Before dawn on 11 December 1862, Union engineers began laying pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the fog lifted, Confederate riflemen hidden in the riverfront houses shot them off the bridges. Ambrose Burnside's guns shelled the town, and late in the day infantry crossed in the pontoon boats and fought through the streets. Two days later the Army of the Potomac was thrown back from Marye's Heights.
Riflemen in the cellars
Burnside's Army of the Potomac meant to cross the river at Fredericksburg and attack Robert E. Lee's army on the heights beyond the town. Brigadier General William Barksdale's Mississippians, with some Floridians, waited along the riverbank in cellars and barricaded buildings. At first a heavy fog hid the bridge builders; once it thinned, the Confederates opened fire, picking off the engineers and stopping the work.1
The Union reply came first from 36 field guns turned on the sharpshooters and then from a general bombardment by some 150 cannon, which tore through the riverfront properties and set buildings on fire. The American Battlefield Trust says the shelling went on for about four hours; it did not drive the riflemen out.2
Across in the boats
Late in the afternoon, with the daylight going, the 7th Michigan and the 19th Massachusetts crossed in the pontoon boats themselves to seize the far bank. The 20th Massachusetts followed; according to the National Park Service it lost 97 officers and men in 50 yards of street fighting on its way up to Caroline Street. As the Federals pushed in from both bridges, Barksdale's brigade gathered near the Market House and fell back out of town after dark, having gained Lee a day to prepare.3
On 12 December the rest of Burnside's army crossed and occupied the town, which was looted. On 13 December wave after wave of Union infantry attacked Longstreet's men on Marye's Heights and were cut down, while a breakthrough against Jackson to the south could not be held. The Trust puts Union losses at about 12,500 and Confederate losses at about 6,000; Burnside withdrew across the river on 15 December. The battle is told in full in our article on the Battle of Fredericksburg.4
