Battle of Fredericksburg: Controversial Shelling of the City

The five-day Battle of Fredericksburg climaxed on Dec. 13, 1862, when the Union army made 14 heroic and futile charges uphill against General Robert E. Lee’s army, solidly entrenched on the heights just west of the Virginia city. This battle cost the Union 12,653 casualties as opposed to 5,377 for the Confederates, and proved that President Lincoln’s newly-appointed commander, General Ambrose E. Burnside, was too aggressive. Before the desperate charges on Dec. 13 this battle saw the first intensive urban fighting of the Civil War, when the Union army seized Fredericksburg on Dec. 11-12 from a Mississippi brigade of sharpshooters led by General William Barksdale. The assault on Fredericksburg included Burnside’s controversial decision to shell the city, which provoked strong reactions in both the Northern and Southern press.

Before attacking Fredericksburg, Burnside fortified the ridges east of the city with his artillery. His next step was to construct pontoon bridges over the Rappahannock River so that his troops could reach Fredericksburg. At daybreak on Dec. 11, working in the early morning fog, Burnside’s engineers began piecing the bridges together. When the city’s defenders realized what was happening the sharpshooters began picking off the engineers, shooting out of cellar windows from houses facing the river.

Infuriated, Burnside ordered about 150 of his cannon to start blasting the city. Confederate General James Longstreet later described the bombardment of Fredericksburg in his memoirs: “…all the cannon within a mile of the town turned their concentrating fire of shot and shell upon the buildings of the devoted city, tearing, crushing, bursting, burning their walls with angry desperation…” This wholesale destruction of private homes, businesses, churches, etc., angered Lee’s troops watching from their fortified positions above the city. Their fury only increased the next day, Dec. 12, when the occupying Union troops continued the city’s destruction begun by the artillery, smashing doors and windows and rampaging throughout Fredericksburg, looting homes, businesses and offices.

The following two newspaper articles present different reactions to the shelling of Fredericksburg. The first, an editorial from a Northern newspaper, calls the bombardment “a sad necessity” but warns it serves as a “stern precursor of the Rebellion’s speedy overthrow.” The second article, written by a correspondent for a Southern paper, laments that Burnside “shelled [Fredericksburg’s] defenseless houses,” killing “its non-combatants and inflicting want and suffering upon those who had not the power to harm him or to protect themselves.”

This article was printed by the Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) on Dec. 15, 1862:

The Bombardment of Fredericksburg

It is admitted on all sides that the bombardment of a city is one of the saddest necessities of war. It must, of course, result in great destruction of property, even though there should be no actual loss of life. And that destruction is the more sad because it is the ruin of homes consecrated by the thousand sacred memories of domestic life.

But while it is a sad necessity, it is often unavoidable. There was every disposition manifested in the conduct of General Burnside to spare, if possible, the city of so many historic memories. When General Sumner first demanded the surrender of the place, he offered sixteen hours for the removal of the women and children before the threatened bombardment. The Mayor complained of the shortness of the time. His plea was allowed. But had he forgotten the demand of Stuart at Chambersburg? Instant surrender was required, or the immediate opening of the Rebel batteries, which were said to be already in position. There was no time allowed for the removal of women and children, even had the night and the pelting storm made such removal possible. Burnside at Fredericksburg and Stuart at Chambersburg stand out in striking contrast. They are typical of the two forces opposed. The one ever more ready to suffer a loss than infringe on any claim that humanity makes; the other resolved on the accomplishment of its end, and trampling on every dictate of justice and humanity when it seems to stand in its way.

The bombardment of Fredericksburg will ever be a memorable epoch in our national history. We accept it as an augury that the war power will hereafter be used with vigor for the final suppression of this Rebellion. We trust it will be memorable as the sad, stern precursor of the Rebellion’s speedy overthrow.

This article was printed by the Daily Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, Virginia) on Dec. 15, 1862:

The News

Fredericksburg

At Fredericksburg yesterday everything was substantially quiet; some skirmishing, perhaps, in the morning, but all quiet after one o’clock. The enemy must have been chastised very severely indeed in the great battle of Saturday, thus to abandon or suspend the enterprise which they then pressed with evident zeal and courage, and take shelter under their batteries…

I think I can safely say that Gen. Lee regards the results thus far with great satisfaction. The enemy have been baffled and checked. Whether they will renew the battle I cannot say. Some think they will. I do not so reason. It will be enough for Burnside to say to the deluded wretches of the North that he has taken a town with the loss of as many men as the town contained inhabitants, and that he shelled its defenseless houses, turning its people out of doors, killing its non-combatants and inflicting want and suffering upon those who had not the power to harm him or to protect themselves. Our brave troops, however, will yet make them rue the day they crossed the Rappahannock.

…To the friends of the old “Burg” I may say, that being within sight of it today, I think that not over one-tenth of the town is seriously injured. The squares containing the Post Office and the Virginia Bank were certainly destroyed. The church and the Court House steeples are all standing, and we could see no gaps on the hill. Old Fredericksburg, like the “Phoenix,” will yet rise from its ashes. To show the spirit of its people, a citizen, most prominent in its public affairs, said today: “I have lost $50,000 in that town, but I made it all there. I sacrifice it cheerfully. If I have life and health I will make as much more there, if hard labor will do it.” What a people—what a noble, self-sacrificing spirit. How does it compare with that of the cynical critics, who, from garrets and secure secluded spots, howl aspersions upon her fair and well-earned fame. A noble army fighting for independence on its outskirts appreciate the people and their sacrifices, and who shall say how much it has braced them up in the battles through which they have passed?

Contributions already begin to flow in, I see, for the sufferers. Let not the good people of Virginia, or the South, tire in their giving. Much may have been given, but much will be required for these patriotic sufferers.

For more information, visit the Battle of Fredericksburg website provided by the Civil War Preservation Trust.

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