Fredericksburg: Burnside's Doomed Assault on the Sunken Road
Union troops make fourteen frontal charges into a stone wall and lose more than twice as many men as Lee
Quick facts
- Location
- Fredericksburg, Virginia
- Union commander
- Ambrose Burnside
- Confederate commander
- Robert E. Lee
- Casualties
- Union about 12,500; Confederate about 5,000
What happened
Ambrose Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac from McClellan on November 7, 1862, and proposed a rapid march to Fredericksburg, Virginia to cross the Rappahannock River before Lee could concentrate his forces. Bureaucratic delays in Washington held up the pontoon bridges Burnside needed, giving Lee time to fortify the high ground behind the town. When Union troops finally crossed and attacked on December 13, they charged again and again, at least fourteen separate assaults, against a Confederate position behind a stone wall on a sunken road at the base of Marye's Heights. Not a single Union soldier reached the wall. The Army of the Potomac suffered more than 12,500 casualties to Lee's roughly 5,000, one of the most lopsided defeats of the war.
Why it matters
The slaughter at the Sunken Road devastated Northern morale during the war's darkest winter and led directly to Burnside's replacement by Joseph Hooker within a month, continuing the Army of the Potomac's revolving door of commanders unable to match Lee.
How we know
The National Park Service's Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park history reconstructs the assault and casualty figures from official Union and Confederate reports.
Sources
- Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, National Park Service. Battle of Fredericksburg History · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- American Battlefield Trust. Fredericksburg Battle Facts and Summary · Reputable sourcebattlefields.org · The domain "battlefields.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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