Fredericksburg Campaign

Ambrose E. Burnside's Union army found the existing bridges destroyed while R. E. Lee's Confederates waited on high ground beyond Fredericksburg. On December 11, 1862, Union engineers broke a skim of ice on the Rappahannock and began laying pontoons here, but advanced Confederate riflemen drove them ashore with deadly fire. In retaliation, massed cannon on the heights behind the engineers blasted Fredericksburg. The riflemen held their position until infantry ferried across about 3 P.M. forced them back to the main Confederate line. The engineers then completed two bridges here as others were finished downstream. Burnside's men crossed over these bridges into disaster, and at the upper site Clara Barton crossed to tend the wounded in the burning city. By the cold morning of December 16, the Union army had returned to this side, and for months the icy river lay between armies bound in winter quarters.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States