Fredericksburg City Dock

On the morning of December 11, 1862, Confederate troops under Gen. William Barksdale waited at Fredericksburg's riverfront as Union engineers began building a pontoon bridge across the Rappahannock River for Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's Army of the Potomac to cross and seize the town. Barksdale's mission was to delay the crossing until the rest of the Confederate army could take position on the heights behind Fredericksburg, one mile away. At sunrise, his men opened fire on the engineers only a few dozen yards from shore, killing some on the bridge and driving others back across the river. Union cannon answered with a heavy but largely ineffective bombardment of the town, while engineers repeatedly tried to finish the bridge and were driven back by Confederate sharpshooters hidden behind walls and in houses. After ten hours of fighting, soldiers from New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts crossed the river in boats under fire about 4 p.m. and forced the Confederates away from the waterfront. The engineers then completed the bridges, and the next day more than 30,000 Union soldiers crossed. Barksdale's stubborn defense gave Gen. Robert E. Lee time to assemble his army on the hills behind the town, setting the stage for a slaughter at Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States