Abraham Lincoln needed a victory desperately, but where could he turn?

By Bob Ford Special to

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Towards the end of 1862, the Civil War was going badly for the North.

In September of the same year, Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia captured 12,000 Union troops at Harper’s Ferry on his way to invading Maryland. The Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg as the South liked to call it, on Sept. 17, 1862, was the most devastating day in U.S. military history. It was a bloodbath for both sides.

The Union Army of the Potomac under pensive Gen. George McClellan outnumbered the Confederates almost 2-1 but lost so many men “Little Mac” felt he could not pursue Lee as the invaders limped back across the Potomac in a 12-mile long wagon caravan, carrying their wounded home to Virginia.

Similarly, Gen. Don Carlos Buell and his Army of the Ohio held forth at Perryville, Kentucky, but would not give chase to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg and his Army of the Mississippi into Tennessee.

Upset with McClellan for not chasing down the Army of N. Virginia after Antietam, Lincoln, still felt now was the time to set forth the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in “rebellious states.” The Proclamation would take effect on Jan. 1, 1863, needing military successes to bolster national confidence; the President however knew on several fronts the Union Army war effort had stalled.

Grant’s Army of the Tennessee for months had been splashing in and around the Mississippi River trying to dig a canal and outflank the Confederates at strategic Vicksburg with no success.

Gen. Ambrose Burnside showed well at the Battle of Antietam … Burnside’s Bridge. He was promoted, becoming the 4th Commander of the Army of the Potomac since the war started, replacing McClellan.

Again to support the Emancipation Proclamation and hopefully win the war, Burnside was ordered with his 122,000-man Army to plan an attack on Lee’s 70,000 strong force wherever they were, which no doubt would be close to Richmond, their Capital.

Burnside’s scheme was to build a pontoon bridge over the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and in a rapid movement cross the river and attack Lee before other Confederate Corps could arrive.

Nice idea, but everything went “south” from the outset. Not only were the pontoons near the rear of the Army column, the horses needed to move and construct the bridge were not with them.

Once the horses were found and the span built — two days late on Dec. 12 — Lee had been joined by “Stonewall” Jackson and Longstreet’s troops. Nonetheless here came Burnside over the bridge capturing the town and now onto Lee and the Heights beyond the city.

The Battle of Fredericksburg and assault on Marye’s Heights was the Union’s greatest defeat of the war.

On top of the Heights is a sunken road behind a formidable stone wall, “fortified position,” perfect to defend from an idiotic frontal charge. What is it about frontal assaults against a fixed entrenched position? These are supposedly smart military men but they keep on making the same bloody mistake!

To make matters worse, the Confederates placed artillery batteries higher on either side of the wall, able to crossfire the battlefield with cannon and grapeshot.

“A chicken could not live on that hill,” so boasted artillery Col. Porter Alexander to Lee.

If you haven’t seen it, the movie “Gods and Generals” depicts the absurdity of the attack well. All day long Burnside ordered 15 separate frontal attacks against Longstreet’s perfectly positioned men; it was a turkey shoot.

After witnessing the Yankee assaults, Lee famously said to Longstreet, “It is good war is so terrible, lest we would become too fond of it.”

The North suffered 12,500 casualties at Fredericksburg, with two-third falling in front of the wall, the closest any Union soldier got to the crest was 20 yards, the Confederates lost 5,000.

As night fell, the assaults stopped. An eerie silence punctuated by the howlings and cries of the wounded and dying sickened some Rebels.

A young Confederate Sgt. Richard Kirkland could take the wailing no more, risking his own life, he took water to a few desperate Yankees trying to survive the night under an illuminating sky.

God was there … a stunning display of northern lights seldom seen that far south mystically lit the Union soldiers dead and dying on the hill.

I have stood behind the wall, looking down the gradual slope towards the town, walked to the Kirkland Memorial, shed a tear and cursed the city for letting developers build so close to these “hallowed grounds.”

President Lincoln was crestfallen, what a year 1862 had been, could the Union survive?

Lincoln knew the ramifications of his decisions. Take a look at photos of him before being elected and four years later, his face aged 20 years.

Many Democrats, allies, cabinet members and media thought it would be best with the events of the year and, some said, the national sentiment, to negotiate a peace now … Lincoln said no!

The President had one more major force available in his bullpen. Gen. William Rosecrans, with a 43,000-man Army of the Cumberland, was in winter camp near Nashville. Rosecrans would receive orders to devise a maneuver to engage Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg’s 35,000-man Army of the Tennessee, also wintering only 30 miles south near Murfreesboro.

Rosecrans was not happy about the command, Lincoln let him have it, “the government demands action and if you cannot, someone else will be tried.”

‘Old Rosy’ as his men liked to call him was the third Cumberland Army commander in two years, he quickly broke camp and moved south.

As the end of 1862 neared, no one could predict the future happenings of the war. It was this upcoming mid-theater battle that all eyes were on.

If Rosecrans succeeded, the Union and Lincoln’s courage would pay off. If another Yankee campaign floundered, the North risked failure of the Emancipation Proclamation taking hold, international alliances supporting the Confederacy may be forthcoming, politically-forced peace talks would take place and low troop morale would sink further.

When major battles unfold, Lincoln would spend more and more time at the telegraph office anxiously receiving reports from the battlefield.

As Rosecrans’s troops advanced along the Nashville Pike towards Murfreesboro, the president moved bedding into the telegraph office. Perhaps the most important battle to date of the war was about to commence, more on the critical Battle of Stones River … next time!