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Fredericksburg
McClellan had ejected Lee
from Maryland, but did almost nothing with his victory. He paused to rest
and reorganize (few armies can have been as well rested and tidily organized as
McClellan's) and fortified Harper's Ferry. Meanwhile JEB Stuart made
another raid around the Army of the Potomac, suffering one man wounded in four
days. It infuriated the northern populace, and dropped McClellan further
in Lincoln's eyes.
McClellan's only apparent move was to maneuver in the Shenandoah, where he
was quite successful in small actions and - had he known it - in splitting Lee's
army, but Lincoln had seen enough. McClellan had marched around plenty of
times before, and this looked like just another aimless march (and McClellan had
no clear plan of campaign) so Lincoln sacked him.
Ambrose Burnside was to be the new commander (against his own wishes - if not
a great general at least he knew his own limits), and he had a few new
ideas. He reorganized the Army of the Potomac, formerly seven Corps, into
three Grand Divisions and a reserve, which should be easier to command.
(Lee had simplified and strengthened his own chain of command by creating two
Corps - one for Longstreet, one for Jackson - with divisions and brigades tidily
arranged.) The difference was that Burnside changed most of his Corps
Commanders. His new campaign plan was to move quickly eastward, sprout a
new base at Aquia Creek, and cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg before Lee
could arrive.
Once he obtained Lincoln's approval, Burnside moved quickly. He got his
Right Grand Division to Fredericksburg before Lee had more than a few pickets
there - but the pontoons were late. Burnside had to wait eight days, from
November 17 to 25, for pontoons to arrive. The river was fordable, and
Burnside might have begun crossing his infantry, but played things
cautiously. Meanwhile Lee was moving rapidly: Longstreet's entire corps
was in position by the 21st. This caused Burnside to pause and concentrate
more of his men - which in turn allowed the Confederates to bring Jackson over
as well. Jackson took up position on the eastern part of the line, in case
Burnside tried to cross downstream of Fredericksburg.
Burnside did indeed contemplate how to feint Lee out of position, and tried
some ruses to pull troops east of the town, but made little headway.
Burnside also convinced himself (if not Lee) that the true surprise would come
in doing the obvious: attacking at Fredericksburg. Longstreet fortified
his men thoroughly, and also prepared roads behind the line so reserves could be
shifted anywhere along the line. Guns were emplaced 'so that a chicken
could not cross the fields'.
So on December 11 massed Union batteries on the heights north of the river
opened fire to cover the engineers building bridges. Lee had felt the
power of the Union guns at Antietam, and rather than put his men where they
could be pummeled, had basically conceded the town and chosen a line along the
line of hills south of the river. Barksdale's brigade of Mississippians,
scattered through the town, were there to harass the engineers. They
certainly did, causing proportionately heavy casualties and inflicting serious
delay - it took all day to build the bridges. (Meanwhile, a little
downstream, Franklin's Left Grand Division crossed without trouble.) It
then took the whole of the 12th for all the Union forces to cross, and by the
end of the day there were about 50,000 men in the eastern bridgehead and about
30,000 in the one at Fredericksburg. The delay was plenty of time for
Jackson to move his men upstream, and they extended Longstreet's right.
Longstreet's men had dug in; Jackson's men had no such fortifications, and
Burnside had first intended his main blow to be on Jackson - but at the last
minute, 5:55 am on December 13th, he switched. Franklin was to expand his
bridgehead, but nowhere to attack in great strength, while Sumner on the Union
right was to clear the hills behind Fredericksburg - right into the teeth of
Longstreet's defenses.
The first move was on the Union left, where Franklin untangled Burnside's
order and sent George Meade's division of Pennsylvanians forward. Once the
morning fog lifted the whole movement was visible, and a battery of Confederate
horse artillery trotted out onto Meade's flank and proceeded to disorganize
everything. It took an entire infantry division to drive 'The Gallant
Pelham' back, subtracting one of the two divisions intended to support Meade's
charge. Franklin's batteries shelled the Confederate guns into silence,
but destroyed relatively few - Jackson had put some effort into entrenching his
batteries, if not his infantry. Then Meade's charge began. He swept
forward and hit a seam in Jackson's line (Jackson had not scouted thoroughly,
and thought a swampy section was impassible). The first line crumbled, the
reserve brigade was surprised and tumbled backward, and it took a vicious
counterattack for Jackson to reform his line. Meade's open left flank
provided the opportunity - if Doubleday had done more than stare at a battery of
horse artillery all day, Burnside might have had a partial victory.
Stonewall Jackson took command of the counterattack, and drove Meade back out
of the woods and pursued onto the open fields along the railway tracks. He
had the gleam of battle in his eyes, and he wanted to exploit the Union
confusion to storm all the way to the river, cutting off and capturing large
numbers. But the Union batteries were strong and ready, and inflicted
about 500 casualties. Fresh Union divisions replaced the battered front
line, and Jackson's men fell back into the woods.
Meanwhile around Fredericksburg a separate battle was being fought and won -
entirely by the Confederates. When the fog burned off the Confederates on
Marye's Heights had a grandstand view of the Union troops clogging the streets
of the town below. And the Confederates up there were artillerymen.
They began firing into the town, completing the wreckage after the Union
bombardment of the 11th and plundering on the 12th. Sumner's men pressed
through the streets in column, and had to stay in column to cross a narrow but
deep mill-race that carried water from an upstream dam to power waterwheels at a
small factory. They crossed under shellfire on the two bridges available,
then had to turn right along the stream to deploy under shellfire, then they
charged towards Marye's Heights. But at the bottom of the hill was a small
road that had sunk a few feet below the original ground level; by the side of
this road was a low stone wall. The combination was enough to give
excellent protection to the Confederate brigade (soon reinforced) deployed in
the road. Successive Union brigades charged the road, and they got
successively closer, but not a single man managed to make it to the stone
wall. The Confederates were eventually four, even eight, deep, so there
was a constant heavy fire as some men loaded and others fired.
Casualties were terrible; Hancock's men left 2,013 of their 5,006 on the
battlefield. And Burnside didn't realize what was going on. In
midafternoon he wanted Franklin to make another, much larger attack (or he may
have; yet again Burnside's orders are imprecise). But Franklin got the
news too late in the short winter day to do anything.
Lee was always looking for a way to turn the victory into a crushing blow,
but Jackson's abortive morning attack had showed the strength of the Army of the
Potomac. Jackson came up with the idea of a night attack (asked how he
would identify friend from foe Jackson replied that the Confederates could
attack naked) but Lee vetoed it.
The battle was over. Burnside's losses were over 10,000 against
Confederate losses of about 5,000. Well over half the Union losses were in
front of the fatal stone wall. When he realized the enormity of the
slaughter, Burnside was stunned. At first he thought of continuing the
attack the next day, but leading it personally to clear his own honor; his
subordinates talked him out of the nonsense. One more casualty would have
hardly made much difference, but another charge would have cost hundreds.
Burnside withdrew his men across the river on the night of the 15th, leaving
only graves behind. He'd lost a battle, and with it a good portion of the
confidence of his men. Yet Lee had won little. He still held the
shell Fredericksburg, his men (and Southern civilians) had another victory under
their belt. But there was no collapse in Northern morale. It was an
attritional victory, and the south needed more than that.
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