The Union Attacks Begin

In 1862 an open plain stretched from this area to the outskirts of Fredericksburg, one-half mile away, and Union troops leaving the town to attack Marye's Heights had to break ranks to cross a canal ditch, knock down fences on an old fairground, and make the last 300-400 yards of their advance toward the Sunken Road virtually without cover. Eighteen Union brigades, more than 30,000 men, successively swept across the field, and for eight hours the killing continued. One Federal soldier recalled, "Our men were slaughtered like sheep," and said the plain was covered with blankets, haversacks, wounded men, and dead men before the brigade finally fell back in disorder. Private Benjamin Borton of the 24th New Jersey Infantry remembered that every face wore an expression of seriousness and dread. Of the many attacks made by the Union army at Fredericksburg, none was more famous than that of the Irish Brigade, whose men wore sprigs of boxwood in their caps to remind them of their heritage and in some cases came within 50 yards of the wall before withering under Confederate fire.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States