What was the reasonBurnside failed Fredericksburg?

Answer 1

Burnside actually got off to a good start, and stole a march on Lee to arrive at Fredericksburg before Lee realized what was happening. If Burnside had been able to cross the Rapahannock River at Fredericksburg right away, he could have started for Richmond and left Lee trying to catch up and bring him to battle. But all the bridges in the vicinity had been destroyed. Many rivers have fords, which are places shallow enough that men and horses can wade across, and farther upriver the Rapahannock can be forded. But at Fredericksburcg, to get across, Burnside needed to build temporary pontoon bridges, because the water is too deep for fording there. Armies still use pontoon bridges when they need to make a crossing of a deep waterway. These are floating bridges, laid atop special boats, which are called pontoons. A row of pontoon boats, side by side, is tied up from one bank to the other, roped together, and a roadway of boards laid across the top. These pontoon boats were pretty large, about sixty feet long, because the bridges they supported had to be able to take the weight of a one ton cannon, with its limber attached behind full of hundreds of pounds of cannon balls and shells and gunpowder, and pulled by eight horses, which weighed several tons. There were special wagon-like wheeled carriages that carried the pontoon boats to where they were needed, which were of course also very large, and needed many horses to pull each one. Enough pontoon boats to make a bridge, each on its own carriage with its own horses, made a lengthy procession on the road, and were called a "pontoon train". Burnside had ordered pontoon trains to meet him at Fredericksburg, and expected to find them there when he arrived, but they were several weeks late getting there. By the time they arrived, the surprise was lost and General Lee's army was on the south bank, entrenched and fortified on the hills back from the River. Burnside knew he had gotten the command because the previous commander always had excuses for not doing anything, and so he felt tremendous pressure to try anyway, even though he knew that by now it was much less likely to succeed. So he threw his bridges across the River and crossed on to the south bank, but he still had to get by Lee's army. Burnside attacked at two different places, and downriver, his diversionary attack had some temporary success, but was soon repulsed. Burnside's main attack was made straight at the strongest part of Lee's position, and he sent wave after wave of men, none of whom got closer than fifty feet from the Rebels. They were slaughtered. The troops who were ordered in later in the day understood they were very likely to get shot, and, since they had no "dog tags" in that war, many wrote their name and address on a piece of paper and pinned it to the back of their shirt, hoping they might not wind up in an unmarked grave, and that someone might let their family know what had happened to them. Burnside wanted to keep it up the next day, but his subordinate commanders were able to talk him out of it.