The Battle of Fredericksburg

around the world. From the American Revolution to prehistoric Scotland, there is plenty to discover. With your subscription you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries with a brand new release every week, exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe to bring the past alive. It is just passed on on December 11, 1862. Along the chilling banks of the Rappahonic river

across from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Union engineers move quietly through the dim light of a

breaking day. This past week, the long-awaited pontoon's required to cross the river have finally arrived.

Now, if bridges can be assembled today, this morning, the Army of the Potomac gathered nearby some 120,000 troops, tens of thousands of horses and mules, 300 artillery pieces, all under the command of General Ambrose Burnside, can begin to surge into empty Fredericksburg and then push south ward to Richmond, the Confederate capital. But in these quiet hours on the river, as engineers

“struggle with numbing fingers to secure pontoons and planking, the men freeze. What is that?”

The engineers duck for cover, scattering along the unfinished bridge, that town over there isn't abandoned. Rebel Rifleman turns out Mississippi and snipers hidden in houses along the river front have all been watching from windows and sellers, and now every Union man out here is squarely in their sights. Suddenly, that straightforward crossing General Burnside had planned, seems nearly impossible. Hi, all, it's me, it's Don Wildman, and this is American History Hip, transporting us today

to the Chili Weeks of November and December 1862, in the lands south of Washington, D.C. and North of Richmond, Virginia, as we tell the astonishing story of the Battle of Fredericksburg. And we'll do this under the tutelage of Chris McCalski, professor of journalism at St. Bonaventure University in Allegheny, Go Bonnies. He is the Copie Hill Civil War Fellow with our good friends at the American Battlefield Trust, editor and chief of Emerging Civil War author of

more than 25 books, where does he find the time? Dr McCalski, hello Chris, nice to be with you. Don, it is a pleasure to be back, thanks for having me. Let's dive right in, late fall 1862,

“we're a year and a half into the Civil War, where do things stand for the North?”

Things have been pretty precarious because Robert E. Lee is the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. His score to series of victories that has taken him up into Maryland. And there,

he's finally repulsed by the Army of the Potomac, and he falls back into Virginia. Abraham Lincoln

has been really upset that his armies have not been able to score more victories. He's been telling them gosh, gosh, you've got to push forward. And it becomes particularly important because after that Battle of Antidium in Maryland, he issues the emancipation proclamation, which is going to free all the enslaved people who are in areas of rebellion. But in order to enforce that, you've got to have battlefield victories. And so he really needs his army of the Potomac

in the East to score a win. And they really haven't been able to do that. You know, the stakes are especially high for that army. And their commander, a guy named George McCulland, just isn't doing a whole lot to follow up his victory, even though Lincoln's prodding him. So that's kind of the situation as Paul begins to start to turn the winner. Yeah, he's been chastised, I guess, would be a word for it. And he's soon to be fired for not pursuing the Confederates after Antidium.

I mean, that's basically what a boils down to, right? As far as Lincoln's concerned. Pretty much,

you know, he's, you know, McCulland has this huge army. It does have some really significant supply issues. McCulland is one of the great logistical geniuses of the war, and should be able to fix that. And he's pretty slow about it. Instead, he spends a lot of time whining about it. And, you know, Lincoln's like show me answers, not complaints. But Lincoln hasn't been able to do anything about McCulland because of the fall elections. They are midterm elections. Lincoln's expecting to get

dropped at the pole, or at least the Republican Party's expecting to get rubbed at the pole. And McCulland's a very popular Democrat. So do something to McCulland would really poke that behind going into those elections. So that's also a really important dynamic. He will be replaced by a mammal speak of a lot here, Ambrose Burnside, who is reluctant himself to accept this post,

“believing that he was not qualified for such a large command. Had he been so frank with Lincoln?”

He had. In fact, he'd been offered command to the army twice before and it turned it down.

has scored some important victories, particularly along the North Carolina coast. So he's kind of like

“where it's at as far as war heroes and experience and his men really love him. He's he's well”

respected by his peers. But everybody sort of knows it like a Burnside's amiable, but probably not

up for army command. But Lincoln finally says, if you don't take it, I'm going to give it to your chief

rival, a guy named Joe Hooker. And that sort of what coerce is Burnside and to finally reluctantly taking command. Burnside famous for his glorious and her suit facial hair, which then goes on to become burnside, become side burns. And here we are living with the legacy of this man's hair for the rest of our lives. I think about it every time I say it. What is the union army want to do at Frederick'sburg? I've placed us geographically, of course,

we're south of DC. What is the strategy here? The idea is to really get across the river and make a mad dash at Richmond, capture the Confederate capital. It's the old, you know, capture the flag idea. Frederick'sburg is particularly important because there is a road network there that would facilitate the movement of the army. There's a railroad that would help supply the army. And of course, you know, Frederick'sburg springs up because of those transportation infrastructures

