The Battle of Fredericksburg: Where 200,000 Civil War combatants faced off

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Frontal assaults on an entrenched position rarely work. I get the idea, throwing a massive group of men at the enemy’s main line, designed to overwhelm them for a quick decisive victory. 

There’s a fine line between an ordered frontal assault, which can be suicidal, and murder. I believe Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside crossed that line. 

As most of the 120,000-man Army of the Potomac navigated the Rappahannock River and took the colonial town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the army was out of control. 

Confederate Gen. James Longstreet’s Corps were positioned on the heights just half a mile outside of town watching. 

The actions of Union troops were compared to the Vandals in the sacking of Rome as they entered many private homes, attacking women and stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down: furniture, food, silverware, rugs, etc. 

Southern troops were enraged as they listened to distant shrieks and watched fires break out throughout the city. 

Burnside sent Generals Meade and Doubleday south to confront “Stonewall” Jackson’s Corps, but the main attack would take place here on Marye’s Heights. If the Union was successful in overrunning the South’s defenses, victory and a clear path to Richmond would be theirs. 

The Confederate defenses were formidable … perfect actually. 

On top of the ridge was a four foot tall stone wall with a sunken road behind it running half a mile. Above the road was another 20 foot ridge ideal for Rebel artillery covering the gradual 200-yard hill approaching the wall. 

When traveling to battlefields I try to get as close to the annual date as possible, allowing me to get a sense of the season in which battle was fought. Fredericksburg happened in mid-December. 

Standing at the wall, looking down the hill, it's easy to get overwhelmed thinking about what took place here. I was alone, but there were four other individual men doing just what I was, walking the battlefield being humbled and paying tribute, it’s a feeling you can only get in places like Marye’s Heights.

Generals Lee, Longstreet and staff were on top with their artillery waiting for the inevitable attack. Lee asked his head cannonier if he was ready. 

“A chicken could not survive on that hill when we opened up on it!” responded Col. Edward Alexander. 

Lee placed 3,000 men along the wall with as many in support, loading and replacing wounded or exhausted fighters as needed. 

On Dec. 13, 1862 at noon, the first elements of the Union grand army left the protection of Fredericksburg and started ascending Marye’s Heights. Confederate artillery opened up, the slaughter was on. 

Burnside committed seven divisions to the assault, ordering individual brigades of 3,000 to 4,000 men, up the hill one at a time. Wave after wave were cut down. In one hour the Union lost 3,000 men, but the madness continued. 

The third contingent was joined by the famed Irish Brigade of 1,200 men. More than 500 were killed or wounded. 

Private Richard Kirkland was a 19-year-old South Carolinian standing at the wall, loading, reloading and firing for hours. He was having trouble with the onslaught, killing men his own age. 

Lt. Colonel Joshua Chamberlain – later to be memorialized as the hero of Little Round Top at Gettysburg with his 20th Maine – was among the thousands pinned down by Rebel sharpshooters, never getting any closer than 40 yards from the wall. 

As other waves of Union soldiers received orders to charge up the gradual hill, having to step over the dead and wounded, many on the ground reached out, grabbing a pant leg begging their comrades not to go further. 

In all, the Union made 15 charges of 3,000 to 4,000 men, with none getting close. 

At the height of the battle and with control of the hill in hand, Lee commented to Longstreet … 

“It is well war is so terrible, we would grow too fond of it.” 

Not long after, a Confederate parrot rifle cannon exploded after its 39th shot of the day with Lee and Longstreet standing nearby, sending shards of iron through the air and just barely missing both Generals. 

As the sun set on the evening of Dec. 13, 1862, thousands of blue uniforms blanketed the hill. Using dead bodies as shields, survivors prayed for darkness, but when the night fell so did temperatures. 

The assaults stopped, Burnside was enraged. At dinner that night with his staff and fellow generals … yep dinner. Burnside tried to blame others for the utter failure of the strategy but no one would let him. He then announced, as thousands of his men lay exposed on the bitterly cold battlefield, he would personally lead the charge in the morning up the hill.

I think I would have let him go if it didn’t involve others, but his staff talked him out of it. 

Behind the wall, during the night, Richard Kirkland could take no more. The crying of dying and suffering men begging for water was more than his good heart could take. Asking the general if under a white flag, at his own peril, could he carry water to those begging? No was the answer, but if he wanted to crawl down there on his own, no one would stop him. 

He did, with several canteens Kirkland delivered the last swallows of water to many enemy soldiers, earning him the nickname “Angel of Marye's Heights.” 

Standing at the Kirkland memorial on the battlefield, where he brought the precious liquid, you can sense his humanity. 

That night as thousands huddled to survive, God arrived. In an extraordinary event rarely seen in the south, a brilliant Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, illuminated the sky. 

Heaven welcomed so many and/or displayed God’s displeasure over what atrocities man can do to himself. 

Statistics: With over 200,000 combatants, representing 0.65% of the population in the United States, that would represent 2.2 million Americans in this one battle alone. 

North: 12,652 

Total Casualties: 

South: 5,377 

It was the most lopsided battle in the war, of those casualties at the Wall, the Union lost approximately 8,400 to the Rebels 950. 

Next week … the aftermath.