Military
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On December 11, 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac forced its way across the Rappahannock River and into Fredericksburg. William Barksdale's Mississippi brigade, approximately 1,600 men, slowed the Federal lodgment, buying critical time for Robert E. Lee to gather his army on the heights beyond town, where a larger battle would be fought on December 13. As the 20th Massachusetts Regiment advanced from the river up Hawke Street, a tremendous and deadly fire swept down from the front and left from Rebels occupying houses and positions behind fences, visible only in the flash of their guns. The fire staggered the column, but it pressed on.
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Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States
