The Charge Of General Humphrey's Div., 5th Corps ~ Battle of Fredericksburg, VA
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garmin_geek
N 38° 17.568 W 077° 28.146
18S E 284068 N 4241186
Monument erected by Pennsylvania to commemorate Humphrey's Union charge at the Battle of Fredericksburg, VA, Dec. 13th, 1862. Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM636Q
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2009
Views: 11
Gallant Charge of Humphrey's Division at the Battle of Fredericksburg
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Burnside ordered Maj. General Joseph Hooker's Center Grand Division to join the attack in the afternoon, and late in the day, troops from the Fifth Corps moved for-ward. Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys led his division through the human debris of the previous assaults. Some of Humphreys' soldiers shook off well-meaning hands that clutched at them to prevent their advance. Part of one brigade sustained its momentum until it drew within 25 yards of the stone wall. There, it too melted away. Link
.... But Burnside was inflexible. Of his six divisions Hooker had but two with him. It was nearly night when he opened fire with all his artillery, hoping to make a breach; but this sunken road was not to be touched by any fire. At sunset he ordered the division of Humphreys to charge with unloaded muskets, for there was no time to load and fire. As it happened, the confederate battery on the hill had exhausted its ammunition and gone to the rear to replenish, so that Humphreys was not exposed to the artillery fire by which French and Hancock had been so sorely galled, and his men went a few yards further than the others had gone. But they also met a solid sheet of fire from the sunken road, which drove them back.
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