Fredericksburg, a study in war by George William Redway

Author:George William Redway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S. Sonnenschein & co., ltd.

Even at the eleventh hour many suppose the Federals might have emulated the Prussians at Torgau who won their battle after Frederick had ridden off the field; and certainly few would envy Lee his position if General Burnside had been able to throw into the fight on that memorable Saturday the two corps which were slowly approaching Falmouth, and had been reported already at Dumfries and Fairfax Station.

General Burnside's course of action must now be attentively considered : he states, "By the night of the 12th the troops were all in position, and I visited the different commands with a view to determining as to future movements. The delay in laying the bridges had rendered some change in the plan of attack necessary, and the orders already issued were to be superseded by new ones. It was after midnight when I returned from visiting the different commands, and before daylight of the 13th I prepared the following orders." These orders have been already quoted on page 130, and military students may at this stage pause to examine them, and consider their purport and what action they demanded from the Grand Division commanders to whom they were addressed on a foggy morning in December, 1862. Since any movement on the right by Sumner was to be entirely dependent (see Burnside's statement, page 133) on the course of events on the left, where Franklin commanded, and where Burnside's representative, General Hardie, was stationed to watch and report progress, we will proceed to "Mansfield" and see what interpretation was put upon Burnside's orders by Franklin, without protest, or remark even, on the part of the Headquarters staff-officer then and there present. Three distinct commands are conveyed by the dispatch brought by General Hardie to Franklin at 7.30 a.m.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.