The Battle of Fredericksburg would unfold in a natural amphitheater bounded on the east by the Rappahannock River and on the west by the line of hills fortified by General Robert E. Lee. When Jackson's men arrived from downstream, CSA General Longstreet sidled his corps to the north,
defending roughly five miles of Lee's front. He mounted guns at Strong points such as Taylor's Hill, Marye's Heights, Howison Hill, and Telegraph (later Lee's) Hill, the Confederate command post. "Old Pete's" five divisions of infantry supported his artillery at the base of the slopes.
On November 14, 1862, Union General Burnside, now in command of the Army of the Potomac, sent a corps to occupy the vicinity of Falmouth near Fredericksburg. The rest of the army soon followed. General Lee reacted by entrenching his army on the heights behind the town.
On December 11, Union engineers laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock under fire.
On the 12th, the Federal army crossed over, and on December 13, Burnside mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye's Heights that resulted in staggering casualties.
General Meade's division, on the Union left flank, briefly penetrated Stonewall Jackson's line but was driven back by a counterattack. Union generals C. Feger Jackson and George Bayard, and Confederate generals Thomas R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg were killed.
The 6th. Maine Infantry penetrated the Confederate lines at this point
Confederate dead behind a stone wall
at Fredericksburg, VA
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From Manassas to Appomattox: General James Longstreet According to some, he was partially to blame for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg;
according to others, if Lee had followed Longstreet's advice, they would have won that battle. He has been called stubborn and vain; and he has been lauded as one of the greatest tacticians of the Civil War
