Today, the 13th December, in 1862 the battle of Fredericksburg was fought in N Virginia. It was not the best campaigning weather, but Lincoln wanted to see his biggest army move on Lee’s Army of N Virginia. The commander of the Northern army Ambrose E Burnside was new to the post, having recently replaced the much loved General George B McClellan, who had been unable to take advantage of a weaker ANV at Sharpsburg in September, therefore angering the President, and possibly finish the war. Burnside would not last long in the position either and was totally unsuited to this top post.
He planned to move against Lee and his 9 Divisions by the direct overland route(favoured by Lincoln) and fighting him where he waited in good defensive positions. His army was large and this battle with close to 200000 present would involve more men than Gettysburg 7 months later. Burnside’s army was 18 Divisions strong, with 312 guns for a total of 121000 effectives. His estimate of Lee’s strength at 80000 was almost bang on( 78000 with 275 guns).
Numbers, of course, are not everything. Lee’s position was strong and as the day wore on and attack after attack would fail, Burnside had no choice but to call off the attack.
The two Confederate Corps commanders, Longstreet and Jackson would suffer about 4000 casualties, whereas the Northern host suffered over 12000.
It would be 6 months before the Northern army, under a new commander, tried to destroy Lee’s Southern one again.
