The battle of Fredericksburg Dec 11–15, 1862

Last week, the Virginia National Guard engineers commemorated the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg with a spectacular crossing of the Rappahannock River. The later crossing of Hancock's division and the battle scenes are some of the highlights of the turkey Gods and Generals.

The Civil War Trust has produced a great set of 360 panoramas about the battle of Fredericksburg. The bucolic spots selected are especially noteworthy if one considers that urban sprawl has eaten most of the actual battlefield. The online experience is actually better than being there in situ. The panorama's summer and sunshine detract from the fact that it was a winter battle. One of their video clips vividly shows the futility of the assault on Marye's Heights, feeding Union brigades piecemeal into the meat grinder.

Tactically, the attack in the northern part offered few promises as it would only have pushed Lee back towards Richmond. Only in the southern part existed the possibility to turn Lee's flank, cut him off from Richmond and trap his army against the Rappahannock. The cautious Union generals unfortunately mismanaged the attack.

Re books, Francis Augustin O'Reilly's The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock is probably the best current treatment available. I also like Edward J. Stackpole's classic and cheap The Fredericksburg Campaign: Drama on the Rappahannock. My copy features a great Irish brigade vignette from a Troiani painting.

For those who like the drawings of Alfred Waud, Amazon.com currently offers Civil War Sketch Book: Drawings from the Battlefront at a steal (USD 6.19). The discount from USD 50 is probably a typo, but Amazon tends to honor its own mistakes, so order quickly while the error lasts.

I really need to read more about the battle. My 2nd great-grandfather was killed at Fredericksburg on 13 Dec 1862 according to the records. He was a member of Co. A, 12th Mass. Vols.

>2 LucasTrask: Archive.org offers the History of the Twelfth Massachusetts Infantry (Webster regiment). The 12th MA was one of those unlucky regiments bled dry in the campaigns of 1862 and 1863 - on Chinn Ridge at 2nd Manassas, in the Cornfield at Antietam and now on the left flank at Fredericksburg. On December 13th, after six hours under fire, separated and out of ammo, the regiment suffered 14 KIA, 88 WIA and 3 MIA of only 258 men who went into action (a casualty rate of 41%). Your relative was one of the 14 unlucky ones killed outright that day. Joining the infantry is never a good idea.

See also The Dare Mark, worth a read.

Thanks for the link. I was aware of the regimental history and had looked at it before. I believe that Fredericksburg was my ancestor's only battle. He was mustered in on 13 Aug 1862 and was only listed on the muster rolls for Nov and Dec.

It's my opinion he joined the military to get away from him wife. They had had 7 children in just 8 years of marriage and this after she had a childless first marriage.

The time of "seeing the elephant" (to use the ACW term for the baptism of fire) was/is the most dangerous period in a soldier's life, especially in US WWII units as Martin van Creveld showed in Kampfkraft, a comparison of the US army and the Wehrmacht. The Confederates integrated their replacement soldiers much better into existing units. Chancellorsville and Gettysburg was the peak period between green and veteran troops.

Your relative must have joined voluntarily because with such a number of children he would have been easily awarded an exemption. Two hundred years ago, for the 1812 Russian campaign, the local Swiss government used an ingenious mechanism to entrap/recruit "volunteers": Men who had impregnated an unmarried woman were offered the option of joining Napoleon's Swiss regiments while the local government pocketed the signing bonus to pay for the child support.

This thread inspired me to start The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock.

I have read in more than one place that if Halleck had the pontoon bridges ready for Burnside when he was supposed to the battle may have not been a killing field. Of course Burnside did not have to wait around for four days while the Confederates got their defenses ready.

>8 wildbill: Indeed, they probably could have crossed without much fuss, but it wouldn't have helped much in solving the strategic problem: The Army of Northern Virginia based at Culpeper had supply lines to both the Shenandoah Valley and Richmond while a Federal army that moved on its flank always risked getting cut off from Washington (besides the obvious risk that Lee could lurk out at Washington itself).

It is a sad fact that the military instruction at West Point was clearly lacking in quality, as only those that didn't listen such as US Grant managed to really grasp Napoleon's ideas (beautifully shown in the Vicksburg campaign - what a contrast to Little Mac who should have landed in Suffolk/Norfolk, cutting Richmond off from the South). The Federals needed a supply depot south of Fredericksburg in order to be free to move against Lee.