American Civil WarStuff Happened · War
Battle · Eastern Theatre
Battle of Fredericksburg
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The original sin
A Battle Half-Lost Before a Shot
Burnside’s (North) whole plan was speed; the pontoon bridges arrived a week late, and Lee used the gift to fortify the heights.
2House to house
The Contested River and the Sack of the Town
Barksdale’s (South) snipers shoot the engineers off the boats; a rowboat assault under fire clears the bank in the war’s first urban fight.
3Two battles, one day
Meade’s Breakthrough and the Stone Wall
Meade (North) pierces the only gap in Jackson’s line and loses it for lack of help, while fourteen charges die in front of Marye’s Heights.
4The night after
The Wounded, the Cold, and the Contested Angel
Thousands of wounded freeze in the open under fire; the “Angel of Marye’s Heights” survives only in a single account written seventeen years later.
5The cost & the meaning
A Battle Gained, and What It Bought No One
~18,000 fall; the bigger army loses more than twice as many. Lee wins and knows it decided nothing, three weeks before emancipation.