Dec 1862–A Resurrected Peninsula Campaign Suffers a Bloody Death

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

With the armies expect­ed to shut down for the win­ter, Decem­ber was antic­i­pat­ed to be a qui­et month, but Lin­coln had oth­er ideas.

December 20, 1862 North Star–The War

The Bat­tle of Fredericksburg

Our war news this week is of the most excit­ing char­ac­ter — of a nature cal­cu­lat­ed to painful­ly inter­est the pub­lic. Great events have tran­spired at Fred­er­icks­burg. Again have the Union forces met the ene­my, have fought severe and bloody engage­ments, and again has that ene­my been found too strong­ly post­ed to be over­come… The pre­lim­i­nary shelling and occu­pa­tion of Fred­er­icks­burg by our troops appeared to be a suc­cess. So was the cross­ing of the Rap­pa­han­nock in the face and eyes of a dead­ly foe — that was one of the most dar­ing mil­i­tary exploits on record.

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Mapa-de-la-Batalla-de-Fredericksburg-Guerra-Civil-Estadounidense--13-Diciembre-1862The Fed­er­als were slaugh­tered. One of the most one-sided bat­tles of the Amer­i­can Civ­il War was fought by Gen­er­al Robert E. Lee’s Con­fed­er­ate Army of North Vir­ginia and the Army of the Potomac, now com­mand­ed Major Gen­er­al Ambrose E. Burn­side. It was waged over five mild days in mid-Decem­ber. The Union troops ini­tial­ly took Fred­er­icks­burg with only token resis­tance from the Grays. The city had been evac­u­at­ed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of seri­ous bom­bard­ment. The rebels wait­ed and for­ti­fied their posi­tions in the Marye’s Heights behind the town.

It had been Burnside’s plan to cross the Rap­pa­han­nock Riv­er a month ear­li­er and race to Rich­mond, the Con­fed­er­ate Capi­tol, before Lee’s army had time to react. How­ev­er, bureau­crat­ic delays pre­vent­ed Burn­side from receiv­ing the nec­es­sary pon­toon bridges, which gave Lee time to ready his forces and offer resis­tance to the cross­ings. The Union troops sus­tained sniper fire as they attempt­ed to install the bridges and engaged in some urban com­bat with­in the city limits.

Mean­while Union troops under Major Gen­er­al William B. Frank crossed the Rap­pa­han­nock south of the city and pen­e­trat­ed Lieu­tenant Stonewall Jackson’s defen­sive line, but they were final­ly repelled. With bridges ready, Burn­side ordered mul­ti­ple frontal assaults by the grand divi­sions of Major Gen­er­als Edwin V. Sum­n­er and Joseph Hook­er upon Marye’s Heights, which was for­ti­fied by troops com­mand­ed by one of Lee’s favorite offi­cers, the defen­sive-mind­ed Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al James Longstreet. Thou­sands of Union troops repeat­ed­ly tra­versed an open plain under mur­der­ous fire, only to be repelled by the rebels fir­ing from above. .

1-general-burnside-war-is-hell-storeThe butcher’s bill for this futile effort was over 12,600 Union casu­al­ties. Burn­side with­drew his troops from the field, and thus end­ed anoth­er failed cam­paign in the war’s East­ern The­atre. Weeks ear­li­er, Lin­coln had sacked Gen­er­al George B. McClel­lan for not aggres­sive­ly pur­su­ing Lee after the Union vic­to­ry at Anti­etam. In some ways, the blood of Fred­er­icks­burg was on Lincoln’s hands as well as Burnside’s, because the impa­tient Pres­i­dent had pushed Burn­side and the Union war machine beyond their capabilities.

 A Brief Review of Fredericksburg, the Historical Novel

The his­tor­i­cal nov­el Fred­er­icks­burg, by Kirk Mitchell was part of the research for this month’s arti­cle. Mitchell focus­es on Irish sol­diers who fought for both sides. These recent immi­grants from their own war-torn coun­try played key roles in the Bat­tle of Fred­er­icks­burg. The author uses real life char­ac­ters of every rank to tell the tale.

