the Federal Army lost 12,653 people: 1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded and 1,769 captured and missing. There are suggestions that real losses reached 20,000 ^[1] . Two generals died: George Bayard and Conrad Jackson. Southerners lost only 5,377 people (of which 608 were killed), with the bulk of the losses occurring in the morning battle on the right flank. Two generals died: Maxi Gregg and Thomas Cobb.

The ratio of losses clearly showed the imperfection of the tactics of the federal army. If the ratio of losses on their left flank was approximately equal (4,000 southerners per 5,000 northerners), then the ratio of losses at the heights of Marie was approximately one in eight.

Having failed, Burnside decided to repeat the offensive at the end of December, however, coordination took time and a new campaign, known as the “ Mud March ”, began only on January 20, 1863. This offensive will fail and lead to the resignation of Burnside ^[11] .

Sanitation

Immediately after the battle, the southerners began to transfer their wounded to field hospitals located in houses and barns. Already on December 14, they began to transport them by rail to Richmond and Charlottesville. When more than 800 wounded arrived in Richmond on December 15, the mayor was forced to turn to the residents for help: women brought coffee, tea, soups and milk to the train station. Due to the lack of sanitary carts, all available wheeled vehicles had to be used ^[12] .

The battle of Fredericksburg was the first battle of the war when the sanitary services of the Potomac Army were completely ready. The doctors took advantage of the several days of calm before the battle and managed to stock up with medicines and blankets, which were placed in ten hospitals in Falmouth. After the battle, difficulties arose with the removal of the wounded: the open area did not allow this to be done promptly. Some managed to be taken out on medical carts and stretchers, but some of the wounded still remained on the battlefield after sunset and they were taken out only on the morning of December 14th. The night was cold, but not frosty, and there are no exact figures for those killed by hypothermia ^[13] .

On December 15, all the wounded were taken out beyond the Potomac and placed in division hospitals. Latterman wanted to leave them there until his recovery, but Burnside was preparing for new maneuvers, and insisted that the wounded be taken to Washington. Transportation began on December 16 and ended on December 27. The wounded had to be transported in open cars for 11 miles, despite the fact that they did not even have blankets. They were taken to Aquila Creek, where a field kitchen was deployed, then loaded onto steamboats and sent by water to Washington. The whole trip usually took from 16 to 18 hours. About 6,000 people were transported. Many later complained about the conditions of transportation, but few understood how much the sanitary service had improved compared to previous battles ^[12] .

• Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. OCLC 5890637.
• Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Decision on the Rappahannock. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8078-2193-4 .
• Goolrick, William K. Rebels Resurgent: Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville. - Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985 .-- p. - ISBN 0-8094-4748-7 .
• Hess, Earl J. Field armies and fortifications in the Civil War: the Eastern campaigns, 1861–1864. - Chapel Hill and London: The university of north carolina press, 2005 .-- 428 p. - ISBN 0-8078-2931-5 .
• Marvel, William. Burnside. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8078-1983-2 .
• O'Reilly, Francis Augustín. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock. - Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003 .-- p. - ISBN 0-8071-3154-7 .
• Rable, George C. Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Chapel Hill: University Of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8078-2673-1 .
• Stackpole, Edward J. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Drama on the Rappahannock. - Stackpole Books, 1991 .-- 336 p. - ISBN 0811723372 .
• Schroeder-Lein Glenna R. The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine. - ME Sharpe, 2008 .-- 457 p. - ISBN 0765630788 .

• Frederiksbeg report of General Mead
• Macmillan Report
• Offensive of Mead and Gibbon, map
• Animated Battle Map
• Civil War, West Point Atlas (unavailable link from 09/08/2013 [2192 days] - history , copy )
• Attack of the Irish Brigade Fragment of the film "Gods and Generals"