The Canal Ditch: Battlefield Obstacle

On December 12, 1862, the 82nd New York Infantry Regiment cleared Confederate pickets from a paper mill where a lesser canal branched off from the Rappahannock Canal, and although the soldiers closed a control gate to try to reduce the water flow, the canal ditch remained a deep and muddy obstacle when Federal assault columns moved forward the next day at Fredericksburg. On December 13, the Confederate line extended across the hills behind Fredericksburg, and although no major combat occurred in this area, sharp skirmish fire continued across the valley as the Rappahannock Canal and Hazel Run funneled Federal attacks toward Marye’s Heights; a Mississippi soldier later recalled being under fire from the canal all day on December 14 as the Union army withdrew that night. On May 3, 1863, during the second battle of Fredericksburg as the main armies fought at Chancellorsville, two batteries of the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery took position near the Mary Washington monument, Federal infantry crossed the canal at a nearby bridge and moved west, and one Rhode Island battery followed in support until Confederate guns on the hill now occupied by Mary Washington Hospital struck a caisson and knocked it off the bridge. That day, Union troops maneuvered to cross the Rappahannock Canal as Confederates repositioned cannons from William Street and Fall Hill, but a Federal assault broke through the weakened Confederate line at William Street while additional columns, aided by an enveloping assault, overran Marye’s Heights.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States