Video: 'Civil War Combat: Massive Assault at the Battle Of Fredericksburg (S1, E2) | Full Episode'

(Thursday, December 11, 1862, 3:00 p.m. local time; during the American Civil War) — The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, began today between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee.

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Burnside’s plan was to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the Confederate capital of Richmond before Lee’s army could stop him. Bureaucratic delays prevented Burnside from receiving the necessary pontoon bridges in time and Lee moved his army to block the crossings.

At 3:00 p.m. today, the Union artillery began a preparatory bombardment and 135 infantrymen from the 7th Michigan and the 19th Massachusetts crowded into the small boats, and the 20th Massachusetts followed soon after.

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They crossed successfully and spread out in a skirmish line to clear the sharpshooters. Although some of the Confederates surrendered, fighting proceeded street by street through the town as the engineers completed the bridges.

Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a strongly fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye’s Heights.