VA -- Fredericksburg -- Miscellaneous Civil War sites:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- FREDCW_050508_05.JPG: Fredericksburg Campaign
December 11, 1862. The peacetime bridges having been destroyed, engineers of Burnside's Federal Army began laying pontoons across the Rappahannock. Here, overlooking the upper pontoon site, Confederates of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, sheltered in houses and cellars along this street, stopped the work. Bombardment by Federal cannon failed to dislodge the sharpshooters. Finally, the 7th Michigan Regiment, followed by the 19th Massachusetts, crossed the river in boats to establish a bridgehead. The pontoon bridges were completed and the 20th Massachusetts secured the streets. Barksdale's Mississippians fell back during the night. The next day thousands of Federals poured over two bridges here and others down river, in preparation for the attack against Lee's main line.
This historic site was donated to the United States in 1964 by Miss Mary B. Garnett and Dr. Thomas B. Payne and wife, Virginia Garnett Payne, in memory of Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, distinguished statesman, and Robert Mercer Payne, son of Dr. and Mrs. Payne.
- FREDCW_050508_10.JPG: 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry
"Dark rolled the Rappahannock's flood,
Michigan, my Michigan;
The tide was crimsoned with thy blood,
Michigan, my Michigan;
Although for us the day was lost,
Yet it shall be our proudest boast,
At Fredericksburg our Seventh crossed,
Michigan, my Michigan."
In December 1862, Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside ordered pontoon bridges to be thrown across the Rappahannock River.
Col. Norman J. Hall, asked for volunteers to flush out Confederate riflemen by crossing the Rappahannock in pontoon boats.
The 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry responded to his call. The men of the Seventh poled and paddled their way across the river. Once ashore, they drove the Confederate riflemen from their concealments.
The battle of Fredericksburg occurred two days later on December 13, 1862.
Dedicated August 31, 2003
Sponsored by the 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Co. B, Inc.
- FREDCW_050508_11.JPG: This, the upper site, is one of two places were Federal pontoons were placed across the Rappahannock River. They began being laid on December 11, 1862 while Confederate sharpshooters in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade shot at the troops. Artillery fire didn't succeed in driving out the Confederates so boats were sent across with the 7th Michigan Regiment and the 19th Massachusetts, and they secured the bridgehead.
- FREDCW_050508_26.JPG: Fredericksburg Campaign, December 1862
The Battle of Fredericksburg began on the morning of December 11, 1862, when Confederate sharpshooters opened fire on Federal engineers building a pontoon bridge by which the Union Army of the Potomac planned to cross the Rappahannock River. Fredericksburg's defenders consisted of approximately 16,000 men of Brigadier General William Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, McLaw's Division, Longstreet's Corps. With the threat of imminent combat, many of the town's residents had previously evacuated their homes and fled to safety. Union artillery, in trying to suppress the Southern marksmen, convinced the remaining residents to leave as well, as over 9,000 shells shrieked into town, knocking apart chimneys, houses, and fences; damage that sometimes remains visible to this day. When elements of the Union Army subsequently forced their way across the River and into the town, the opposing soldiers fought through the streets and around buildings that had been wrecked and left burning by the artillery. As darkness fell, the tired troops engaged in a final, vicious fire fight in this area before the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia time to concentrate on the heights beyond town.
Brochures for a walking tour of Civil War Fredericksburg that more fully describe these events are available at the City Visitor Center.
"Knowing there were many families occupying the houses on the margin od the river, I deemed it proper to notify all the women and children of their danger and give them time to get from under range of the enemy's guns. This being accomplished, about 5:00 a.m. I ordered my men to fire on the bridge builders, which they obeyed promptly and deliberately..."
-- Lieutenant Colonel of the 17th Mississippi Infantry
"My company was close to (the leading company) and we entered upon the main (Caroline) street within a moment of each other. that instant a tremendous and deadly fire swept down from the front nd left. The Rebels occupied the houses and were behind fences, and could not be seen except by the flash of guns. It staggered the column but in a moment they pressed on...."
-- A company commander in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
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