The Battle of Fredericksburg

Here is an interesting webpage showing an animated map of the action at the Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War. Fredericksburg, a big confederate victory, took place on Dec 13, 1862, fully 102 years and 1 day before your blogger popped into this world. The music is corny, but the map of the field and the red and blue bars that represent the various brigades is real nice. The flash animation that shows the movement of companies etc is also first rate. You get a nice feeling for where the units were in position, where they moved in attack and retreat, and how long the units fought. In this battle, union forces, commanded by General Burnside, attacked an entrenched position just beyond Fredericksburg. The confederates crouched behind a stonewall at Marye's heights, just beyond Fredericksburg, and several union brigades walked up to that position and got blown to bits.

Watch the little blue bars dissipate as they approach Marye's Heights. Keep in mind those little blue bars represent men who bravely obeyed orders and who were blown away. As William Tecumseh Sherman once said, "war is all hell."