“and the river that is there. So it's a really important port. So, you know, that's why Frederick's”

burg exists in the first place. That river, the Rampahanic River, is a significant barrier. It flows from west to east. And if burn-sized's going from north to south, he's got to get across that river. And Robert Ely knows that burn-sized's got to be across that river and uses that river to block him. Weirdly, I have road across that river in a former television iteration. And it is a big river. The Rampahanic. It's no small channel of water there. And as you get further down river,

it gets wider too. And it's affected by the tides. So it's a really challenging water course, as you mentioned. Yeah, we often marvel at just a side comment here that the south just didn't march into Washington, DC at the beginning of this war and take the capital. But the south was equally a fearful of the north doing the same for Richmond, weren't they? Absolutely. And the Confederate army has a little bit more flexibility as far as being able to maneuver.

Jefferson Davis, the Confederate capital, never explicitly says to Robert Ely,

“you have to keep this army between the the federal and the capital. So that allows Lee to move”

around a lot. But Lincoln is always saying, like, you need to defend the capital to whoever happens to be commander of the day of the army of the atomic. And that becomes a real limit on their ability to move and maneuver and where they can go and went. Where is Lee and the army of northern Virginia? Not in northern Virginia? They had fallen back into northern Virginia after emptied him. They had split in half. So Lee's got stone wall Jackson's half of the army over in the Shenandoah valley,

sort of threatening the right flank of the federal army. And then Lee has James Long Street fallen back a little bit to just sort of contest any advance that the federal's make. And this is, I think, one of Burnside's best moments because he steals a march on Robert Ely and swings over to Frederick's bird from a position a little further the west near the the Blue Ridge Mountains. And he gets a Frederick's bird first. And Long Street has to react.

And Lee actually wants to send him further south to a place called the North and a river. And only Jefferson Davis is insistence that they defend Frederick's bird, does that force Lee and Long Street to go back up to Frederick's bird and block the river. But Burnside gets to the river and he can't get across. And this is kind of one of the great

controversies of this campaign. I've always wondered, this is really the last of the the Napoleon

Echo Wars isn't it? In terms of huge massive mar armies being moved around by these strategic minds. That's really how you can characterize the civil war in one regard. Absolutely. And, you know, here we're still in a portion of the war. We're going to see giant bodies of men sweeping across open fields and standing out in the open just taking absolutely massive casualties as they slug it out in the open. As 1863 evolves, we're going to see more defensive

warfare and then certainly when we get to 1864, it's nearly defensive the entire time for the Confederates. So the journey and the crossing. Let's talk about this. 100,000 Union troops have to move from a place called Warrantin, Virginia, near DC to Falmouth, which is on one side of the Rappahonic, and as you've mentioned, moving them across. Take us through these maneuvers as we arrive at the point of battle. So Burnside basically makes this sweeping quick march off to his east.

And he gets to the Rappahonic. He knows he's got to get across the river. The Confederates have destroyed the bridges because the Federals were actually in this area in the spring of 62. And so they've destroyed the railroad bridge, the traffic bridge. And Burnside calls ahead to his commander

used these bridging materials as it came south from Antietam. So they're way up the Potomac and they have to get shifted into place. And Burnside's superior, a guy named Henry Hallick, really doesn't see particular urgency about all things. So he doesn't put the hurry up on the order. So Burnside gets to the river. He's got the jump unrabedly and can't get across the river because

“his bridging stuff is not there. And when we talk about bridging stuff, what are you talking about?”

What kind of materials? So they have these giant hollow boats called pontoons. And they're about 33 feet long, they weigh a ton and a half, they're huge, they have to be carried on their own wagons. And essentially what the engineers would do is put a pontoon into the river, float it into place, kind of anchor it there, then float another one in beside it. And then they would link them using bridging materials. So you'd have a plank road or a plank bridge that then you could pull

up behind you when you left. So it's kind of a mobile set of bridging materials. And for a general who knows his mandate is to move fast. This has to be very frustrating because suddenly he's stuck and there are confederates across the river, taking potshots at him, right? Exactly. And you know, there is a small force in a Frederick'sburg that's able to kind of put up some sort of token resistance. But if Burnside could just get across, it is avenue to Richmond's wide open. There it is.

