Bombardment of Fredericksburg

“Bombardment of Fredericksburg, Va., by the army of the Potomac, commanded by General Burnside, Thursday, December 11th, 1862. Our correspondent’s report of this event: ‘At ten o’clock General Burnside gives the order, “Concentrate the fire of all your guns on the city and batter it down!” You may believe they were not loath to obey. The artillery of the right- eight batteries- was commanded by Colonel Hays; Colonel Tompkins, right centre, eleven batteries; Colonel Tyler, left centre, seven batteries; Captain De Russy, left, nine batteries. In a few moments these thirty-five batteries forming a total of one hundred and seventy-nine guns, ranging from 10-pounder Parrotts to 41-inch siege guns, posted along the convex side of the arc of the circle formed by the bend of the river and land opposite Fredericksburg, opened on the doomed city. The effect was, of course, terrific, and, regarded merely as a phenomenon, was among the most awfully grand conceivable. Perhaps what will give you the liveliest idea of its effect is a succession, absolutely without intermission, of the very loudest thunder peals. It lasted thus for upward of an hour, fifty rounds being fired from each gun, and I know not how many hundred tons of iron were thrown into the town. The congregate generals were transfixed; mingled satisfaction and awe was upon every face. But what was tantalizing was, that though a great deal could be heard, nothing could be seen, the city being still eveloped in fog and mist. Only a denser pillar of smoke defining itself on the background of the fog indicated where the town had been fired by our shells. Another and another column showed itself, and we presently saw that at least a dozen houses must be on fire. Toward noon the curtain rolled up, and we saw that it was indeed so. Fredericksburg was in conflagration. Tremendous though this firing had been, and terrific though its effect obviously was on the town, it had not accomplished the object intended. It was found by our gunners almost impossible to obtain a sufficient depression of their pieces to shell the front part of the city, and the Confederate sharpshooters were still comparatively safe behind the thick stone walls of the houses.’"— Frank Leslie, 1896

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