A Sacked and Gutted Town

A Sacked and Gutted Town. Fredericksburg: Timeless..

"We marched past the court-house, , past churches, schools, bank-buildings, private houses, , all lighted for hospital purposes, and all in use, though a part of the wounded had been transferred across the river. Even the door-yards had their litter-beds, and were well filled with wounded men, and the dead were laid in rows for burial. The hospital lights and camp-fires of burned buildings, with a mixture of the lawless rioting of the demoralized stragglers, and the suffering and death in the hospitals, gave the sacked and gutted town the look of pandemonium." , , A Union officer

, It started with a bombardment from 140 Union guns on the morning of December 11, 1862, two days before the battle of Fredericksburg. Whizzing shells and cannonballs ripped through buildings, tumbling walls and chimneys. Fires spread. "Nothing in war can exceed the horror of that hour," wrote a Mississippi soldier. Most civilians had fled; those who remained huddled in basements. Federal infantry forced a river crossing and close fightings raged through the streets until nightfall., The high casualties and the unexpected intensity of the street fighting had been terrifying. When the Confederates pulled back, infuriated Federal soldiers released their anger and stress in a rampage of looting. The next day, more Union soldiers crossed into the wrecked town. Regarding Fredericksburg as a prize of war, they further ransacked homes and businesses. Fighting resumed on December 13th and thousands of casualties clogged buildings and streets. When the Federal army retreated, Fredericksburg was a shambles., [Captions:] , As troops looted the town, a Union officer wrote: "Our troops... stole or destroyed everything they could lay their hands on.... Beautiful pictures, books, jewelry, ladies dresses, silverware and all kinds of household furniture. Every house was completely riddled.... I never felt so much disgusted with the war as I did that day.", Between the shelling and the looting, few buildings in Fredericksburg escaped damage. These shell ravaged homes stood at the intersection of Hanover and George Streets.