And he can't. And it's weeks before this gets resolved. And the weather's miserable, the pontoons have an odyssey worthy of a book all its own to get into place is miserable for these guys. And that allows Robert Lee to pull into position, block the way, and then send word to stolen

“while Jackson and the Shenandoah Valley. Hey, I need you out here. You need to finally shift”

into position so I can consolidate the army. Of course, every time you read about the battle of Frederick the issue of the snipers comes up, you know, early in the in the action. What's the importance of that? So when the engineers start to build these pontoon bridges in the morning of December 11th, they get about halfway across the river before the snipers open up. And, you know, of course, you can't build the bridge if you don't have the engineers into the engineer's

whole run away to get out from cover. And it's a way for the Confederates to stall the federal advance across the river. So once the firing stops, the engineers come out, they start building

again. They start getting shot at by the snipers and this back and forth happens until finally

Henry Hunt, the commander of the federal artillery, says, let's just try to bombard the city and drive these snipers out of the way. But it's a real frustration for Burnside, who's hoping to get across the river quickly. And at one point he says, the entire army is being held by the throat, by just a few snipers. So it is really, really a huge time buyer for Lee, because he gets the whole day of December 11th as a result of this delaying action by the snipers.

So the union had moved from warrant in the fall, around the middle of November, expecting that they would get these pontoons and move across expeditiously. That doesn't happen. It takes weeks for those materials to arrive. And by the time those bridges are really built, we're in the middle of December,

“aren't we? Yeah, and Burnside is looking for options. Does he go down river and try to cross?”

But we, you know, mentioned a second ago how problematic the rivers air should he go up river,

but there are a lot of river crossings, the Confederates can test. So we decided he's just going to cross it, Fred Brooksburg, and try to use the city as a shield. And he has one of the most mediocre endorsements of any general offering their own plan, he says, "Ah, if we cross there, it'll be just as well as across any place else." And the Confederates will be just about, yeah. And say, "Oh, yeah, that sounds really confident." Spires, man doesn't do that.

But he is finally going to get things into position where he can start to cross in the morning of December 11. And that's really what's going to set the ball in motion. So 150 federal guns show the buildings for four hours to try to remove those snipers, among other things, a landing party under Colonel Norman Hall, regiments from Michigan and Massachusetts, successfully do cross the Rappahonic to drive those riflemen from the bank. And by December 12,

we are set for this battle. For all that action that takes place in December 11, we have to remember like Burnside's rewriting a lot of the rules of the war, because his engineers do take that sniper fire that you mentioned. And so the artillery bombardment is an attempt to try to drive them out. First time in American history, there weren't bombarding one of our own cities. When the Union troops go across in those boats, it's really the first riverine landing

under fire in American history. So like they're having to figure out how to do that.

Then there's urban combat on the 11th. And the army has never trained for that. There have been

instances of urban combat before, but really this is the first time these guys have ever had to do it. So we're they're figuring that out as that is the go. And so it really becomes this really improvisational assault across the river and occupation of the town. And then when Burnside gets the town, as you mentioned on the 12th, there's like, he's not quite sure what to do next. He was hoping that if he got across the river, it was scarely out of his position. And lead doesn't move. And so Burnside

come up with a plan and then poorly communicate that plan to his support meds. On December 13th, the Union assault begins. And they have initial success, but their lack of coordination certainly

“with the river there also makes it difficult. How do the Confederates react to this attack?”

Who's in charge of that? So basically Burnside's going to launch simultaneous attacks against the

North and South ends of the Confederate position, hoping that one or the other is going to break through. And as you mentioned, he does have success on the south end of the field where George Gordon Mead, who later will go on to win the battle of Gettysburg when he finally gets promoted, he's going to break through. And he's facing a section of the Confederate line that is just gotten into place, Stonewall Jackson has moved into that area to consolidate Lee's army. And as

Mead breaks through, Stonewall Jackson's able to start pilot reinforcements in. It happens to be the spot of the line where there are more Confederates per square foot than anywhere else on the battlefield. So it's a tough spot. And Mead gets that break through. And he can't get reinforcements.

And he desperately calls back for him. His commander at Gain in John Reynolds is nowhere to be found.

