Francis Augustin O'Reilly
Författare till The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock
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Francis Augustin O'Reilly has written numerous articles on the Civil War and conducted extensive battlefield studies and tours throughout Virginia. He lives in Guinea, Virginia
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A reluctant Ambrose Burnside replaced George McClellan as commander of the Army of The Potomac, and immediately began planning an active campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia. He moved swiftly across Virginia to Fredericksburg, where he intended to meet up with the army’s pontoon train. However, due to a comedy (or rather, a tragedy) of errors, the pontoons were delayed, and delayed again. Burnside won the race with Lee to Fredericksburg, but then had to wait for bridging while Lee came up.
Thwarted in his plans for a swift campaign, Burnside compounded the error of the pontoon train when he ordered the Army of the Potomac to cross the Rappahanock in the face of Lee’s army. He had divided the army into a number of “grand divisions”, and he ordered the Right and Left Grand Divisions into the assault. The main assault was to be made by Franklin’s Left Grand Division to to south of Fredericksburg, while Sumner’s Right Grand Division was to play a supporting role by attacking from the town itself. However, owing to a combination of poor orders from Burnside and his own incompetence, Franklin misunderstood his role and attacked with only one division, supported by another. This division, commanded by George Meade, came surprisingly close to success, but its numbers were too small, and it was driven back. Meanwhile, the Right Grand Division, originally only a support, assumed the role of main effort. It charged repeatedly against the Cofederate defenders of Marye’s Heights, and got slaughtered.
Eventually, Burnside conceded defeat and withdrew across the Rappahannock. He soon attempted to launch another offensive against Lee in a smaller version of Hooker’s later right hook, but this effort fell apart in the face of a driving rainstorm. Shortly thereafter, Burnside resigned.
The only thing missing from the book was a formal set of orders of battle for both sides, the absence of which made it impossible to determine easily which grand division a particular regiment was assigned unless that was obvious from the text.… (mer)