The Battle of Fredericksburg was one of the most one-sided Confederate victories of the American Civil War and one of the darkest moments of the conflict for the Union. Fought from December 11th to 15th, 1862, in and around the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the battle saw the Union army launch a series of futile frontal assaults against a heavily fortified Confederate position, resulting in nearly 13,000 Union casualties compared to approximately 5,400 Confederate losses. With nearly 200,000 combatants engaged, it was the largest battle of the entire Civil War in terms of troops involved.
What Was the American Civil War?
The Battle of Fredericksburg took place during the second year of the American Civil War, one of the most devastating conflicts in the history of the United States. The Civil War was fought between the Northern states, known as the Union, and the Southern states, known as the Confederacy, from 1861 to 1865. At its heart, the war was driven by the issue of slavery, which had divided the country for decades. By the autumn of 1862, the war in the Eastern Theater had produced significant frustration for the Union. General Robert E. Lee had repulsed Union attempts to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, and had then launched an invasion of the North that ended at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862. Following Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln had replaced the cautious General George McClellan with a new commander and was pressing urgently for aggressive action to end the war. The Battle of Fredericksburg was the result of that pressure.
Battle of Fredericksburg – Background and Causes
Following the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln grew increasingly frustrated with McClellan’s refusal to pursue Lee’s retreating army aggressively. On November 5th, 1862, Lincoln replaced McClellan with Major General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside had twice previously declined the command, feeling he was not qualified for such a large responsibility, but he accepted it on this occasion. Facing pressure from Lincoln to take decisive action before winter set in, Burnside developed a plan to move his army rapidly south to Fredericksburg, Virginia, cross the Rappahannock River there, and then drive swiftly toward Richmond before Lee could react.
Burnside’s plan initially showed promise. He moved his army of approximately 115,000 soldiers quickly to Falmouth, on the north bank of the Rappahannock River directly across from Fredericksburg, arriving in mid-November. However, the plan immediately ran into a critical problem. The Rappahannock was too deep to ford at this location, and Burnside needed pontoon bridges to cross. Due to a miscommunication between Burnside and the army’s general in chief Henry Halleck, the pontoons were delayed in arriving. Burnside’s army sat on the north bank for over two weeks waiting for the bridges, and Lee used this time wisely. He ordered his two corps commanders, Lieutenant General James Longstreet and Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson, to occupy and fortify the high ground south and west of Fredericksburg. Longstreet’s corps dug in on the dominant heights just west of the town, particularly a ridge known as Marye’s Heights, while Jackson’s corps extended the Confederate line for several miles to the south. By the time Burnside was ready to cross, Lee’s 78,000 soldiers were firmly entrenched in one of the strongest defensive positions of the entire war.
Battle of Fredericksburg – Crossing the Rappahannock
On the morning of December 11th, 1862, Union engineers moved to the riverbank under cover of darkness to begin assembling the pontoon bridges. However, Confederate sharpshooters from a brigade of Mississippi soldiers under Brigadier General William Barksdale had taken positions in the buildings along the Fredericksburg waterfront and opened devastating fire on the bridge builders, driving them from their work repeatedly. Burnside responded by ordering a massive artillery bombardment of the town, with Union guns firing over 5,000 shells into Fredericksburg. Despite the bombardment, Barksdale’s men continued to harass the bridge builders from the rubble. Finally, in the afternoon, Burnside ordered groups of soldiers to row across the river in pontoon boats to drive the sharpshooters out in what became the first major urban combat of the entire Civil War. After hours of fierce street fighting, Barksdale’s remaining soldiers finally withdrew, but the Mississippians had purchased an extra 12 hours for Lee to further prepare his defenses. Union troops crossed into Fredericksburg on December 12th and spent the day moving into position for the assault planned for the following morning.
Battle of Fredericksburg – Major Events
On the morning of December 13th, 1862, Burnside launched his two-pronged assault. On the Union left, General William Franklin’s grand division of approximately 65,000 men was tasked with attacking Stonewall Jackson’s entrenched corps to the south of the town. Franklin’s orders from Burnside were vague, and rather than commit his full force to the attack, he sent forward only two divisions, approximately 8,000 men. General George Meade’s division of Pennsylvania soldiers briefly broke through Jackson’s line in the early afternoon, creating a genuine opportunity to split the Confederate army. However, without support, Meade’s men were surrounded on three sides and driven back with heavy losses by a Confederate counterattack. The opportunity was lost.
On the Union right, the situation was even more catastrophic. Burnside ordered his forces to assault Marye’s Heights, the dominant ridge immediately west of Fredericksburg where Longstreet’s corps was dug in behind an extraordinarily strong defensive position. At the base of Marye’s Heights ran a sunken road, a farm lane that had been worn down over the years to a level below the surrounding fields, creating a natural trench. Behind the sunken road stood a four-foot stone wall, and behind the wall Longstreet had packed several ranks of Confederate infantry who could fire continuously while remaining almost entirely protected. Above them on the heights, Confederate artillery commanded every approach. The ground in front of this position was completely open, offering no cover whatsoever to attacking troops.
Throughout the afternoon, wave after wave of Union soldiers marched out of Fredericksburg and advanced across the open ground toward the sunken road and stone wall. Not a single Union soldier reached the wall. Each charge was broken by the concentrated fire of the Confederate defenders before it could close the distance. In total, the Union launched approximately 14 separate charges against Marye’s Heights, and all were repulsed with terrible casualties. Watching the slaughter from the heights above, General Lee reportedly remarked to General Longstreet that it was well that war was so terrible, otherwise men would grow too fond of it. As darkness fell, thousands of wounded Union soldiers lay in the frozen fields between the two lines, unable to be reached by either side.
Battle of Fredericksburg – Aftermath
The carnage at the Battle of Fredericksburg was staggering. Union casualties totaled approximately 12,653, including 1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, and 1,769 missing or captured. Confederate casualties totaled approximately 5,377, including 608 killed, 4,116 wounded, and 653 missing. The disparity reflected the enormous advantage that Longstreet’s defensive position had given the Confederate army throughout the day’s fighting. Burnside considered renewing the assaults the following day, even proposing to personally lead his old corps in one final charge against the stone wall, but his subordinate generals convinced him to abandon the idea. On the night of December 15th, 1862, Burnside withdrew his army back across the Rappahannock River, ending the campaign.
The political and military consequences of the defeat were severe. The battle sent Union morale plunging to one of its lowest points of the entire war. A political crisis erupted in Washington as Republican senators pushed for Lincoln to reorganize his cabinet, blaming the administration for the disaster. Lincoln deftly navigated the crisis without making the changes the senators demanded. In January of 1863, Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac. For the Confederacy, the victory at Fredericksburg was a major morale boost that helped restore confidence after the costly invasion of Maryland had ended at Antietam.
Significance of the Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg stands as one of the most lopsided Confederate victories of the American Civil War and one of the clearest examples of what happened when an army was ordered to make frontal assaults against a well-prepared defensive position. The battle demonstrated that the combination of terrain, entrenchments, and concentrated firepower could make a defensive position virtually impregnable, a lesson that would be repeated many times in the years ahead. For the Union, Fredericksburg was a painful reminder of the consequences of poor planning, delayed action, and vague orders in battle. For the Confederacy, it was proof that Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia could not only repel Union attacks but do so at relatively low cost. The battle remains one of the most studied engagements of the Civil War, both as a tactical study and as an example of the terrible human cost of warfare.
