pictured here is the wall alongside sunken road trail
Posted in 19th Century, All Markers, Civil War
April 17, 2018
by

The Sunken Road

Inscription:

“This photograph was taken shortly after the Confederates in the foreground were killed on May 3, 1863. This graphic depiction of the human debris of battle is one of the most revealing post-battle photos from the Civil War years, because it was taken with a few short hours after the end of the fighting. The stone wall visible on the left of the photo is the wall at the top of the slope just above you. The Sunken Road of the 1860’s still runs beyond the wall. Exhibits and programs and literature available in the Visitor Center tell the story of the fighting around Fredericksburg and of the men who made up the contending armies.”

Research:

Brigadier General Thomas R. R. Cobb was mortally wounded while directing his brigade in the defense of the Sunken Road during the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13th, 1862.  Cobb was mortally wounded in the thigh by shrapnel from this explosion, and was transported across Sunken Road and placed in an ambulance on the Telegraph Road.(1)  During the battle, the 46th North Carolina went down the hill to take position in the Sunken Road behind the 24th Georgia Regiment.(2)

General Kemper sent part of his brigade in to the Sunken Road reliving the Third Carolina who had entered the position around dusk. (3)

General Ambrose Burnside ordered the march of Union soldiers up to Marye’s Heights, across the Canal Ditch to the Sunken Road. Of these groups was the famed Irish Brigade. (4)

Confederate forces held back the Union soldiers until reinforcements arrived. On December 14, the following day, thousands of Union soldiers lied dead or wounded on the Sunken Road behind the stone wall. (5)

Author: Jason Gaddie

Sources:

(1) Theodore P. Savas and David A. Woodbury, Blood on the Rappahannock: The Battle of Fredericksburg, (Campbell, CA: Regimental Studies, Inc., 1995), 28.

(2) Ibid., 33.

(3) Finfrock, Bradley. Across the Rappahannock. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994: 133.

(4) Johnson, Virginia. A Return to Sunken Road. The Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Accessed April 19 2018. http://www.librarypoint.org/return_sunken_road.

(5) National Park Service. Sunken Road/Stone Wall Sector of Fredericksburg Battlefield. Accessed April 19 2018.  https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/photosmultimedia/sr.htm