Fredericksburg VA - Civil War Stories

Joni and I camped at the Fredericksburg KOA last week for a couple days.  We were between our dates at the NOVA sites, BullRun and Pohick.  Why not visit Fredericksburg?  There is serious civil war history here.  Let me set the stage.  Fall 1862, president Abraham Lincoln has promoted yet another union man to lead the Army of the Potomac.  After a series of less than stellar battles, union general Ambrose Burnside gets the nod.  He does not want the nod, but feels pressure to accept it.  Lincoln is also pressuring Burnside, as he did the previous generals McDowell, McClellan and Hooker, to seek out and destroy the confederate Army of Northern Virginia (AONV).  

With this backdrop, Burnside devised a plan to move around the AONV, currently to his front around Chancellorsville VA.  Burnside plans to move the massive army of 120000 to the southeast to threaten the confederate capitol in Richmond VA, a mere 50 miles to the south of Fredericksburg.  Of course the Rappahannock river is in his way, so he devises a plan to quickly and clandestinely move his army to the east and then south around Lee's confederates to a point where he can cross his army over the Rappahannock and on to Richmond.

 Burnside's problems begin immediately as foul weather complicates his initial movements.  Its December and its cold and its raining, a lot.  Burnsides movements are slow and tedious.  Lee gets intelligence that Burnside has pulled his army from his front and is moving to the east and in fact some of the army has moved south toward Fredericksburg.   Lee's begins moving the AONV to meet the threat.  Lee sends out his engineers to assess the terrain on the south side of the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg.  Lee finds the bluffs above the city to his liking.  Lee would state later that this is the most defensible possible that his AONV enjoys during the entire war.  The bluffs about 1/2 mile above the city have unobstructed views to the Rappahannock river.  The picture to the left is the right side of the battle line that shows the view from the river to Marys Heights.

Meanwhile, Burnside has given orders to someone in the war department to send pontoon boats ahead of him to Fredericksburg.  The idea being a quick move of his massive army immediately across the Rappahannock 50 miles due north of Richmond. Burnsides plan involves detaching 2 core, 20,000 men to harass Lees response and to protect his flank while the remaining 10 core (100,000) soldiers to move on Richmond.  A sound plan in theory. 

Burnsides battle plan is to assault the confederate positions in 2 places.  The first, on the right side or north side of the battlefield is meant to be a diversion from the main union thrust on the left side or southern end of the battlefield. 

James