This is the second part of the battle of fredericksburg article.
After crossing the Rappahannock on December 11, Burnside's men looted the city of Fredericksburg with a fury that enraged Lee, who compared their depredations with those of the ancient Vandals. The destruction also enraged Lee's men, many of whom were native Virginians. Over the course of that day and the next, Burnside's men deployed outside the city and prepared to attack Lee's army, which was the beginning to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
The Battle of Fredericksburg opened on the morning of December 13, when the Union left wing commander Maj. Gen. William Franklin sent two divisions into a gap in Jackson's defenses on the right. However, Jackson quickly responded with a withering counterattack that inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers, and dissuaded Burnside from any more attacks on the Confederate right. Instead, he decided to attempt to break the left.
For the next several hours, Burnside ordered division after division of his army to assault Marye's Heights, only to see Longstreet's defenders mow them down like blades of grass. In fact, Longstreet boasted to Lee that he could hold off a million attackers from his position if only Lee would provide him with enough ammunition. Fortunately, darkness and the entreaties of Burnside's subordinates were enough to put an end to the attacks.
The armies remained in position throughout the day, during the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 14, when Burnside briefly considered leading his old IX Corps in one final attack on Marye's Heights, but thought better of it. That afternoon, Burnside asked Lee for a truce to attend to his wounded men, and Lee graciously granted it. The next day, he retreated across the river unmolested, and the campaign came to an end.
Portions of the battle of fredericksburg battlefield are now preserved as part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park, administered by the National Park Service.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Battle of Fredericksburg"