July 2008

We have been very interested in the American history since moving to the United states, and especially the civil war. The United States civil war was an unbelievably horrific period in the history of this country, and the more we explore the history of the war, the more amazed we are that President Lincoln was able to hold the nation together during this time. I think the aspect that is most staggering about the civil war is simply the sheer weight of numbers of the young men and boys killed and wounded. Especially considering they were fighting against their fellow countrymen. You had families split by the war, with cousins and brothers fighting each other from the different armies. And in the 1860's the types of injuries sustained from the cannon and musket fire meant most deaths occurred through injury and disease.

Driving north from Williamsburg, we passed through the city of Richmond Virginia. Richmond was the Confederate capital during the civil war with Jefferson Davis as the president of the confederacy. Abraham Lincoln remained the president of the Unites States during this time, with Washington DC the capital, as it is today. The town of Fredericksburg sits about half way between the 2 opposing capitals and was thus a strategic location in the overall struggle between the Army of the Potomac (the Union army under Ambrose Burnside) and the Army of Northern Virginia (the confederate army under Robert E Lee).

We spent the night in Fredericksburg and spent a day walking around the historic Fredericksburg battlefield which sits in and around the town.

The battle of Fredericksburg is famous as one of the most one-sided battles of the civil war. The heavily superior Union army of about 114000 men crossed the Rappahannock river at the town to advance up across fairly open ground to meet the entrenched but outnumbered confederate army. The 72000 men of the confederate army were located on high ground above the town in an area known as Marye's Heights. They had cannon artillery and soldiers were arranged on the "sunken road" behind a long stone wall, and had good cover.

The battle took place between December 11 and 15 1862 and the Union Army suffered terrible casualties as they engaged in frontal assaults over open ground with the confederates firing down on them from a good entrenched high position. In fact the war could have been won there and then if the Union soldiers could have taken the confederates but instead the Union Army lost 12600 men dead or wounded (which was as good as being killed in most cases), while the confederates lost 600 killed and 4100 wounded.

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