When the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rappahannock River in December 1862, events transpired into bloody combat. Across the Rappahanock follows the soldiers of both the Union and Confederate armies to Fredericksburg. Intended for both the beginning Civil War buff and the dedicated Civil War student, this book presents the experiences of both sides as the Army of the Potomac attempts to cross the Rappahanock. The book begins with Major General Joseph Hooker and his campaign to replace Major General George B. McClellan as commander of the Grand Army of the Potomac. Instead of Hooker, Lincoln and the War Department support Major General Ambrose Burnside, whose plans to cross the Rappahannock before General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia can oppose the crossing are ruined by unforeseen disasters. The Army of the Potomac is forced to cross in front of Lee's well-entrenched position. Burnside's attacks against Lee's lines are repulsed, suffering great losses, and his men re-cross the Rappahannock and settle in for winter camp. Burnside attempts one more crossing of the icy river, which culminates in the Mud March of late January 1863. A desperate President Lincoln turns to Hooker, who organizes one more attempt to cross the river. The Battle of Fredericksburg is actually two separate engagements, which the author relates through soldiers' diaries and letters. A very readable text is accompanied by modern battlefield photographs and computer generated maps prepared by Mr. Donald Peterson of Haverstraw, New York. Order-of-battle and subject indices help readers locate ancestors and regimental numbers in the text. The author is an avid member of the Campaigners, a Civil War reenactment group. Having spent several years in research, he now tells the whole, awful story of Fredericksburg in Across the Rappahannock.
Bradley Finfrock
(1994), 2013, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, indices, 280 pp.
ISBN: 9780788400452
101-F0045