“Some guys from a different section of the army refuse to march to his help without orders from”

America. So it really becomes this disorganized mess. The man in charge of that whole section of the field is a guy named William Franklin. And Franklin takes a very hands-off approach to this. He misinterprets those confusing orders that come from Burnside does not seek clarity. Any general worth is salt. Season opportunity here. And Franklin instead really plays things as conservatively as possible. So that allows the Confederates to patch that part of the line up and drive the

federal back off that field. We really see the opposition of good leadership versus bad at this point. You've got the big names for the Confederates. Stonewall Jackson long street is there. How do you compare

them in terms of how they react to battle? And I mean, is it simply that they are thinking on their

feet better than the Union or the preparations better? I think that absolutely both of those are true. Lee really, really values independent thinking. And he sort of tells his subordinates like, "Here's kind of what I want to have happen. Here's my intent." And you sort of figure that out. And then you take advantage of opportunities. Lee's very aggressive and he rewards aggressive

“mindedness. So I think that that's all really important. And they do have a really strong”

defensive position. So I think that preparation is very important. Compared to the federal side where there's sort of this calcified way of doing things. This army has its mindset and there are protocols and ways to do it. And that really works against leadership for a long time during a war. It's going to take a while for the dust to shake off there. Long street is dug in as you say at the sunken road. There's another horrible place called the slaughter pen. Can you explain to me

why these names? So the slaughter pen farm is that area in the south end of the field where me breaks through and then the countertax happened. And it just becomes a slaughter pen. That's one of the descriptions that one of the soldiers makes in writing about how awful that fighting was. And the landscape looked like a slaughter pen. The north end of the field where long street is is a series of heights called Maurice Heights. There is literally a sunken road that runs along the front

of some of those heights. There's a stone wall along that road. So it's a great fortified position. And so long street has a great topographical advantage against the fettles that are tacking him there. And he's able to beat off attacks seven waves of attacks throughout the day on the the 13th and sustained pretty minimal casualties in comparison. Sunken road doesn't sound like a great place to fight from though. Well, you know, it is a great place to fight from.

So long as the fettles don't break through. But as they discovered it in Antitum where the Confederates held a sunken road. Once the fettles did break through, the Confederates were trapped like fish in a barrel. And so that could be one of the disadvantages of this position. But fortunately, there's a real strong artillery position just behind and above them called Maurice Heights. The Confederates have about 45 guns up there. And the Confederate artillery

commander tells Long Street, when I open them, that field in front of me a chicken couldn't live out there. And he pretty much proves it. 9,000 casualties as the Confederates counter attack in the open field at slaughter pen. I mean 9,000 guys. Over what period of time does this happen? So the attacks were supposed to start it dawn. They don't start until mid-morning goes back and forth till about three o'clocking afternoon.

And those 9,000 casualties are pretty evenly split. There's going to be about 5,000 federal casualties, about 4,000 Confederate casualties. So, you know, just those closeness and numbers show you how intense and how close that fighting was. There's a huge disparity at the

position was up there. You know, they're going to be about 9,000 federal casualties up there.

And only about 1,000 Confederate casualties are shown. Side note, Chris, you work with the American battlefield trust who are so kind to us on this

“podcast. Preserving that battlefield was a very high priority for that, wasn't it?”

Absolutely. For so long, the story of Frederick's Burg really focused around the sun converted and the action on the north end of the field. But the real battle and kind of the the hinge of the battle was on the south end of the field at that slaughter pan farm. It's the last major open attack plane for the 1862 campaigns. You get to see as you mentioned earlier that an Napoleonic movement troops sweeping across the plane. And it was under development threat.

And so preserving that really not only helped then tell that story and save that story,

but it also really reinterpreted the battle of Frederick's Burg in important ways. So the purchase of that ground had many many significant ramifications. Yeah, so interesting, so important. December 15th, Burnside has to retreat back across the Rappahonic. Oh my goodness, after all the effort getting across, back they go, this is the end of the 1862 campaign in the eastern theater, which is something to

keep in mind in these days, you know, back then, this is a seasonal thing. They're going to close down for winter and we're going to pick back up in the early spring with the whole Civil War.

“That's how it was done in those days. Not a great way to limp to the ending is it?”

