One of four battlefields that fall under the management of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, (the others are Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), it only takes a look at a map to see why the city was a target for the Army of the Potomac under Ambrose Burnside. It is on the straight line route from Washington D. C. to Richmond, Virgina.

At the end of 1862 Abraham Lincoln had serious problems. The Army of the Potomac had barely won the battle of Antietam and Lincoln released his Emancipation Proclaimation. The political backlash was swift as the Democrats staged a comeback in the elections that fall. Lincoln wanted a victory and told Ambrose Burnside that

Location:South of Fredericksburg, VA
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