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- Jul 30, 2018
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December 13, 1862: When morning dawned, the Rappahannock valley was covered in fog, hiding the armies from each other. It took several hours for the mist to lift. At about 10 o'clock the sight cleared, revealing massed Union troops ready to advance. And then the guns on Stafford Heights opened up.
General Lee was watching the Battle of Fredericksburg unfold from his headquarters on Lee Hill. From up there he observed the two divisions of George Gordon Meade and John Gibbon push toward Prospect Hill. He saw gallant Major Pelham ride out and stop the Federal advance with just two guns until he ran out of ammunition and men. He also witnessed Meade and Gibbon reform their divisions and then continue their advance in three massive lines – as if on dress parade.
Having visited the battlefield and walked the ground, and then reading detailed descriptions of what happened at the battle, it doesn't take much for me to imagine the grand sight Lee must have had from his headquarters late that morning. But the splendid view wasn't to last. Soon, Meade's men hit and gained a foothold on a frozen bog, the only place Jackson's line had left uncovered. The Confederate guns on Lee Hill were pounding, adding to the sounds of battle drifting up from Prospect Hill. When ammunition ran low, hand-to-hand combat ensued, the soldiers using bayonets and muskets as clubs, killing and wounding each other. Many Confederates ended as prisoners and were sent back across the plain.
Surely, in these moments, Lee must have been anxious, wondering if Jackson's line would hold. But then his men counterattacked and drove the Federals back out of the forest. They raised the rebel yell, and it must have elated many southern hearts that day – most of all General Lee's. For in that moment Lee turned to Longstreet and said, "It is well that war is so terrible — we should grow too fond of it!"
Seeing a battle from the distance, it is easy to forget the horrors it holds from up close. Many men died that day, thousands more were wounded or mutilated for life. But the soldiers weren't the only ones affected. Fredericksburg had been bombarded, and what the artillery didn't destroy, the Union soldiers did. The town's inhabitants were forced to flee in the middle of a cold winter, without knowing whether anything of their old life would be left when they returned – if they could return.
It's easy to see the splendor of well-dressed ranks, easy to hear the lure of fife and drums enticing the heart to go to war. It's much harder to think about the wounded and dead – but they are as much a part of war as dreams of honor and glory.
Sources:
- Lee's Lieutenants by Douglas Southall Freeman
- R.E. Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman
- Wikipedia
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