Gallery
The stone wall atop Marye's Heights behind which Confederate forces stood and fired (with accurate "rifled" barrel weapons, not muskets) as General Burnside repeatedly, and fruitlessly, ordered his Union troops to charge up the hill without cover. This is sometimes rated by military historians as the third worst decision ever by a general, behind only the Russians at Tannenberg and the British at Gallipoli. Burnside's statue stands in Burnside Park in Providence to this day.
Marye's Heights (bottom of the painting) looking down towards the Rappahannock River, behind which Burnside sat, fretting, waiting for his barges to arrive while the Confederates occupied Fredericksburg and fortified the heights.
The stone wall atop Marye's Heights behind which Confederate forces stood and fired (with accurate "rifled" barrel weapons, not muskets) as General Burnside repeatedly, and fruitlessly, ordered his Union troops to charge up the hill without cover. This is sometimes rated by military historians as the third worst decision ever by a general, behind only the Russians at Tannenberg and the British at Gallipoli. Burnside's statue stands in Burnside Park in Providence to this day.
After McClellan’s failure to follow General Robert E. Lee following the battle of Antietam, [General Ambrose] Burnside was made commander of the Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862. Burnside decided to attempt a rapid approach to Richmond, leading to a very costly Union defeat on December 13 at the Battle of Fredericksburg, during which the Union army received 13,000 casualties after making numerous assaults against impregnable Confederate positions. This Union debacle, combined with a second failed attempt which became known as the “Mud March,” caused Burnside to be relieved of command, and Joseph Hooker was given command of the Army of the Potomac.
American Battlefields Trust - linked:
(https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/ambrose-e-burnside)
