Ranked as one of the worst defeats in the history of the United States Army, the Fredericksburg campaign began well enough for the Union Army of the Potomac. Ambrose Burnside and his army of 120,000 men stole a march on Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, fooling the Gray Fox completely. By late-November, the Army of the Potomac had arrived across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg. Nothing stood between Burnside and the Confederate capital of Richmond, just 50 miles distant.

A paperwork mix-up, however, kept the Union army from crossing the river as the much-needed pontoon bridges had not arrived and were nowhere to be found. The delay gave Lee the time he needed to react and begin marching his army to Fredericksburg to prevent the Union army from crossing. By the time the pontoon bridges had been located and re-routed to Fredericksburg, Lee's 75,000 men had begun arriving and digging in on the heights just outside of town.

Despite pleas from the officers within his own high command to maneuver the army away from Fredericksburg and find another place to cross the river, Burnside resolved to cross the army there as planned. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1862, Burnside's engineers began constructing three pontoon bridges across the river.

As the sun began to rise, the Union engineers were surprised to come under heavy musket fire from buildings opposite them along the Fredericksburg river front. A brigade of Mississippians under the command of Brigadier General William Barksdale had occupied the town itself and had resolved to contest the Union crossing. In response, batteries of massive Union artillery bombarded the town from atop Stafford Heights. Despite the heavy damage inflicted on the town, Barksdale's men continued to pick off the Union engineers on the other side of the river.

Union infantry piled into boats and rowed their way across the Rappahannock, under heavy fire from Barksdale's soldiers every step of the way. This was the first contested amphibious assault in American military history. The Union soldiers landed on the Confederate side of the river and began a house-to-house, street-by-street battle with their Confederate foe. Another first in American military history (urban combat). As Union soldiers pushed deeper into town, and as more Union reinforcements began arriving to support them, Barksdale ordered his men to retreat from the city and return to their main line some three quarters of a mile beyond the town.

Fredericksburg was now in Union hands. After making a successful amphibious assault across the river, and after successfully engaging the Confederates in urban combat, the Union soldiers began to sack the city - much to the anger of their commanding officers. Order was slow in being restored. And while Fredericksburg was now under firm Union control, Lee's 78,000 men waited just beyond the town, well-entrenched, ready for a fight.

That fight would come some 48 hours later and would be a total disaster for the Union army.

This post was edited on 12/11/19 at 5:19 pm