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THE CITY TAKEN
General Woodbury had momentarily disappeared, but with the retreat of
Barksdale's sharpshooters the New York engineers sprinted out again to
complete the bridges. In the growing darkness the Union spearhead pushed
the last Confederate defenders beyond the edge of the city. By nightfall
four full Union brigades occupied Fredericksburg. Franklin crossed a
brigade as well, but Burnside ordered the rest of the army to remain on
the left bank of the river. He may have feared that darkness would
render the deployment chaotic and invite an attack, or perhaps he wished
to keep Lee wondering whether this might not be a mere diversion for a
stronger attack somewhere else—somewhere like Skinker's Neck, where
a Maine regiment had been corduroying roads all day to keep the
Confederates off guard.
Had most of the army marched to the right bank that night, Burnside
might have been able to launch an attack early the next morning that
would have caught Lee with as few as eighteen regiments protecting his
right flank at Hamilton's Crossing, instead of the eighteen brigades
poised there when he finally did attack. Stonewall Jackson's corps lay
scattered from Guiney Station to Port Royal just then, while only one
division of Longstreet's corps stood at Hamilton's Crossing, but before
dawn on December 12 Lee sent for Jackson's two nearest divisions to
strengthen that position.
The greater part of the Army of the Potomac finally thundered over
the bridges the morning of the 12th, with Sumner's troops bivouacking in
the city streets while Franklin's divisions spread out on the plain.
Burnside seems to have recognized that the previous day's delay
(including his failure to cross the army during the night) had probably
destroyed any chance of catching Lee's army divided, so he started the
morning by formulating some subtle revisions in his battlefield
choreography, conferring with officers who had seen the ground before.
Now, instead of moving Sumner and Franklin directly against their
respective goals, he proposed giving Franklin the principal role,
allowing him to lead off with the largest part of the army. Franklin
would sweep around Hamilton's Crossing and secure a new military road
the Confederates had cut to connect the two wings of their army,
threatening Lee's rear more by maneuver than by actual assault. As soon
as Franklin had made a good start, Sumner would hit the heights on Lee's
left, near the Marye mansion. It was the pugilistic equivalent of a left
hook followed by a right cross—a favorite tactic of Burnside's.
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AT THE SUGGESTION OF HIS CHIEF OF ARTILLERY, HENRY HUNT, BURNSIDE
DETERMINED TO SEND INFANTRY ACROSS THE RIVER IN BOATS TO DISLODGE
BARKSDALE'S MEN. COLONEL NORMAN HALL'S BRIGADE DREW THE DANGEROUS
ASSIGNMENT. (NPS)
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BARKSDALE BATTLED THE UNION TROOPS IN TOWN UNTIL DARK. THEN WITHDREW TO
MARYE'S HEIGHTS. HIS STUBBORN DEFENSE OF THE RIVER DELAYED BURNSIDE'S
CROSSING BY A FULL DAY. GIVING LEE TIME TO COMPLETE HIS DEFENSIVE
ARRANGEMENTS. (HARPERS WEEKLY)
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While Burnside planned, his troops roamed the city, inspecting the
damage. The riddled buildings sat almost entirely abandoned, and curious
soldiers wandered through them, picking up a candlestick or a few pieces
of silverware here and there, but the quest for souvenirs quickly
escalated to plundering and wanton destruction. Virtually every home or
business saw blue-clad looters who stuffed their haversacks with
anything edible and their knapsacks with whatever might be worth a
dollar. Furniture went flying into the streets, and whole libraries were
overturned alongside it. Soldiers cavorted in civilian clothing,
including dresses pulled over their uniforms, and one scavenger piled
blankets and carpeting on the back of a stray horse, hoping apparently
to sleep snugly for at least one night. A New Hampshire boy who would
strangle from fever beneath a Mississippi live oak seven months hence
cut a painting from its frame and tucked it into his knapsack, admitting
to his very respectable parents that he would have stolen a lot more if
he thought he could have smuggled it across the river. Burnside's
provost marshal finally arrived and began lashing at looters with his
riding crop; his guard details collected platoons of prisoners, and the
marshal himself caught some mounted officers with plunder hanging from
their saddles.
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WITH FREDERICKSBURG BURNING IN THE BACKGROUND. RUSH HAWKINS'S UNION
BRIGADE CROSSED THE MIDDLE BRIDGE INTO TOWN ON THE NIGHT OF DECEMBER 11.
MOST OF THE ARMY WOULD NOT CROSS UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. (LC)
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AFTER CROSSING THE RIVER, THE UNION ARMY PROCEEDED TO SACK THE TOWN.
THEY SMASHED MIRRORS, BROKE FURNITURE, AND HAULED PIANOS INTO THE
STREET. "THE SOLDIERS SEEMED TO DELIGHT IN DESTROYING EVERYTHING," WROTE
ONE WITNESS. (LC)
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