THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA WAS FOUGHT
December 11, 12 and 13, 1862
Two great armies were facing each other across the Rappanhannock River at Fredericksburg. President Lincoln had relieved General McClellan of his command and had placed Major General Ambrose E. Burnside in command.
These two armies just didn't happen to be at Fredericksburg, General Burnside had planned to cross the Rappanhannock River on pontoon bridges and defeat General Lee's army which had kept between Burnside and Richmond. General Lee had been there since he marched his army back into Virginia from Antietam, Maryland knowing that a crossing would be made.
General Lee had taken a strong defensive position on the south side of Fredericksburg several hundred yards from town with only a company of sharpshooters to fire on the Union troops trying to build the pontoon bridges; these were General Barksdale's Mississippi troops under General Longstreet. General Lee had Jackson's 39000 troops in battle line from below Fredericksburg to Hamilton's crossing, with part of General J. E. B. Stuart's forces guarding his right flank. General Longstreet's 40,000 men were from Jackson's left to Bark's Ford, Stuart's other forces guarding the left flank. Lee's artillery was on Marye's Heights zeroing in on the flat 200 yards between Fredericksburg and the stonewall behind which were 6,000 sharpshooters ready to work in four relays when the Federal army made their crossing and came towards Marye's Heights.
Over on Stafford Heights General Burnside was making his troops ready as soon as the pontoon bridges arrived to try his luck at crushing the Confederate army and marching into Richmond. He had divided his army into 3 Grand Divisions. General Franklin would cross the 3 pontoon bridges below Fredericksburg and make contact with Jackson's forces. General Summers commanding the right Grand Division would cross the two pontoon bridges just above Fredericksburg and storm General Longstreet's troops. General Hooker commanding the center Grand Division would be held in readiness to come to the aid of either division if it got into trouble.
General Burnside's artillery under General Henry J. Hunt on Stafford Heights would be of little use to him because of the danger of shelling his own men. He would use it only to shell Fredericksburg itself and this set the City on fire.
This was done December 11 to run the 1,600 Confederate sharpshooters out of town so the troops could build and cross the bridges.
Everything was ready and General Burnside ordered the troops to move out at daylight on December 13, but the fog was so thick it was 10:00 o'clock before the crossings could take place. General Lee had given orders not to try to stop the crossing, but to wait until they started across the 200 yards between the City and the Confederate strong position.
General Jackson's men were hit first, but held their position, although they did suffer some loss. This was General Franklin's troops in front of Jackson.
General Summers made the crossings at the upper bridges, came on through what was left of Fredericksburg and prepared to assault General Longstreet's men in six different waves. What they didn't know was that 200 yards back there was a stonewall 4 feet high with dirt on the outside and you couldn't tell it was there. There was 6,000 sharpshooters of General Cobb's Georgia and North Carolina brigades waiting, also 20 pieces of artillery were also zeroing in with grape-shot on this flat area. The first wave of infantry of French's Division was cut down to a man, next came a division of Hancock's, they suffered the same fate–thus there laid 3,200 casualties.
General D. N. Couch, second in command to General Burnside, was watching the slaughter from the cupola of the Court House. He went to Burnside's headquarters and told him the story and asked if there might not be a better way. Burnside said his plan of battle would work, and to send the other four waves of infantry forward, and sooner or later, the enemy would yield and the Heights would be taken and the battle won.
The other four waves met the same fate–"these were brave men"–and no one got any closer than 40 yards to the stonewall. Dead and wounded men were piled deep over this ground; some managed to crawl back to safety. The Federal casualties in front of the stonewall was over 6,300. The 6,000 Confederates and 20 guns had withstood the driving attack of six Federal divisions whose battle strength exceeded 40,000 men.
General Jackson had held his ground also, by hand to hand combat at times. General Lee's army had not left Marye's Heights as dusk settled over the area. They were expecting the battle to continue the next day, but the cost had been too high, 18,000 men lay dead; approximately 15,000 Union troops and 3,000 Confederate.
Two days later General Burnside ordered his troops back across the bridges under cover of night and a heavy rain. He was marked for removal as commander of the Army of the Potomac by President Lincoln for his weak showing at Fredericksburg.
The 42nd Infantry Division was at Fredericksburg battlefield under General Jackson's Division in the second brigade commanded by General J. R. Jones.