Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade at Fredericksburg

Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade at Fredericksburg Steve C. Hawley William Barksdale's career as the commander of one of the few Mississippi brigades serving in the Army of Northern Virginia offers the student of the Civil War a chance to analyze volunteer generalship on the defensive in some unusual situations. As historian Jay Luvaas points out, "the [Battle of Fredericksburg] offers a rare example of a river crossing under fire and street fighting, and . . . the problems of mounting a serious attack at night." Barksdale's brigade played a key role in these unique circumstances that saw one of the most decisive Confederate defensive victories of the war. William Barksdale, former Congressman from Mississippi, assumed command of the brigade under fire at Savage's Station, where its previous commander fell mortally wounded. He subsequently led his brigade in the hopeless assault up Malvern Hill, in the seizure of the heights north of Harpers Ferry when Thomas J. Jackson captured that Federal post, and in a desperate latemorning counterattack to stabilize the Confederate left at Sharpsburg.1 Barksdale continued to train his brigade after the debilitating fight at Sharpsburg, while recovering the soldiers he had lost to straggling during the preceding campaign. During this period the brigade also accepted 150 conscripts , to the disgust of many of the volunteers. Private Moore of the 17th Mississippi recorded that the brigade drilled in the evenings and "Gen. Barksdale generally close[d] the drill with a bayonet charge." Some historians debate the utility and even the wisdom of such training, but it is likely that Barksdale concluded his brigade drill sessions with a bayonet charge as a device to build morale and esprit de corps. Barksdale had seen the effects of aimed rifle fire on attacking troops at Malvern Hill and Sharpsburg, and it is unlikely he retained any belief in the supremacy of the bayonet. In any case, it is a positive reflection of Barksdale's sense of duty and professionalism that he personally supervised the training of his command at a brigade 1 Jay Luvaas and Harold W. Nelson, The U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battles of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), x. Civil War History, Vol. XL, No. I, G 1994 by The Kent State University Press 6 CIVIL WAR HISTORY level, which is what Hardee's drill manual prescribed. Barksdale's efforts to master his new responsibilities and build the cohesiveness of his command were well spent as events across the lines were moving the two armies toward another confrontation.2 Ambrose Burnside assumed command of the Union's Army of the Potomac on November 7, 1862, and lost little time in implementing a plan designed to outflank Lee and capture Richmond. As part of the bigger chain of events affecting the Fredericksburg campaign, Barksdale received orders to move from Winchester to Fredericksburg. The movement was arduous, as the weather turned cold; Pvt. James Dinkins recalled that "whenever we halted ten minutes our clothing would freeze on our bodies." As proof that time tends to blur the unpleasant and leave the humorous incidents for later recollection , one of Dinkins's clearest remembrances was of a social faux pas. The population of a local town, turning out enmasse to watch their boys pass by, surprised and routed the brigade as it was on the march between two adjoining rivers. Unwittingly, Barksdale's brigade walked into this social ambush without pants, hoping to facilitate their crossing of the second river. The command broke for the tree line leaving their bemused officers on horseback, "faces wreathed in smiles."3 The brigade reached the Rapidan around November 15 and crossed at Raccoon Ford with sleet falling on a snow-covered ground. By November 20 the brigade was just outside Fredericksburg, having struggled along muddy roads worsened by weather that had turned from sleet to an unremitting rain. Unlike the straggling that had occurred in the invasion of Maryland, the men seem to have assessed the situation as a question of honor. Dinkins said, "It was not a question if we would reach Fredericksburg ahead of Burnside. We were obliged to do so."4 Barksdale halted his brigade outside...