By NED HARRISON

Gen. Ambrose Burnside

The Battle of Fredericksburg (Dec. 13, 1862) was a total defeat for the Union. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's terrible Union leadership led to more than 12,600 casualties (1,284 dead), while the battle cost the Confederacy more than 5,300 casualties including 595 dead. taff. Instead, on the afternoon of Dec. 15, Burnside asked Gen. Robert E. Lee for a truce so he could bury his dead and bring water and medical care to those who were still alive. That night, a winter storm covered the sounds of the federal withdrawal across the Rappahanno

But Burnside still commanded more than 100,000 men in the proud and combat-proven Army of the Potomac. He decided the best thing he could do was to march a few miles north, ford the Rappahannock at an uncontested point above Lee's battle lines, and attack from the flank. and one of the sharpest editorials noted, "It can hardly be in human nature for men to show more valor, or generals to manifest less judgement, than were perceptible on our side that day."

But Burnside still commandedmarch north was to begin on Jan. 20. After a slow drizzle the whole night, the men awoke to a sodden camp. One disgustedly said, "There was not even enough dry wood to boil coffee." Another noted, "The whole country was an ocean of mud. The roads were rivers of deep mire, and the heavy rain had made the ground a vast mortar bed."

When the march started, wagons chewed up whatever road there was and guns sank in the mud until only the muzzles showed. The operation became known as the "mud march."

Confederates on the south bank of the river watched with unbridled glee. One held up a hand-lettered sign that read, "THIS WAY TO RICHMOND" -- with the arrow pointed the other way. When Burnside finally decided to abandon the plan, soldiers were so disgusted that desertions reached an all-time high.

President Abraham Lincoln fired Burnside, and Gen. Joseph Hooker was appointed as his replacement.

Later in the war, soldiers wrote a poem that could easily be applied to the mud march: "Now I lay me down to sleep/ In mud that's many fathoms deep./ If I'm not here when you awake/ Just hunt me up with an oyster rake."

But the mud march placed Union soldiers under extreme stress, and on Jan. 23, 1863, a Northern soldier named Samuel Fisk wrote, "It means to the soldier wet feet every day of the march, the cold ground to lie upon, and insufficient food ... It means coughs, cold, consumptions, rheumatism, and fevers; a row of unmarked graves along the track of the army, and desolation and mourning in thousands of pleasant homes. It means the pain of seeing in every company brave fellows sinking right down to death before your eyes, with no possibility of helping them, or even doing much to soothe their last hours.

"It means, if battle comes, the wounded left to freeze in the severity of the nights, or to mingle their blood in the deep mud on which they lie. It means every possible form of human suffering, privation, and hardship. Make allowances for us, then, and pray for our strength, endurance, and success; and drop a tear over the brave fellows who are sacrificed, not merely to demon battle, but to the more dreaded severities of the winter season."

This message could easily be applied to the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and to the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War. American soldiers of the 20th century faced the same extreme and bitter cold conditions that earlier Amerid in the 19th century.anoke wro

Virginia and the Civil War

te in with a puzzler: "I am sending you copies of papers we have on my husband's great-grandfather, James M. Turner who served in the Civil War.

"We are puzzled by the dates on the papers as to why he was discharged by disability in 1862 and then [was] ordered to report to [duty at] Fincastle in 1864. He lived in Franklin County, Va., born April 14, 1827, and died Oct. 2, 1872, and is buried in a family cemetery located in Ferrum, To try to answer Mrs. Turner's question: Much of the trouble may have been caused by Army paperwork; if you know the Army, it runs on paperwork, much of it incorrect. This problem may have been a classic army snafu. More probably, the need for men was so great at that time in the war that Capt. Turner was conscripted. Obviously, it did not cause him trouble since he lived until 1872.

If readers have further information about this problem, send it to me and I will forward it to Mrs. Turner.

The Harrison files

Political general not equipped to lead

Lack of telegraph lines hampers the South

Role of rail transport becomes critical

Railroads were a major part of military strategy

Lee proves himself with Seven Days' Battle

The end of 'Stonewall' Jackson