A Diversion: Second Battle of Fredericksburg

On May 3, 1863, while the main armies fought at Chancellorsville, Brigadier General John Gibbon advanced his division into this area in support of Federal attacks on Marye’s Heights during the second battle of Fredericksburg. Union troops rushed forward to cross the canal and assault the hills, but the Confederates had removed the bridge decking. As the Federals tried to find and lay down new boards, Confederate artillery opened fire from the high ground and Southern infantry moved into position. Gibbon’s chance to seize the heights passed, but the Federal attack helped cause the Confederates to overextend their line. Artillery sent to this area was unavailable where it was needed elsewhere, and Union columns broke through at Sunken Road, Hanover Street, and William Street, one mile south. The Federals then redeployed and followed the victorious columns west toward Salem Church. Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment took part in his brigade’s advance to the canal, and while his unit sought shelter near Fall Hill Road, shrapnel from an artillery round tore off his heel, his third wound of the war. Holmes later served on the United States Supreme Court from 1902-1932. Gibbon, a Regular Army officer born in Philadelphia and raised in North Carolina, remained loyal to the Union while his three brothers fought for the Confederacy; after the war, in 1876, he led the column that buried George Armstrong Custer and his troopers at the Little Big Horn River.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States