December 13, 1862
In 1862, General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac attacked the entrenched position of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in Fredericksburg, VA. General Burnside had taken over the Union command when George McClellan was sent home by President Lincoln for not following up after the Battle of Antietam on September 17th.
Burnside’s crossing of the Rappahannock River at Fredricksburg was delayed several days when the pontoon bridges were not ready. This allowed the Confederates all the time they needed to fortify their positions along Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg. Burnside chose to attack anyway. The Union troops attacked Lee’s position 14 times and were repelled each and every one of them. It would be his last major battle as commander of the Army of the Potomac. The Yankees suffered 12,653 killed and wounded while Lee lost only 4,200. General Joseph Hooker replaced Burnside in January 1863.
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2 comments:
I believe also that we can thank General Burnside for the term "sideburns", yes?
Unfortunatly, yes. Those big honking mutton chops of his shudder were all the rage. And made a comeback in the 1960s-70s when they should have disappeared like Ambrose.
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