Thomas_F__MeagherUnion Gen­er­al Thomas Meagher led his fel­low Irish across open ground to assault hid­den Rebel for­ti­fi­ca­tions with­in a sunken road and behind a stone wall. The Con­fed­er­ate Irish­men, the 24th Geor­gia Vol­un­teers, led by Colonel Robert McMil­lan, anx­ious­ly await­ed the oncom­ing attack by thou­sands of Yan­kees. We also have char­ac­ters like Yan­kee col­or sergeant William Tyrrell, who does bat­tle with his own fear and self-doubt; and we have rebel sergeant Michael Sul­li­van, who is steady as rock under pressure.

The Irish seemed born to trib­al blood and mar­tyr­dom, based on resis­tance against the British back in Ire­land. The author doesn’t ignore warts either, such as the bone-chill­ing hatred of some Irish towards blacks and the riots against the Irish in Philadel­phia. The book seems true to time and place, con­text and char­ac­ter. It is a sto­ry of fear and val­or, hard­ship and sac­ri­fice, and cul­mi­nates in the awful bat­tle that was Fredericksburg.

A Pro­file of Brigadier Gen­er­al Thomas Meagher Leader of the Irish Brigade

In his native Ire­land, Thomas Meagher was a leader in the Young Ire­lander Rebel­lion. This failed Irish Nation­al­ist upris­ing took place on July 29, 1848, in the vil­lage of Ballingar­ry, South Tip­per­ary. A force of Young Ire­landers chased away an Irish Con­stab­u­lary Unit, part of England’s pup­pet gov­ern­ment, which sub­se­quent­ly raid­ed a home and took hostages. A gun­fight ensued, and lives were lost while the rebels escaped.

Meagher was soon arrest­ed, con­vict­ed of sedi­tion and sen­tenced to be “hanged, drawn and quar­tered.” Due to local and inter­na­tion­al pres­sure, his sen­tence was com­mut­ed, and he was exiled to the infa­mous Van Diemen’s Land in Tas­ma­nia, Aus­tralia. He even­tu­al­ly escaped to the Unit­ed States in 1852. A gift­ed ora­tor, Thomas Meagher con­tin­ued his advo­ca­cy of the Irish cause on the lec­ture cir­cuit of the day. He also stud­ied law and jour­nal­ism while earn­ing his U.S. cit­i­zen­ship. After shots rang out at Fort Sumter, he recruit­ed a com­pa­ny of infantry­men to be attached to the U.S. 69th Infantry Reg­i­ment New York State Vol­un­teers in April of 1861.

Meagher and companions in camp,
Meagher and com­pan­ions in camp,

After the defeat at the First Bat­tle of Bull Run, Meagher went back to New York and recruit­ed the Irish Brigade and was com­mis­sioned to lead them dur­ing the Penin­su­la Cam­paign of 1862. The Irish Brigade built a rep­u­ta­tion as a fierce fight­ing unit. The Brigade incurred large loss­es at Anti­etam sus­tained under heavy vol­leys. Meagher was injured at this bat­tle when he fell off his horse. Drunk­en­ness was rumored; how­ev­er, Gen­er­al McClellan’s report says that Meagher’s horse was shot out from under him.

It was at Fred­er­icks­burg where the Irish Brigade suf­fered its great­est loss. Twelve hun­dred of Meagher’s men went into bat­tle and “two hun­dred and eighty men only appeared under arms to rep­re­sent the Irish Brigade” the next morn­ing. Meagher did not take the field on the day of the bat­tle due to a knee injury.

On May 14, 1863, he resigned his com­mis­sion when he was not allowed to raise rein­force­ments for his unit. Back in mid-May of 1862, the Irish Brigade field­ed some 4,000 men; by May of the fol­low­ing year, it had been reduced to a few hun­dred. The Irish Brigade ranks only behind the Iron Brigade from the Mid­west and our own Ver­mont Brigade for the high­est per­cent­age of casu­al­ties in battle.

 

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