Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[286] metal of the Federals, the Confederate gunners were driven from their guns. There was a ford in the vicinity, and the temptation was strong to come over for them, but the existence of orders prevented its being done.

For Burnside had feared that Lee would overwhelm any small force which should cross before he was prepared to support it. Lincoln and Halleck, indeed, had only consented to the movement via Fredericksburg with the understanding that the army should possess itself of the heights opposite the town by crossing the river above and coming down. Burnside had deliberately changed this plan, after starting on the march. After the battle, his personal responsibility for the changed result was brought home to him unpleasantly.

Swinton asserts that Burnside—

‘did not favor operating against Richmond by the overland route, but had his mind turned toward a repetition of McClellan's movement to the Peninsula; and in determining to march to Fredericksburg he cherished the hope of being able to winter there upon an easy base of supplies, and in the spring embarking his army for the James River.’

The three weeks delay between his arrival and his crossing the river suggests the lack of definite plans. At first the delay was attributed to the non-arrival of pontoon trains. These trains had been ordered on Nov. 6 from Rectortown to Washington City. This order failed to reach Berlin until the 12th.

Sumner was anxious to cross, and asked Burnside if he might do so without waiting for pontoons, ‘if he could find a ford.’ He had found the ford before he made the request, but Burnside's inclinations were adverse to a battle and he could not be beguiled.

So the small Confederate force held the town until the 20th, when Longstreet arrived with McLaws's division, and was followed the next day by the remainder of the corps.

On the 21st Sumner sent a formal demand for the surrender of the town, basing it upon the statement that his troops had been fired upon from under cover of the houses, and that mills and manufactories in the town were furnishing provisions and clothing to the enemy. He demanded an answer by 5 P. M., and said that if the surrender was not immediate at nine next