FREDERICKSBURG, a city of Virginia, U.S.A., 6om. N. of Richmond, at the head of navigation on the Rappahannock river; in Spottsylvania county, but politically independent of it. It is on Federal highways I and 17, and is served by the Rich mond, Fredericksburg and Potomac and the Virginia Central rail ways, and by steamers to Baltimore. The population was 5.882 in 192o; 1930, 6,819. It is a beautiful old city, with many his toric associations, which has modern industries, schools and im provements, is the seat of a State teachers college, and has had since 1914 a city-manager form of government. Its manufactures include metal egg-crates which go to all parts of the country, and it is a large railroad-tie market. Captain John Smith landed here in 1608 and had negotiations with Indian villages :n the vicinity, and in 1671 a settlement (called Leaseland) of 4o colonists was established. The city was incorporated in 1727 and was named after the then prince of Wales. It was one of the homes of the Washington family, where George lived (at "Ferry Farm") from 1739 until his marriage in 1759, and where his mother died in 1789. Her home, and that of his sister after her marriage to Colonel Fielding Lewis ("Kenmore," built in 1752), still stands. Other places of historic interest are the old Masonic lodge, in which Washington in 1752 was initiated and Lafayette later received an honorary degree ; the Rising Sun tavern, a favourite stopping place in pre-Revolutionary days; St. George's Episcopal church, where many prominent citizens were buried; James Monroe's law office, now a museum in his memory; the sentry-box from which a watch was kept in three wars for enemy ships on the Rappahannock; Gunnery Springs, where in 1775 the General Assembly of Virginia established a manufactory of small arms; and the old slave block. During the Civil War Fredericksburg was in the theatre of some of the most desperate fighting. The national cemetery here contains 15,295 graves (12,795 marked "unknown"), and the Confederate cemetery 5,000 (3,500 "unknown"). These battle grounds were in 1927 made a national memorial park.
The battle of Fredericksburg, an im portant conflict in the American Civil War, was fought on Dec. 13, 1862, between the Union forces (Army of the Potomac) under Major-General A. E. Burnside and the Confederates (Army of Northern Virginia) under Gen. R. E. Lee. When Lee withdrew across the Potomac after his "political" move into Maryland, the Union Government was anxious for a counteroffensive, also with a political motive—that of influencing the autumn elections by a military success. But McClellan's belated advance was ineffective and being also politically opposed to Emancipation, he was su perseded (Nov. 7) by Burnside in the command of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside then manoeuvred eastwards from the neighbourhood of Warrenton with a view to beginning an offen sive move from Fredericksburg and, as a preliminary, to seizing a foothold beyond the Rappahannock at or near that place. His first Grand Division under Sumner arrived at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, on Nov. 17. Sumner wished to send a detachment across at once and seize the town but was stopped by Burnside, who feared that it might be left isolated by a rise of the river. The pontoon train, demanded from Washington, did not arrive until Nov. 25 and even then Burnside was slow to decide upon a plan in face of the gathering strength of the Confederate Army. Lee had at first intended to await Burnside on the North Anna, 36m. further south, where there was scope for a counter-stroke, but yielded to President Davis's preference for defending the line of the Rappahannock. Longstreet's corps concentrated at Freder icksburg while Jackson's watched the crossings below the town as far as Port Royal (18m.) . Its presence frustrated Burnside's initial idea of attempting a crossing at Skinker's Neck 12M. below Fredericksburg, and at last Burnside decided to cross the river and to attack frontally the Confederate position on the heights beyond the town. The respective forces were Union 12 2,000, Confederate 79,00o. Maj.-Gen. E. V. Sumner, commanding the Federal right wing (II. and IX. Corps), was to cross at Fredericksburg, Maj. gen. W. B. Franklin with the left (I. and VI. Corps) some miles below, while the centre (III. and V. Corps) under Maj.-gen. Joseph Hooker was to connect the two attacks and to reinforce either at need. The Union artillery took position along the heights of the north bank to cover the crossing, and no opposition was encountered opposite Franklin's command, which formed up on the other side during the nth and 12th. Opposite Sumner, however, the Confederate riflemen, hidden in the gardens and houses of Fredericksburg, caused much trouble and considerable losses to the Union pioneers, and a body of volunteers from the infantry had to be rowed across under fire before the enemy's skirmishers could be dislodged. Sumner's two corps crossed on the 12th. The battle took place next morning. Burnside had crossed the river without settling his plan. On the afternoon of the 12th he held a conference at which Franklin proposed a strong blow against the Confederate right, but Burnside settled nothing. Dur ing the night he at last issued orders, of a different nature, for a tentative blow on each flank with weak force, apparently hoping that these would force the Confederates to evacuate the centre of the ridge. Whatever chance of success there was in such an attack on the well-posted enemy was thrown away through mis understandings ; nothing but misunderstandings could be expected from the vague and bewildering orders issued by the general in command. The actual battle can be described in a few words. Jackson, whose two outlying divisions only came into position on the morning of the 13th, held the right of Lee's line from Ham ilton's crossing, Longstreet the left, the whole covering a 6m. front, partially entrenched. Franklin, tied by his instructions, at tacked with one division only, which a little later he supported by two more (I. Corps) out of eight or nine available. His left flank was harassed by the Confederate horse artillery under the young and brilliant Capt. John Peikam, and after breaking the first line of Stonewall Jackson's corps the assailants were in the end driven back with heavy losses. On the other flank, where part of Longstreet's corps held the low ridge opposite Fredericks burg called Marye's Heights, Burnside ordered in the II. Corps about noon, and thenceforward division after division, on a front of little more than 800yds., was sent forward to assault with the bayonet. They had half a mile to traverse, the last part bare, before they could reach the enemy. The "Stone Wall" along the foot of Marye's and a higher tier of fire up the slope was thickly lined with the riflemen of Longstreet's corps, and above them the Confederate guns fired heavily on the assailants, whose artillery, on the height beyond the river, was too far off to assist them. Not a man of the Federals reached the wall, though the bravest were killed a few paces from it, and Sumner's and a num ber of Hooker's brigades were broken one after the other as often as they tried to assault. At night the wrecks of the right wing were withdrawn. Burnside proposed next day to lead the IX. Corps, which he had formerly commanded, in one mass to the assault of the Stone Wall, but his subordinates dissuaded him, and on the night of the 15th the Army of the Potomac withdrew to its camps about Falmouth. The losses of the Federals were 12,650 men, those of the Confederates 4,200, little more than a third of which fell on Longstreet's corps.
See F. W. Palfrey, Antietam and Fredericksburg (New York, 1881) ; G. W. Redway, Fredericksburg (London, 1906) ; G. F. R. Henderson, Fredericksburg (London, 1889) and W. B. Wood and J. E. Edmonds, The Civil War in the United States (19°5); J. E. Gough, Fredericks burg and Chancellorsville (1913); and V. M. Fleming, Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville (1921) .
