Back to Fredericksburg

With this issue we make a much more indepth revisit to the Fredericksburg battlefield. Our initial issue on the battle was 25 years ago. This one is much better, since Frank O’Reilly wrote it. (I wrote the other one, which was a general overview of the whole battle.) Frank is the foremost authority on the December 1862 battle, and author of an award winning book on the subject, The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock (2003, LSU Press).

We decided to break the battle treatment into two parts. This one covers the northern portion of the battlefield, the focal point of Union attacks being the Stone Wall and Sunken Road at the foot of Marye’s Heights. Next issue will cover the southern portion of the battlefield, including the Slaughter Pen.

Anyone with even a casual interest in the Civil War knows about the bloody Union assaults at the Stone Wall. Wave upon wave of blue moved through a swale at the Fredericksburg fairgrounds and up the rise to the Wall, which was a sheet of flame, at some points seven deep with defenders. Adding to the slaughter were Confederate guns posted on the heights above the Sunken Road and Stone Wall.

But not many students of the battle are aware of the paths taken by the attackers and the various angles of their attacks and the points along the Wall at which those attacks were aimed. Frank sorts out all of those details in this issue. He defines the nine separate attacks and carefully traces the attacking units through the streets of Fredericksburg to the Stone Wall. The Maps clearly show these movements on a regimental level in their various steps from line to attack formation, the angle and direction of the attack, and generally how close they got to the Wall. This is great stuff.

Of course, Frank has not ignored the bombardment of Fredericksburg on December 11, or the riverine assault—the first one of its kind made under fire in American military history—and the ensuing Town Fight, where Mississippi troops fought Union soldiers in the streets of Fredericksburg as they sought to expand their hard-won bridgeheads.

There have been many changes to the Fredericksburg battlefield in the last 25 years, not all of them favorable, of course, as commercial development has had its impact, but this observer feels that the positives outweigh the negatives, and if you haven’t visited the battlefield in a while, you should plan a trip. The Sunken Road has been closed to traffic and made into a walking trail. I remember cars speeding along that street taking the short-cut between Lafayette Boulevard (US 1-Business) and Rt. 3. That’s no more. But the greatest improvement has been the acquisition of the Slaughter Pen on the southern portion of the battlefield, recently acquired by Civil War Preservation Trust. Interpretation is in the planning stage, but the site is open for visitation. More on this next time.

We’re also pleased in this issue to offer another of Wiley Sword’s war letters, this one on the death of General William S. Rosecrans’ chief of staff, Julius Garesche, at the Battle of Stones River, which was also fought in December 1862. It was the Union’s success at Stones River that helped assuage Northern grief over the terrible slaughter at Fredericksburg.

Another article reintroduces the Collectibles column. Jerry Pitstick’s collection of Civil War and Western guns is as impressive as any in the country. He shares four unique and identified revolvers carried by Union soldiers during the war, one that was concealed during a brief captivity at Harper’s Ferry during the Maryland Campaign. Contact us if you’ve got similar collectors items you would like to share with our readers in this occasional column.

On a related note, we’re seeking submissions for the occasional Back Roads column. We’ve got several slated for publication in upcoming issues, but there’s always room for more. Publicize your local Civil War site in this column, or use it to raise awareness of a preservation effort.

editor