THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG
13th December, 1862

Fredericksburg was Ambrose E. Burnside's only major battle as commander as the Army of the Potomac but it forms a textbook example of bad generalship. He had hoped that by crossing the river at the obvious point he would take the devious Lee by surprise, which was in itself a great piece of optimism. Nevertheless, when he discovered that Lee was ready and waiting he did not cancel his attack but went ahead, which represents optimism of a much more profound sort. His so-called plan of battle was nothing more than a direct frontal attack, uphill, against a veteran army in a heavily fortified position and it produced much the disaster that might be expected.
Lee allowed the army to cross unopposed on the 12th and it spread out on the plain south of Fredericksburg. A heavy fog covered the low ground until mid-morning of the 13th when the battle got under way. Longstreet held the Confederate left on Marye's Heights, opposed by Sumner and Hooker. Jackson held the right where the slope was much less steep and he was opposed by Franklin.
About 11.30 am the first attack went in at Marye's Heights. Longstreet had deployed in a strong, barricaded position in a sunken road and the attack was bloodily repulsed. After a pause it came back, failed, came back and then failed again without a soldier having got within 50 yards of the Confederate position. On the opposite wing, Meade's small division managed to break through the Confederate line by trudging through an unguarded bog, but they were massacredby a strong counter-attack. After this double failure there was a pause, then about 4.00
pm Sumner and Hooker were ordered to continue the assault on Marye's Heights and three more attacks went in, with as little success as before. By 6.00 pm, well after sunset, Hooker himself finally called a halt without reference to his superior. "Finding that I had lost as many men as my orders required me to lose" he wrote sarcastically in his battle report "I suspended the attack". Apart from some minor artillery work on the following day, that was the end of the battle. Burnside wanted to continue the assault but his subordinates persuaded him against it. The 14th was a day of truce and on the 15th Burnside retreated under cover of a storm. All Burnside had achieved was the official casualty totals of 12,653 Union to 5,309 Confederate and this latter was reduced by more than a thousand when it was discovered that many independent-minded Southern soldiers had taken advantage of the confusion to go home for Christmas.