Description
Painting of the Battle of Fredericksburg depicting Union troops using the Mary Washington Tomb as protection against Confederate fire.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the American Civil War. The battle, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, included frontal attacks by the Northern Army on December 13 against entrenched Southern defenders on the heights behind the city.
On December 13, Burnside ordered his left wing in an attack on Lee’s right, while the rest of his army attempted to assault Longstreet’s First Corps at Marye’s Heights, as a diversion.
This “diversion” against Longstreet’s veteran Confederate soldiers produced horrific Union casualties. The front of Longstreet’s position is a sunken farm lane at the foot of Marye’s Heights, full of Confederates three ranks deep. Wave after wave of Federal soldiers advance over open ground to take the road, but each is met with devastating rifle and artillery fire from the nearly impregnable Confederate position.
During the attack on Marye’s Heights, Private David Holt, of the 16th Mississippi infantry, entrenched on the ridgeline to the left of Marye’s Heights,could see the Federals crawling out of the canal towards the Mary Washington Tomb for shelter. The Tomb was an unfinished monument dedicated to the mother of George Washington, who had made Fredericksburg her home. And when she died in 1789, her son ordered a stone erected on her grave. In 1826 a movement was begun to raise funds for a proper monument and in 1833 the cornerstone of the monument was laid. But by the time of the Civil War, partially erected monument still remained unfinished. A request to shell the the tomb, was denied, but artillery was allowed to fire on the nearby cemetery. Holt later recalled “When the artillery flushed them we got in some deadly work with our rifles. But they stuck to the tomb as though it contained some fascination.”
To learn more about the battle, go to The American Battlefield Trust – Battle of Fredericksburg.
Print of an original 24″ x 36″ oil on canvas painting.
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