James Longstreet and Lt. The Rebel troops had ample time to find advantageous defensive positions and establish supply lines and even bring up a large, pounder artillery piece from Richmond by rail to supplement their six- and pounder field pieces.
In the early morning hours of December 11, the Union soldiers began to assemble the pontoon bridges to make a direct crossing into Fredericksburg, hoping speed and surprise would bring success. Union troops crossed into Fredericksburg on December 12 and looted and vandalized what remained of the city. Burnside decided to attack both flanks rather than strike with the full force at the center. The main thrust would be made by Maj. William B. In a misstep, Burnside waited until the morning of December 13 to issue orders to Franklin and Sumner rather than issuing them after their meeting on the 12th.
When he did finally issue the orders, his wording was ambiguous, at best, about how forcefully Franklin was to mount the attack south of the city.
In the morning fog on December 13, Franklin ordered a single corps, Maj. After one cannon was disabled and his ammunition began running low, Pelham finally disengaged and fell back to the Confederate line, having fought his guns for an hour. A yard swampy marshland that the Confederate commanders considered impassible divided Jackson's lines. Following the path of least resistance, members of Maj. George Meade's division of Pennsylvania Reserves through this swampy bog during the battle.
Maxcy Gregg's Brigade, which was waiting in reserve behind the lines, were the only Southerners in the area. Two of Meade's regiments caught Gregg by surprise, and routed the whole brigade. Simultaneously, Maj. John Gibbon's division attacked across a field next to the swampland, driving back a brigade of North Carolinians defending a railroad grade. The two attacks broke the Rebel line and would have rendered the entire Confederate position untenable if enough Union reinforcements were committed to the attack.
Fact 9: A timely counterattack saved the broken Confederate lines, and gave the area its nickname. As the fighting continued, the Northerners began to run out of ammunition, and several of their most important officers were incapacitated. Without reinforcements, the attacks ground to a halt. 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.
The Federals were forced to fall back, and the Confederates recaptured the railroad embankments. The carnage was devastating. Fact The purchase of the Slaughter Pen Farm was the most expensive private battlefield preservation effort in American history. The Civil War Trust also worked with the Department of the Interior and Commonwealth of Virginia, which provided matching grants to acquire the property.
Help us preserve the memory of those brave Americans who sacrificed so much at Slaughter Pen Farm — scene of the most vicious hand-to-hand combat of Fredericksburg played a major role in the Civil War, serving as the grounds for what was then the largest battle in America and the first urban battle since the Revolutionary War.
On December 11, , the Union Army of the Potomac, after bombarding the town with artillery fire, crossed the Rappahannock River and landed at the foot of Hawke Street. The Union Army charged into town and ransacked homes and businesses searching for Confederate soldiers. Caroline Street became a stronghold for the Confederates and thus received the brunt of the battle which extended south to William Street. Several churches and dwellings, including Federal Hill at Hanover Street, were used as makeshift military hospitals, and the basement of the town hall served as a refuge for slaves during the battle.
By nightfall, the Confederate Army retreated to Marye's Heights to the south of the town. The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, , involved nearly , combatants, the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle. Ambrose Burnside, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than , troops to cross the Rappahannock River, where they made a two-pronged attack on the right and left flanks of Robert E.
Burnside turned it down both times—once after the failed Peninsula Campaign and again after the Confederate victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run Manassas —insisting that McClellan was the man for the job. On November 7 he removed McClellan from command and appointed the reluctant Burnside to his post. Burnside may have doubted his own qualifications to command the Army of the Potomac, but he nonetheless acted quickly to move the large force into Virginia in an advance toward the Confederate capital of Richmond.
By mid-November, he had moved two advance corps to Falmouth, located on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg.
Unfortunately for Burnside, the section of the Rappahannock near Falmouth was too deep to ford, so he was forced to wait for pontoon bridges to arrive in order to cross the river. By the time darkness fell, there had been no change in position.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was a crushing defeat for the Union, whose soldiers fought courageously and well but fell victim to mismanagement by their generals, including confused orders from Burnside to Franklin.
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