Slaughter Pen Farm

Forced back but not ready to give up, Gen. John Gibbon's soldiers launched three counterattacks, but each was repulsed. Hopelessness set in. Brigade commander Col. Adrian Root reported that it was with real pain that he gave the order for the brigade to fall back, and that the officers and men received it with surprise and grief. Georgians pursued the Union soldiers into this field but ran into late-arriving Union reinforcements under Gen. David Birney. The Georgians were driven back with substantial losses, and other Confederate counterattacks failed as well. The fighting south of Fredericksburg left more than 5,000 Union and 4,000 Confederate soldiers dead, wounded, or missing. With its failure here, the Union lost its best chance for victory at Fredericksburg. The Union army fell back across the Rappahannock River and camped for more than four months before a new commander, Gen. Joseph Hooker, crossed the river again.

Virginia · United States