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December, 1862

13-The battle of Fredericksburg was fought by the army of General Burnside, who had succeeded McClellan, against whom there was much dissatisfaction on account of his slowness, and the Confederates under General Lee. Having crossed the Rappahannock, Burnside rashly attempted to take the town by assault. The Confederate artillery massed on the heights massacred the Union troops, until night put an end to their fruitless charges. The Federals lost twelve thousand killed, nearly half of whom fell before the stonewall of Marye's Heights. In this assault Meagher's Irish Brigade left two-thirds of their number on the field, and only a few of the survivors were unwounded. The correspondent of the London Times, who witnessed their desperate valor, wrote as follows to his journal: "Never at Fontenoy, Albuera, nor at Waterloo was more undoubted courage displayed by the sons of Erin than during those six frantic dashes which they directed against the almost impregnable position of the foe. That any mortal man could have carried the position, defended at it was, it seems idle for a moment to believe. But the bodies which lie in dense masses within forty-eight yards of the muzzles of Colonel Walton's guns are the best evidence what manner of men they were who pressed on to death with the dauntlessness of a race which has gained glory on a thousand battle-fields, and never more richly deserved it than at the foot of Marye's Heights, on the 13th day of December, 1862."

The result of the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg had a depressing effect throughout the North.