"The winter of 1862 was a troubling time for Abraham Lincoln and the Union army. The president had assured voters that the war was progressing as planned, but the Confederate armies of Generals Robert E. Lee and Braxton Bragg seized the initiative just before the fall elections in the North. Union armies beat them back, but disillusioned Northerners were shaken by the experience. Abraham Lincoln needed a military victory to allay their fears, silence his political critics, and give strength and credence to the Emancipation Proclamation, which he intended to sign on New Year's Day 1863.
Lincoln's constant pressure on the latest commander of the Army of the Potomac compelled the affable Major General Ambrose E. Burnside to override all military considerations to accommodate the president – even after his campaign stagnated on the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, in November 1862. The river had blocked his march south, and for two weeks the Union army had no pontoon bridges to cross the stream. Confederate General Robert E. Lee anticipated Burnside's next move, and marshaled his army around Fredericksburg. Once his pontoons arrived, Burnside resolved to cross the river directly at Fredericksburg, relying on speed and surprise to seize the city and its surrounding hills before the Confederates could react and concentrate their forces.
Northern engineers began building pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River before dawn on December 11, 1862. Unfortunately for Burnside, speed and surprise both collapsed at the river's edge. Confederate sharpshooters, posted along the riverfront by Brigadier General William Barksdale, blazed away at Burnside's bridge-builders, and drove them from their work. Union artillery shelled the city without effect. Ultimately, Northern infantry in pontoons ferried across the river under fire to establish a bridgehead and force the Southerners away. Even then, Barksdale's Mississippians persisted in fighting amid the houses and in the streets. Barksdale delayed Burnside's army for almost twelve hours, and thoroughly wrecked the Union general's plans. Lee had ample time to divine Burnside's intentions and to concentrate his army on the hills outside of Fredericksburg…"
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Amicalement
Armand
prepares to do some regimental-level ACW gaming.