The Battle of Fredericksburg took place from December 11 to 15, 1862, during the American Civil War. Fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, it pitted Union forces under General Ambrose Burnside against Confederate troops led by General Robert E. Lee. The Union army launched repeated assaults against strong Confederate positions on Marye’s Heights but suffered heavy casualties. The battle ended in a decisive Confederate victory and is remembered as one of the war’s most lopsided and costly Union defeats.

General Ambrose Burnside