Bombardment

When Confederate sharpshooters blocked his efforts to span the Rappahannock River with pontoon bridges, General Ambrose E. Burnside ordered his artillery to bombard Fredericksburg. For eight hours more than one hundred cannon, some as large as the 4.5-inch ordnance rifle, hurled shot and shell into the town from bluffs east of the river. In all, more than 6,000 shells rained down upon Fredericksburg. Civilians fled or sought shelter in cellars, while sharpshooters took over abandoned houses and shops and turned each structure into a small fortress. Walls collapsed and buildings caught fire, but the Confederates stubbornly held their ground. As long as they remained, Burnside could not complete his bridges, and if he wished to capture Fredericksburg, he was going to have to send troops across to do it.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States