General Burnside pushes into Virginia, planning to…

General Burnside pushes into Virginia, planning to cross the Rappahannock River with an army of more than one hundred and twenty thousand troops and advance on the Southern capital at Richmond.

General Lee counters by taking a strong position on high ground behind Fredericksburg with a force of about seventy-eight thousand.

Burnside attacks the Confederates on December 13, but is crushed by Lee's carefully entrenched forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia (Historians will severely criticize Burnside for his conduct of this battle.)

The Union outnumbers the Confederates in both troops and casualties, with 106,000 troops originally, of which 12,700 are killed.

Confederate losses are 5,300 of their original 72,500.

The victory restores morale lost after Lee's retreat from Maryland and immeasurably strengthens the Confederate cause, whereas the Union Army abandons its attempts to capture the Confederate capital.