Fredericksburg: A New Look

Ben,
I am kinda shocked. I thought I was the only one thought Burnsides got somewhat of an unfair judgement on his ideas and performances. I will grant you he made mistakes. All generals do. I felt he got a raw deal at the Crater as well. I put the bulk of the blame at the Crater on Grant.

At the Battle of Fredericksburg I seem to remember reading some generals may have well deliberately undermined Burnsides command in several areas. The name Pope for some reason rings a bells. Any truth to this??

YMOS
tommy

[wt_jimbos]

Aphillbilly, Interesting u place the blame of the crater Grant, he was sceptical due to the Vicksburg crater, but was happy to see the men keeping themselves busy, and many of the officers involved were selling the idea as sound. I Blame meddling Meade, from all the text i've read it seems once he didn't get his way with the plan we went out of his way to help it fail.

Is there any weight to an argument that if Franklins grand division was so big and had such an important roll that Burnside should have had a stronger influence over Franklin and his command. (I haven't read a lot on Fredricksburg, only books on battle deployment and combat events of the battle, no politics or influences over the main commanding officers.)
And it seems pretty poor that no one backed Gibbon's and Meade's initial success. I just feel that fixing the gaps and repulsing the federal advances would have been harder if there was a simultaneous attack across Jacksons front.

Another Fredericksburg question is what if Hood had swung into the right of the federal advance on Jackson. From my limited reading this would have scattered Gibbon's command and more than likely Meade too if he was still in the road. But surely with only 2 division committed there would be plenty of force behind from Franklin's and part of Hooker's command to respond to Hood's movement not to mention every artillery piece with range viewing the open plan if front.

Hope u can fill some gaps in my basic knowledge. I hope to get O'reilly's book, sounds like a excellent read.

James,

I place the blame on Grant because he waited until the last moment to order Burnsides not to send in the black troops first. A political decision. The only troops Burnsides had that were: A)fit in both health and full compliment of troops; and B)They were the troops he had specifically trained for this attack. Preparing them for what would occurring and rehearsing til they were in top form. Burnsides was so disappointed that his plan was changed that he seemed to not care much anymore. He seemed to pick the divisions at random since he was forced not to use the ones he wanted.. And that was Burnsides only real mistake as far as I can see. And it was a bad one. He picked cowards. The Division leader never saw the battle. Instead hiding drunk away from the fight.
But had Grant not changed it at the last minute. Highly trained, well equipped and very motivated soldiers would have hit the Crater and surged through, instead of milling around. Just my opinion of course.

YMOS
tommy

[gary]

Regarding the Crater, I read that the "training" that the USCT received wasn't really much "training" at all. No Union officer within the USCT mentions any special "training" that they had received.

However, that doesn't mitigate the responsibility that should fall upon Grant and Meade who interferred with the original plan. As for Burnsides, he should have selected another division instead of drawing straws and allowing a drunken commander to "lead" the charge of the 1st wave. In Ledlie's Division, Brigadier William Bartlett led his brigade into the crater and out and captured the the "first and second lines of the enemy. Held them till after one, when we were driven back by repeated charges." Bartlett's men were unsupported and waiting for reinforcements that never appeared. Ledlie was too busy battling the bottle to provide leadership for his division.

[jackbluelight]

I would blame anybody remotely involved in this blunderous attack. I am not well read on this subject, but I just wonder what anyone in the Union Army was thinking on this day.

[ben_ross]

I suggest picking up O'Rielly's book on the campaign, theres more to the attacks then just murder.