At the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 18621, Union general Ambrose Burnside sent wave after wave of troops against Confederate forces dug in on Marye's Heights behind a stone wall above the town. The attacks were cut to pieces, and the Union suffered more than twice the Confederate losses1. It was one of the most lopsided Union defeats of the Civil War and watching it, Robert E. Lee remarked that it was well that war is so terrible1, lest men grow too fond of it.
At Fredericksburg, Union soldiers were ordered to cross open ground and climb a hill against troops behind a stone wall. They came on all day, line after line, and were shot down in heaps. It was a slaughter, and everyone who saw it knew it.
Part of The greatest battles of the Civil War · Before: The Battle of Perryville · Next: The Battle of Chancellorsville
Burnside's plan
Newly in command of the Army of the Potomac, Ambrose Burnside planned to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and march on Richmond before Lee could concentrate. Delays in bringing up his pontoon bridges gave Lee time2 to gather his army on the heights behind the town.
Crossing the river
Union engineers built their bridges under fire from Confederate sharpshooters1 in the town, and troops crossed and cleared Fredericksburg in bitter street fighting. Beyond it lay open ground rising to the ridge where Lee's army waited.
The stone wall at Marye's Heights
The strongest Confederate position was a sunken road behind a stone wall at the foot of3 Marye's Heights, packed with infantry firing in ranks. Burnside sent brigade after brigade across the open field against it. None reached the wall; each was shot down before it4, the dead and wounded carpeting the slope.
The cost
By the end of the day the Union had lost more than twice as many men as the Confederates, most of them before the stone wall, for no gain. Burnside, grief-stricken, wanted to lead another assault himself but was dissuaded5, and soon withdrew his army back across the river.
Why Fredericksburg mattered
Fredericksburg was one of the most one-sided Union defeats of the war and a blow to northern morale. It cost Burnside his command5 and showed again the deadly advantage of entrenched defenders with modern rifles, a lesson the war would keep teaching. The armies met again months later at Chancellorsville.
