Second Battle of Fredericksburg

• 1. Introduction

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  The Second Battle of Fredericksburg unfolded on the 3rd of May 1863, when a Union force under Major General John Sedgwick stormed a ridge in Virginia that had repelled attackers before. The battle took place in the shadow of a larger drama playing out to the west, where General Joseph Hooker was locked in the Chancellorsville Campaign against Robert E. Lee. Sedgwick had the VI Corps, along with a division borrowed from the II Corps under Brigadier General John Gibbon. He was supposed to keep the Confederates guessing, to pretend enough menace that Lee could not comfortably strip Fredericksburg bare. But in a single dawn assault, that demonstration turned into something far more consequential. How did Union soldiers get close enough to study an "unprotected" flank? Who granted them that look, and what did it cost the Confederates holding Marye's Heights? Those are the questions this story answers.

• 2. A Divided Confederate Line

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  Robert E. Lee faced a problem that May: he could not be in two places at once. He marched west toward Chancellorsville with the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia, leaving Major General Jubal A. Early behind with a patchwork force. Early had his own division, William Barksdale's brigade from McLaws' division, and artillery from the reserve, assisted by Brigadier General William Pendleton. The arrival of Cadmus Wilcox's brigade on May 3 brought Early's total strength to 12,000 men and 45 cannons. Most of that force was deployed south of Fredericksburg, not in front of it.

  Lee's written orders gave Early two options: retreat southward to protect Confederate supply lines if defeated, or leave a covering force and rejoin Lee if the Union troops moved to reinforce Hooker. What happened on May 2 suggested neither contingency had been spelled out clearly enough. Early misread his instructions, left only one brigade at Fredericksburg, and started the rest of his force toward Chancellorsville. Lee caught the error and corrected it. Early turned back that night, returning to his positions before Sedgwick discovered the Confederate withdrawal. The near-miss left the Confederate line intact but it had exposed a fragility in the command arrangement that would matter the next morning.

• 3. The Truce That Opened a Flank

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  Sedgwick moved his forces into Fredericksburg at dawn on May 3 and united with Gibbon's division, which had crossed the river just before first light. His original plan was to attack the ends of Marye's Heights, but a canal and a stream blocked those approaches. He pivoted to a direct assault on the Confederate center, held by Barksdale's brigade, using John Newton's division. That attack failed.

  What changed the outcome was a small exchange involving soldiers of the 7th Massachusetts. They caught a glimpse of the Confederate right flank and decided it looked undefended. One of their officers requested a brief truce to collect wounded men from the field. Colonel Thomas M. Griffin of the 18th Mississippi Infantry granted the truce without consulting his brigade commander. In doing so, he gave Union soldiers an unhurried view of that flank. Sedgwick exploited it immediately. He launched a second attack against the flank and against Barksdale's front simultaneously, using elements from all three of his VI Corps divisions. The Confederate line broke. The first men over the stone wall were soldiers of the 5th Wisconsin and the 6th Maine Infantry regiments. Among the units captured were the 18th and 21st Mississippi Regiments, along with some Confederate artillery.

• 4. Retreat and Aftermath

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  Barksdale fell back to Lee's Hill after the stone wall was taken, attempted to hold there, and was forced to retreat southward again. Early withdrew his division two miles to the south. Wilcox pulled westward, deliberately slowing Sedgwick's advance. Confederate casualties for the engagement totaled 700 men and four cannons.

  Sedgwick had lost 1,100 men. He began pursuing Early's retreating division but then switched course, following orders received the previous day and turning west along the Plank Road toward Hooker's army at Chancellorsville. Gibbon's division remained in Fredericksburg to hold the city. Lee, learning that Sedgwick had broken through, redirected two divisions eastward to stop the Union advance.

  The battle's political ripples outlasted the campaign itself. Early became entangled in a public dispute with Barksdale after the fighting ended. Barksdale believed that a letter Early had written to a newspaper contained a slight against his brigade. The argument persisted until Lee personally ordered both generals to stop. The order from Lee to end the quarrel is one of the more telling details of the campaign's aftermath: the friction between commanders who had held a difficult position together did not dissolve once the guns went quiet.