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

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Frontal assaults on an enemy’s entrenched position rarely work. I get it—throwing a massive amount of men towards the enemy’s main line designed to overwhelm them for a quick decisive victory is the goal.

In my eyes there’s a fine line between an ordered suicidal attack and murder. I believe Union General 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, VA, the army was out of control. Confederate General James Longstreet’s Corps positioned on the heights just half a mile outside of town were watching.

Union troops' actions compare to the vandals in the sacking of Rome as they entered many private homes, slapping around 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 where 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...well, actually perfect.

On top of the ridge was a four-foot stone wall with a sunken road behind running one-half 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 go 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 you get overwhelmed at what took place here. I was alone, but there were four other individual men doing just what I was, walking the battlefield in solitude 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 cannoneer if he was ready. “A chicken could not survive on that hill when we open up on it!” responded Colonel 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 December 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, 3,000-4,000 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, 1,200 men, suffering 545 killed or wounded.

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

Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, later to be memorialized as the hero of Little Round Top at Gettysburg with his 20th Maine, was among the now 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 3,000-4,000 men with none getting close.

At the height of the battle 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.” Soon after a Confederate Parrott rifle cannon burst after its 39th shot of the day, near Lee and Longstreet sending shards of iron through the air just missing both generals.

As the sun set on the evening of December 13, 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, taking 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 welcoming so many and/or displaying God’s displeasure over what atrocities man can do to himself.

The numbers: With over 200,000 combatants, representing .65% of the population in the United States. Today that would represent 2.2 million Americans in this one battle.

Total casualties: North 12,652, South 5,377, the largest lopsided difference in the war. Of those casualties at the wall, Union lost approximately 8,400 to the Rebels’ 950.

Next week: The aftermath

You can find more of Bob Ford’s work on his website, bobfordshistory.com and check out his videos on YouTube, TikTok or Clapper. Bob can be reached for comment at robertmford@aol.com