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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

13 December 1862: Saturday - Battle of Fredericksburg

Confederacy - Government/Military
At Murfeesboro, Tennessee, President Davis, on his Western inspection tour, reviews Braxton Bragg's army and confers with his generals.

Union - Military
Virginia

As the fog rose in mid-morning from the plain southeast of Fredericksburg, Union troops drove toward the hills defended by Stonewall Jackson's troops.

Spirited assaults by troops of George G. Meade and John Gibbon dented Jackson's lines for a short time, but William B. Franklin's Left Grand Division was repulsed and thrown back.

From the city itself, Edwin V. Sumner's Right Grand Division, backed by Joseph Hooker's Center Grand Division, attacked Longstreet's corps. Longstreet's men were posted on and at the foot of Marye's Heights, a ridge behind the city.

Confederate and Union artillery "added to the crescendo of battle" as, time after time, Union troops approached the stone wall along a narrow road at the foot of Marye's Heights, only to meet murderous fire.

They fought for feet and yards until late afternoon.

General Lee wrote of the battle, "I wish these people would go away and let us alone." A Union soldier said, "It was a great slaughter pen...they might as well have tried to take Hell."

Casualties
Union
1284 killed
9,600 wounded
1,769 missing
12,653 total casualties of estimated 114,000 engaged

Confederates
595 killed
4061 wounded
653 missing
5309 total casualties out of estimated 72,5000 engaged.

Union troops remained in the city, Confederates on the hills.

There is also fighting at Leesburg.

North Carolina
There is a skirmish on Southwest Creek.

Mississippi
A Union raid starts on this day, and lasts until the 19th, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad from Corinth to Tupelo.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

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