Confederate Earthworks

Two well-preserved lines of Confederate earthworks twist through the woods one hundred yards ahead, constructed in the winter of 1862-1863 after General Robert E. Lee ordered his troops to build trenches in anticipation of a Union crossing of the Rappahannock River the following spring. When first built, the works stood two and one-half feet high with a ditch of equal depth in the rear, allowing soldiers to stand without exposing themselves to enemy fire. On the crest of the ridge, two sets of earthworks sheltered Confederate artillery, whose cannon could fire over the heads of riflemen in the trenches below and sweep the plain between there and the Rappahannock River. Major Sandie Pendleton, a CSA staff officer, wrote that long lines of trenches and redoubts crowned every hillside from ten miles above Fredericksburg to twenty miles below, creating a fortified position unlike any the world had seen.

Virginia · United States