December 11, 1862---The Battle of Fredericksburg: Day One

DECEMBER 11, 1862:         

The Battle of Fredericksburg  (Day One): 

What may be the most ill-conceived, poorly-executed, and futile major battle of the Civil War begins. Major General Ambrose Burnside’s first offensive has been plagued by ill-luck all around. Burnside, having replaced General McClellan on November 7^th submitted a plan for attacking Fredericksburg, Virginia to President Lincoln only a scant two days later on November 9th. The assault is supposed to be fast and surprising. In impact, it is neither. Without official authorization he began to move troops, but an unseasonably early nor’easter stalled his would-be offensive that very day. Once he began moving his 135,000 man army again on November 14^th, they proceeded with painful slowness toward the Rappahannock River, skirmishing with scattered Confederate picket squads along the way. They arrive on November 17^th, having covered some 40 miles in four days, a not exhausting pace. The great “sneak attack” Burnside has planned will never occur as planned, particularly once Burnside arrives at the Rappahannock only to discover that he is without any amphibious landing gear. On November 21, he demands the surrender of the city, only to be asked for time to evacuate all civilians from Fredericksburg, a request to which he agrees. The first pontoon bridge does not arrive until November 25^th. Rather than sending a few regiments to take the town, Burnside elects to wait for the rest of the pontoon bridges. They arrive on December 8^th. The battle itself does not begin until December 11^th.

Burnside’s massive army has been sitting at riverside for just three days short of a full month. Things have fallen into such a routine that Union and Confederate pickets facing each other over the river have a “Gentleman’s Agreement” not to shoot at each other. They greet one another at daybreak and wish each other well at dusk. They have even floated supplies like coffee and tobacco back and forth across the river as exchanges. Shockingly, Burnside does not seem to recognize, or at least not take account of, the Army of Northern Virginia, which has, by now, occupied deserted Fredericksburg in force. Burnside still counts on “surprise”---it is so unlikely that the Army of The Potomac will attack here that the Rebels will be surprised when they do. However, Burnside never seems to consider that Lee can plainly see that the Army of The Potomac is not somewhere else, it is at Fredericksburg---so where else can it attack?

And, of all places, Fredericksburg is not a prime target for an assault. The city is overlooked by high bluffs which must be seized by the Union to make the battle a successful one; but while Burnside has been waiting for pontoon bridges, Lee, Jackson and Longstreet have occupied the bluffs, placed batteries atop the city, and await the first Yankee foot upon the southern shore.

What evolves is Antietam’s Battle of Burnside’s Bridge on a massive scale, as Burnside blindly tries to force a passage into the rebel-held city.

The first stage of the battle is an attack---with artillery and by sharpshooters---on the pontoon bridges and the crews working on them. The Union responds by sending several landing parties of sharpshooters over the river in boats to clear the town of snipers---although Burnside at first refuses to send them. The river crossing becomes real urban combat, building by building, rooftop by rooftop and cellar by cellar, but the Union troops manage to disrupt the Confederate shooters long enough to get the pontoon bridges completed. As Union brigades began to cross the river, Union artillery lobbed over 8,000 shells into the city, reducing many of its buildings to ruins. 

Once the Union troops crossed, under fire, they began looting and burning the town with such abandon that Robert E. Lee compared them to the Vandals of antiquity. A Connecticut chaplain likewise wrote:

“I saw men break down the doors to rooms of fine houses, enter, shatter the looking glasses with the blow of the ax, [and] knock the vases and lamps off the mantelpiece with a careless swing ... A cavalry man sat down at a fine rosewood Piano ... drove his saber through the polished keys, then knocked off the top [and] tore out the strings ...”

The wantonness of the destruction accomplishes little but to enrage the Southerners.