It is not. And when we consider that Lincoln really needed a battlefield victory because the emancipation proclamation is supposed to go into effect January 1st. He needs a battlefield victory to enforce it. And Burnside's not able to deliver. And so really that's going to settle in that front line of emancipation right there at the Rappahonic River. And the opportunities that might have existed had Burnside been victorious and been able to open up more of Virginia

to man emancipation. It's, you know, one of those kind of sad tragedies of the war when you think about it. This victory at FedExburg, which is resounding for the Confederates,

boost from morale, reinvigorates. I mean, you can't only imagine coming out of the, the first

full year of the war, 1862 suddenly, things are going very, very well. And we'll continue to go well by the way, when the, when things start back up in the spring again, it will go on to become the triumph of Chancellorville, May 1863. It's just remarkable. I mean, it really is. And I guess this, the emancipation proclamation has something to do with this, has a lot to do with this. How the Union found its mission at this time when things had gone so badly through the fall

of 1862 and into the spring of 1863. Absolutely. And, you know, as Burnside is losing in FedExburg, we can teach Sherman, then loses outside of Vicksburg at a place called Chickasaw Bayou, right around Christmas. And then there's a big army in Central Tennessee, the army that Comberland that kind of pulls out a victory by default, because the Confederates evacuate the battlefield right as 1862 turned in 1863 at the Battle of Stone's River. And Lincoln is so desperate

for a victory that he considers that that brutal fight at Stone's River is being like, oh,

“that's what finally gives me some sort of teeth to the emancipation proclamation. He says the”

nation couldn't survive without it, but this is a really low point for the Federal and a really high point for the Confederates. Yeah, exactly. Victory, Fredericksburg. Let's talk about the numbers just so we know the Union of Army of Potomac, 12,500 casualties, Confederate army half of that, 6,000 losses. Six weeks after the battle, Lincoln removes Burnside from command and appoints major general Joseph Hooker as commander of the Army of Potomac. But we're in that revolving door at

this point, right? The Union cannot find its guy. Yeah. And Burnside knew it. He knew he wasn't the guy. He actually submits his resignation, which Lincoln takes. It isn't important enough that Lincoln doesn't fire Burnside after Fredericksburg, because there's plenty of blame to go around. Franklin takes a lot for botched things in the Southland of the field. The engineers take a lot for not getting the pontoons there. And it's just because morale among the officers is so low,

there's sort of a coup against Burnside. He wants to clean off as he finds his luck. I can't, this is too much. Here's my resignation and Lincoln accepts it. So then the door revolves and income's occur. It's so much about timing with the Battle of Gettysburg. And we haven't talked really enough about the election being part of this. I mean, it was really a delay factor for Lincoln. He had to get past the midterms for this battle to really take place. And then he's super charging

Burnside to a point of putting him at risk, right? Absolutely. A Burnside realizes he's got no good options here. He wants to settle into the winter encampment. And then hope that he'll have some better idea or some better options in the spring. And Lincoln's like, no, we have a few minutes of patient proclamation coming. Folks went to the polls and they want action, morale's terrible. You got to do something. So Burnside knows he has bad choices and Lincoln drives him

what's the big takeaway from the Battle of Frederick's work for you? Well, a lot of people forget

“this is the largest battle of the Civil War. They're 211,000 men engaged. So it makes it bigger”

than Gettysburg, even though Gettysburg takes place over three days has more casualties. So for me, Frederick'sburg is often overlooked. And as soon as you realize, gosh, this is the biggest battle. They're all sorts of those great little surprises. If you take the time to study one of these lesser known battles, there's really, really a lot to explore and discover. Then tell you a lot about leadership, about logistics, about politics, about the social side of things. You know, this takes place

“in a city itself. So yeah, I encourage folks to spend some time looking at this battle on their own”

and seeing what discoveries they might make. Specifically about logistics. I mean, does the union just get better at understanding the lay of the land in the south as the Civil War goes on? Because a lot of this tragedy would have been averted if you'd just known better what the land looked like and not get stuck with it. You know, and what makes it even more inexcusable is the federal army was here in the spring of 62. There were people in the army that knew the town,

“knew the area, and Burnside doesn't tap into that expertise. Knowing the land doesn't”

get better because, you know, particularly in 1864 as the army's advance further, they get into

parts of Virginia that they'd never been in before. And so, you know, they have to discover as they

go. Still flying blowing. Chris McCowsky is the skill of historian you've been hearing and he is a fellow with the American battlefield trust and no wonder for that. He is also a professor of journalism and communications at St. Bonaventure University and author of books to numerous to mention. Chris, what's new in your career and how can folks follow you? Oh, best way to kind of tap into what we're up to is go to a merging civil war dot com. There are more than 30 of us that

actually are participating in that. It's a public history oriented digital platform about the civil war. So you can find my information there and find out what I'm up to listed my books, publications. I've got a couple about Fredericksburg and follow along, free content every day trying to help people stay connected with America's defining event. Emerging civil war dot com. I'm going there immediately. See you later, Chris. Thanks a lot. Thanks John.

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