The Canal Ditch

The millrace through this part of Fredericksburg was known locally as Marye's Race, though military men called it a canal ditch. Covered after the Civil War by Kenmore Avenue, this wartime millrace became a major obstacle on December 13, 1862, when Union soldiers advanced against Marye's Heights. Five feet deep, 15 feet wide, and filled with frigid water, it could be crossed only on three battered bridges. As Federal troops funneled across, Confederate artillery pummeled them. After crossing the ditch, the Federals formed under the shelter of a slight bluff and then charged the Sunken Road and Marye's Heights. By day's end, more than 1,000 Union soldiers lay dead on the plain, and seven thousand more were wounded.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States