Slaughter Pen Farm

At the Battle of Fredericksburg, two Union divisions under Gen. George G. Meade and Gen. John Gibbon advanced into this field and encountered steep, deep, wide ditch fences that farmers had dug to divide fields and promote drainage. Union soldiers scrambled across the fences and other obstacles, but after crossing them they were stopped by converging Confederate artillery fire. Union troops lay down in the fields as Union cannons answered the Confederate guns, and both sides suffered heavy losses in men, horses, and equipment. During the fighting, one Confederate battery commander wrapped his battle flag around himself and walked among his deserted guns to shame his gunners back into position, while soldiers recalled trees torn to pieces, earth plowed up, smoke hanging before the muzzles, and caissons exploding on both sides. Just before the Union assault, twenty-four-year-old Confederate Major John Pelham moved a single cannon a mile to the left, disrupted the Union attack for nearly an hour despite being dangerously exposed and outgunned, and came through unharmed, prompting Gen. Robert E. Lee to praise his courage.

Virginia · United States