2 1862 Civil War newspapers w MAP CONFEDERATE control of FREDERICKSBURG Virginia

Description

2 1862 Civil War newspapers with a large detailed MAP and "stacked" headlines on the CONFEDERATE control of FREDERICKSBURG Virginia days before the great Battle of Fredericksburg took place -
inv # 3Y-202
SEE PHOTO----- Two (2) COMPLETE, ORIGINAL Civil War NEWSPAPERs, the
NY Herald
dated Nov 22 and 23, 1862. The 2 newspapers have front page "stacked" headlines with detailed coverage of
the military situation before FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia just days before the epic BATTLE of FREDERICKSBURG began
.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around
Fredericksburg, Virginia
, between General
Robert E. Lee
's
Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia
and the
Union
Army of the Potomac
, commanded by
Major General
Ambrose Burnside
, as part of the
American Civil War
. The Union Army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city are remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than three times as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle to
U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln
as a "butchery."
Burnside's plan was to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg in mid-November and race to the
Confederate
capital of
Richmond
before Lee's army could stop him. Bureaucratic delays prevented Burnside from receiving the necessary
pontoon bridges
in time and Lee moved his army to block the crossings. When the Union army was finally able to build its bridges and cross under fire,
urban combat
in the city resulted on December 11–12. Union troops prepared to assault Confederate defensive positions south of the city and on a strongly fortified ridge just west of the city known as Marye's Heights.
In November 1862, Lincoln needed to demonstrate the success of the Union war effort before the Northern public lost confidence in his administration. Confederate armies had been on the move earlier in the fall, invading
Kentucky
and
Maryland
, and although each had been turned back, those armies remained intact and capable of further action. Lincoln urged Maj. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant
to advance against the Confederate stronghold of
Vicksburg, Mississippi
. He replaced Maj. Gen.
Don Carlos Buell
with Maj. Gen.
William S. Rosecrans
, hoping for a more aggressive posture against the Confederates in Tennessee, and on November 5, seeing that his replacement of Buell had not stimulated Maj. Gen.
George B. McClellan
into action, he issued orders to replace McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. McClellan had stopped Robert E. Lee at the
Battle of Antietam
in Maryland, but had not been able to destroy Lee's army, nor did he pursue Lee back into Virginia aggressively enough for Lincoln.
McClellan's replacement was Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, the commander of the
IX Corps
. Burnside had established a reputation as an independent commander, with successful operations earlier that year in
coastal North Carolina
and, unlike McClellan, had no apparent political ambitions. However, he felt himself unqualified for army-level command and objected when offered the position. He accepted only when it was made clear to him that McClellan would be replaced in any event and that an alternative choice for command was Maj. Gen.
Joseph Hooker
, whom Burnside disliked and distrusted. Burnside assumed command on November 7.
In response to prodding from Lincoln and general-in-chief Maj. Gen.
Henry W. Halleck
, Burnside planned a late fall offensive; he communicated his plan to Halleck on November 9. The plan relied on quick movement and deception. He would concentrate his army in a visible fashion near
Warrenton
, feigning a movement on Culpeper Court House, Orange Court House, or Gordonsville. Then he would rapidly shift his army southeast and cross the
Rappahannock River
to Fredericksburg, hoping that Robert E. Lee would sit still, unclear as to Burnside's intentions, while the Union Army made a rapid movement against Richmond, south along the
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad
from Fredericksburg. Burnside selected this plan because he was concerned that if he were to move directly south from Warrenton, he would be exposed to a
flanking attack
from
Lt. Gen.
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
, whose corps was at that time in the
Shenandoah Valley
south of
Winchester
. He also believed that the
Orange and Alexandria Railroad
would be an inadequate supply line. (Burnside was also influenced by plans McClellan began developing just prior to being relieved. Aware that Lee had blocked the O&A, McClellan considered a route through Fredericksburg and ordered a small group of cavalrymen commanded by Capt.
