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This rifle-musket contract weapon was produced by Norwich Arms Company in April 1863 for $18.

Certain knowledge that Burnside’s Army of the Potomac (AOP) had been brutally defeated by Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia brought the Federals to their lowest point in morale and effectiveness during the war in the East. Christmas Day, 1862, dawned and Stafford’s winter loomed. Major Rufus Dawes, 6th Wisconsin Infantry, made an important connection: “This…

The following letter, written from Clara Barton to her cousin Elvira, was written the night before the main battle of the Battle of Fredericksburg.  The poignant letter was written from the Lacy House (Chatham Manor) or grounds. The original is in the Library of Congress. Head Quarters 2nd Div. 9th Army Corps – Army of…

In addition to the 7th Michigan Infantry, the 19th and 20th Massachusetts Regiments participated in America’s first combat river assault at the Upper Pontoon Crossing. The “bummer’s cap” shows how some soldiers would show unit pride by wearing Company Letters (required by regulations) together with Regimental Numbers and State Letters.

The 7th Michigan, commanded by Lt. Col. Henry Baxter, and 19th Massachusetts Infantry led the river assault in successive waves. The plan called for the bridge to be completed as the assault proceeded and for the 20th Massachusetts and three other regiments of the brigade to cross on the finished bridge. As the Fredericksburg-side bluff…

As no such tactic existed, the commanding general wondered aloud if any unit could make such an attack – a “forlorn hope” or sacrificed unit in Napoleonic-era parlance . Colonel Norman J. Hall, 7th Michigan Infantry, volunteered his regiment and brigade. The brigade, badly attrited in earlier battles and camps to less than 1,000 men,…

Major General Ambrose Burnside commanded the Army of the Potomac after November 5, 1862.  He moved his army efficiently to the Rappahannock River only to discover the pontoon bridges had not arrived.  It soon became clear that a river crossing was to be made under the guns of the enemy and a plan was developed…

On December 11, 1862, a pontoon bridge was constructed across the Rappahannock River below the Lacy House.  Called the “Upper Pontoon Crossing”, the entire II and IX Army Corps of Sumner’s Right Grand Division waited in line to cross the bridge under construction. Barksdale’s Confederate Mississippi Brigade, deployed in Fredericksburg, inflicted heavy casualties on the…

The Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862) was fought from Stafford County… The Federal Army of the Potomac’s (AOP) headquarters; command, control and communications; about half the artillery fire support; intelligence networks; logistics and transportation systems; engineering systems; rear area security and civil-military operations; and medical evacuation and hospital infrastructure were all in Stafford. Burnside’s…

Not only were there printed orders for the Army of the Potomac, but there were also handwritten orders from the subordinate corps, divisions, brigades and regiments.

Prior to and after the Army of the Potomac’s November 1862 arrival in Stafford, printed orders from army headquarters circulated continuously preparing men and material for the approaching battle. The 135,000-man army marched to Stafford from Warrenton-Harpers Ferry, assembled and laid down its logistics and transportation infrastructure for the coming fight and planned campaign toward…

Confederate troops from southern states came to Stafford. They remained in Stafford for 12 months, from April 1861 – April 1862. During this occupation, on May 31, 1861, there was the first engagement of the Civil War between the shore batteries of the Confederacy and the U.S. Navy in the Potomac River at Aquia Landing.