7th Rhode Island Infantry - Battle of Fredericksburg

Battle of Fredericksburg

In late October the Army of the Potomac again embarked upon another campaign to capture Richmond, Virginia. In early November, Ninth Corps commander, Major General Ambrose Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac. On November 15, the Seventh fought its first engagement, holding a key bridge against Confederate cavalry. Later that month they arrived at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The city lay in their path to attack Richmond. Burnside waited for over two weeks for pontoons to allow his army to cross. The result would be the near destruction of the Seventh Rhode Island.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was one of the worst defeats of the Civil War for the Federal Army. The Army of the Potomac had to attack across a wide open plain to reach a Confederate division entrenched behind a sunken road. In addition, Marye’s Height contained twenty-four pieces of artillery. The Seventh Rhode Island went in at 12:20 on the afternoon of December 13, 1862. Almost immediately, Rhode Islanders were being killed and maimed. Lieutenant Colonel Welcome B. Sayles was hit in the chest by a shell, sprinkling pieces of his body all over members of the Seventh. After halting in the middle of the field to fire their Enfields, the Seventh surged forward in an attempt to flank the wall; they were repulsed by "a perfect volcano of flame." They halted one hundred and fifty paces from the sunken road. Their flag became the farthest advanced banner in the Ninth Corps. After remaining on the field for seven hours, the Seventh was relieved and returned to Fredericksburg. 570 officers and men went into the fight, 220 became casualties; including over 50 dead. As the regiment assembled after its charge, all Colonel Bliss could say to his battered regiment of young Rhode Islanders was "you have covered yourself with mud and glory." Bliss would be nominated for promotion to brigadier general and receive a Medal of Honor for his actions. Many of his enlisted men would receive promotions for their actions on the field.