Fredericksburg, VA was a slaughter-pen today (Dec. 13) in 1862

Lincoln in 1862

Union army suffered a major defeat in Fredericksburg, VA (George Washington’s boyhood home) today, December 13, 1862.  Union casualties were 12,650 and Confederate losses 5,300.  Watching the carnage, Robert Lee said, “it is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”  Andrew Curtin, Pennsylvania Governor, returned from Fredericksburg battlefield and visited Lincoln around midnight.  Lincoln asked, “Well, Governor, so you have been down to the battlefield?”, to which the Governor responded, “Battlefield? Slaughter-pen!  It was a terrible slaughter, Mr. President”

The above is from “366 Days in Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency” by Stephen Wynalda (published in 2010).  I am reading it online free, thanks to my Amazon Prime membership through my purchase of Kindle Fire.

In Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln, we read the PA Governor said, “Mr. President, it was not a battle, it was a butchery.”

General Burnside

Lincoln’s general was Burnside (photo credit: “A. Lincoln: A Biography” by Ronald White, Jr.), who was charismatic and honest, but lacked intelligence and confidence to be a great general.  It was said he possessed “ten times as much heart as he has head.”  The political ramification following this defeat and disaster really depressed Lincoln more than any event of his life.

No wonder Linclon aged in his four-year Presidency.  This picture of Lincoln was taken by Mathew Brady in 1862 (credit to “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin).