Don Ernsberger

Meade's Breakthrough at Fredericksburg Don Ernsberger

Today, when we hear or read of the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, attention is focused on the countless infantry charges up Marye's Height's into the artillery and rifles of the Confederate Army. Scenes of The Irish Brigade storming the rebel wall and of Richard Kirkland giving water to wounded men in blue dominate the Fredericksburg story. Yet as Francis O'Reilly, Fredericksburg Historian and author has stated for many years, the key to the entire Battle on December 13,1862 was the action downstream where Meade's Pennsylvania Reserves broke, for a short time, the Confederate lines attempting to carry out what many feel to have been Major General Ambrose E. Burnside's intended plan that day. Inspired by this fact and mindful that a book focusing solely on the "Meade Assault" had yet to be researched and written, Don Ernsberger has written the story of Meade's Breakthrough and the Confederate Response.