Fredericksburg hosted the highest number of soldiers in a Civil War battle

One of the interesting facts about the Battle of Fredericksburg is that Fredericksburg hosted the highest number of soldiers in a Civil War battle. The Battle of Fredericksburg took place in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, from December 11 to 15, 1862, in the American Civil War's Eastern Theater. The fighting between the Union Army of the Potomac, led by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led to failed frontal assaults by the Union army on December 13 against entrenched Confederate forces along the Sunken Wall on the heights behind the city.

The Conflict of Fredericksburg drew approximately 200,000 soldiers, the highest troop concentration in any Civil War battle. Ambrose Burnside, the recently appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered his more than 120,000 troops to cross the Rappahannock River and launch a two-pronged attack on Robert E. Lee's 80,000, strong Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg. Lee's rebel soldiers repelled the Union assault with significant fatalities (almost 13,000), particularly from their high position atop Marye's Heights. After the failure of Lee's first invasion of the North at Antietam the previous fall, the results of the battle sent Union morale falling and gave much-needed new fire to the Confederate cause.