Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!
A stunning defeat for the Union. Confederate Robert E. Lee suffered roughly 5,000 casualties but inflicted nearly 13,000--on his opponent, General Ambrose Burnside. |
Fredericksburg I Virginia December 11-15, 1862
The Battle of Fredericksburg would unfold in a natural amphitheater bounded on the east by the Rappahannock River and on the west by the line of hills fortified by Lee. When Jackson's men arrived from downstream, Longstreet sidled his corps to the north, defending roughly five miles of Lee's front. He mounted guns at Strong points such as Taylor's Hill, Marye's Heights, Howison Hill, and Telegraph (later Lee's) Hill, the Confederate command post. "Old Pete's" five divisions of infantry supported his artillery at the base of the slopes. |
Journal Of Rufus Rowe
Witness To The Battle Of Fredricksburg
Witness the raw carnage of war; the dead horses, the deafening boom of cannon and gun fire, the exhaustion and hunger, soldiers stripping clothes and items off dead soldiers, truces agreed upon too bury the dead |
| On November 14, 1862, Burnside, now in command of the Army of the Potomac, sent a corps to occupy the vicinity of Falmouth near Fredericksburg. The rest of the army soon followed. Lee reacted by entrenching his army on the heights behind the town.
On December 11, Union engineers laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock under fire.
On the 12th, the Federal army crossed over, and on December 13, Burnside mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye's Heights that resulted in staggering casualties.
Meade's division, on the Union left flank, briefly penetrated Jackson's line but was driven back by a counterattack. Union generals C. Feger Jackson and George Bayard, and Confederate generals Thomas R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg were killed.
Fredericksburg
Voices of the Civil War
The courage of the troops who fought at Fredericksburg through their actual accounts. You can sence how the south felt it would win the war after this northern defeat from the soilders letters |
More on Fredericksburg I |
Burnside
Ambrose Burnside, the Union general, was a major player on the Civil War stage from the first clash at Bull Run until the final summer of the war. He led a corps or army during most of this time and played important roles in various theaters of the war. |
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On December 15, Burnside called off the offensive and recrossed the river, ending the campaign. Burnside initiated a new offensive in January 1863, which quickly bogged down in the winter mud. The abortive "Mud March" and other failures led to Burnside's replacement by Major General Joseph Hooker in January 1863.
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| On May 1, 1863 General Robert E. Lee left Major General Jubal A. Early's division to hold Fredericksburg, while marching with the rest of the army to meet Hooker's main offensive thrust at Chancellorsville. On May 3, the Union VI Corps under Sedgwick, reinforced by John Gibbon's II Corps division, having crossed the Rappahannock River, assaulted and carried the Confederate entrenchments on Marye's Heights. The outnumbered Confederates withdrew and regrouped west and southeast of town.
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DVDs
Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom
Lincoln and Lee at Antietam covers the entire struggle of the Antietam Campaign. The political concept about why Lincoln needed a Union victory and Lee's need to take the war north were covered as well as the battle. |
Gettysburg and Stories of Valor - Civil War Minutes III DVD Box Set
This 3-hour documentary captures the scenic beauty of the Gettysburg battlefield, examines rare Civil War artifacts and tells the personal stories of the men who fought in the war. |
Shiloh: The War is Civil No More
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Civil War: A Concise History
The best collection of Civil War visuals ever assembled in one 75-minute program. A breathtaking and first-hand account of the war. Great DVD Bonuses |
Stones River National Battlefield
Stones River was one of the hardest fought battles of the Civil War with casualties of 27 percent on the Confederate side and 29 percent on the Union side |
Battle of Stones River: The Fight for Murfreesboro
At dawn on December 31, 1862 the two armies clashed in a deadly struggle along the banks of Stones River. |
The Battle of Chickamauga
Special Widescreen Edition
Chickamauga one of the fiercest engagements of the American Civil War. Over a period of two days, more than 100,000 men struggled for control of the south's transportation hub, Chattanooga. |
Struggle For Vicksburg
Photography of the park with authentic battlefield illustrations and life-like paintings. Vicksburg's wartime role in the bloody and brutal conflict. |
PCN Tours Gettysburg Battlewalks: Pickett's Charge - Pettigrew's Perspective
The legendary exploits of the Union and Confederate armies come to life with these informative tours of Gettysburg National Park |
PCN Tours Gettysburg Battlewalks: General Meade After Pickett's Charge
Did Meade want to fight at Gettysburg? Did Meade want to retreat on the evening of July 2nd? Why didn't Meade counter-assault the Army of Northern Virginia after the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge? National Park Service addresses these questions |
The Last Days of the Civil War - April 1865: The Month That Saved America, Civil War Combat:
The Tragedy At Cold Harbor
The remarkable succession of events leading from the fall of Richmond to Appomattox. |
The Last Days of the Civil War - Biography: Abraham Lincoln & Robert E. Lee, Civil War Journal: Jefferson Davis
In-depth profiles that series--illuminate the personalities at the heart of the conflict: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee |
Rebel Sabres / The Battle of Brandy Station 1863
Through dramatic reconstructions and eye-witness accounts, this documentary explores the 1863 Battle Of Brandy Station. |
The Underground Railroad, "the first civil rights movement," was no mere act of civil disobedience. The secret network of guides, pilots, and safe-house keepers (the Railroad's "conductors") was built by runaway slaves who, over the decades, communicated their experiences through songs and secret gestures, and were supported by abolitionists (many of them former slaves) who risked their own freedom to help free the enslaved. The "passengers" risked their lives. |
History's Mysteries - Human Bondage
The story of Africans forcibly enslaved and shipped to America is a well-known tale; yet, it is just one tragic episode in the saga of world slavery. For nearly 6,000 years of recorded history, conquerors have imprisoned their enemies and forced them to act as laborers |
Civil War Journal, West Point Classmates - Civil War Enemies, Robert E. Lee
Beyond the pages of history and into the personal stories behind the Great Conflict |
History Channel Presents The Civil War
From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders. |
History Channel Presents Sherman's March
In November 1864, Sherman and an army of 60,000 troops began their month-long march from Atlanta to Savannah. Burning crops, destroying bridges and railroads, and laying waste to virtually everything in his path |
Civil War Terror
Tales of hidden conspiracies of terror that specifically targeted the civilian populations. Engineers of chemical weapons, new-fangled explosives and biological warfare competed |
The Civil War:
To the Finish: Sherman and the March to the Sea
After 3 years of battles, a Union general captured Atlanta and decided to change the course of the war for good. That general was William Tecumseh Sherman |
