Second Battle of Marye's Heights
Introduction
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The Second Battle of Marye's Heights (Or the Second Battle of Fredericksburg) took place on May 3, 1863. The battle was part of what is known as Chancellorsville Campaign (April 30-May 6 1863). The Confederate troops were holding the position of Marye's Heights when the Union forces of Major General Sedgwick arrived. The objective of the Union troops was to clear out the Confederate troops and hold the position. The Union troops spent hours fighting the Confederates with out any luck of pushing them away from the position. Finally a new strategy to have three charging columnns of troops was set into place and forced the Confederates out of Marye's Heights. This would be the only real victory for the Union during a disastrous campaign. Not to be confused with the more famous Battle of Fredericksburg which took place in December of 1862
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Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Sedgwick sent Brigadier General Newton to see how many Confederate troops were holding the position. Major General Jubal Early and his 12,000 troops were ready for Newton and Sedgwick's troops. Sedgwick's troops were sent out to fight against the Confederates to take control of the position but were stopped without any real effort. After failure during the first attack on the Confederate flanks, Sedgwick decided to change position and have three columnns of troops running with bayonets up to the Confederate flanks. Sedgwick believed that the Union troops charging with bayonets would overwhelm the Confederates and bring success to the attack.
The order was given for the three columnns of troops to charge the Heights but at first did not seem to be working to their advantage as many Union Troops in the first columnn fell. As the columnns began to reach the walls of Marye's Heights the Confederates started to drop back. Finally the Union troops pushed their way up the Heights and captured the guns that were used against them. The Confederate troops that were not killed, wounded, or captured retreated south.