Ulric Dahlgren
to investigate the condition of the RF&P.) While Burnside began assembling a supply base at
Falmouth
, near Fredericksburg, the Lincoln administration entertained a lengthy debate about the wisdom of his plan, which differed from the president's preference of a movement south on the O&A and a direct confrontation with Lee's army instead of the movement focused on the city of Richmond. Lincoln reluctantly approved the plan on November 14 but cautioned his general to move with great speed, certainly doubting that Lee would react as Burnside anticipated.
The Union Army began marching on November 15, and the first elements arrived in Falmouth on November 17. Burnside's plan quickly went awry—he had ordered
pontoon bridges
to be sent to the front and assembled for his quick crossing of the Rappahannock, but because of administrative bungling, the bridges did not arrive on time. Burnside first requisitioned the pontoon bridging (along with many other provisions) on November 7 when he detailed his plan to Halleck. The plan was sent to the attention of Brig. Gen.
George Washington Cullum
, the chief of staff in Washington (received on November 9). Plans called for both riverine and overland movement of the pontoon trains to Falmouth. On November 14, the 50th New York Engineers reported the pontoons were ready to move, except for a lack of the 270 horses needed to move them. Unknown to Burnside, most of the bridging was still on the upper Potomac. Communications between Burnside's staff engineer
Cyrus B. Comstock
and the Engineer Brigade commander
Daniel P. Woodbury
indicate that Burnside had assumed the bridging was en route to Washington based on orders given on November 6.
As Maj. Gen.
Edwin V. Sumner
arrived, he strongly urged an immediate crossing of the river to scatter the token Confederate force of 500 men in the town and occupying the commanding heights to the west. Burnside became anxious, concerned that the increasing autumn rains would make the fording points unusable and that Sumner might be cut off and destroyed, ordering Sumner to wait in Falmouth.
Lee at first anticipated that Burnside would beat him across the Rappahannock and that to protect Richmond, he would assume the next defensible position to the south, the
North Anna River
. But when he saw how slowly Burnside was moving (and
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis
expressed reservations about planning for a battle so close to Richmond), he directed all of his army toward Fredericksburg. By November 23, all of Longstreet's corps had arrived and Lee placed them on the ridge known as Marye's Heights to the west of town, with Anderson's division on the far left, McLaws's directly behind the town, and Pickett's and Hood's to the right. He sent for Jackson on November 26, but his Second Corps commander had anticipated the need and began forced-marching his troops from Winchester on November 22, covering as many as 20 miles a day. Jackson arrived at Lee's headquarters on November 29 and his divisions were deployed to prevent Burnside crossing downstream from Fredericksburg: D.H. Hill's division moved to Port Royal, 18 miles down river; Early's 12 miles down river at Skinker's Neck; A.P. Hill's at Thomas Yerby's house, "Belvoir", about 6 miles southeast of town; and Taliaferro's along the RF&P Railroad, 4 miles south at Guinea Station.
The boats and equipment for a single pontoon bridge arrived at Falmouth on November 25, much too late to enable the Army of the Potomac to cross the river without opposition. Burnside still had an opportunity, however, because by then he was facing only half of Lee's army, not yet dug in, and if he acted quickly, he might have been able to attack Longstreet and defeat him before Jackson arrived. Once again he squandered his opportunity. The full complement of bridges arrived at the end of the month, but by this time Jackson was present and Longstreet was preparing strong defenses.
Burnside originally planned to cross his army east of Fredericksburg at Skinker's Neck, but an advance movement by Federal gunboats to there was fired upon and drew Early's and D.H. Hill's divisions into that area, a movement spotted by Union
balloon observers
. Now assuming that Lee had anticipated his plan, Burnside guessed that the Confederates had weakened their left and center to concentrate against him on their right. So he decided to cross directly at Fredericksburg. On December 9, he wrote to Halleck, "I think now the enemy will be more surprised by a crossing immediately in our front than any other part of the river. ... I'm convinced that a large force of the enemy is now concentrated at Port Royal, its left resting on Fredericksburg, which we hope to turn." In addition to his numerical advantage in troop strength, Burnside also had the advantage of knowing his army could not be attacked effectively. On the other side of the Rappahannock, 220 artillery pieces had been located on the ridge known as Stafford Heights to prevent Lee's army from mounting any major counterattacks.
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