Photo Diary:
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A Photo Diary
August 31, 2003
Click on the photo to view a larger version of the image.
Michigan Historical Museum staff photos except where noted.
Monument
Dedication
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Rappahannock
Crossing
On December 11, 1862, the Union army, under the command of General Burnside,
arrived at this spot on the banks of the Rappahannock River, just opposite the city of Fredericksburg
in Virginia. Under Burnside’s orders, Union engineers tried to lay a pontoon bridge across the river
so the army could enter Fredericksburg and attack Confederate forces occupying the heights above
the city. |
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Sophia
Street
Confederate snipers occupied houses like this one along the river and defeated every
Union effort to build the bridge. Burnside ordered his artillery to open up and pounded the city
for hours. Finally, Burnside asked for volunteers to cross the river under fire in open, clumsy
pontoon boats to clear out the snipers. The Seventh Michigan Infantry Regiment volunteered for this
dangerous mission. Soon this now peaceful riverfront street was the scene of hand-to-hand fighting
as the Seventh cleared snipers from foxholes, cellars and alleyways.
(Corner
of Sophia and Hawke Streets, photo courtesy of John Victory) |
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Stone
Wall and Sunken Road
On December 12, Burnside’s army poured into the city across the pontoon
bridge and began to prepare for an attack on the heights. Fredericksburg lay nearly deserted,
almost destroyed from the bombardment of the day before. Union troops began looting the
devastated city.
Early the next morning, on December 13, the attack on the heights began, but Confederate
forces—under the command of General Lee—were well entrenched behind a sunken road and stone wall
seen here. In the afternoon, the Fourth Michigan Infantry Regiment crossed the bridge and entered
the city. It was probably while it was waiting to join the assault on the heights that the regiment
"souvenired" a Confederate flag flying from a house or civic building. The missing portion of
the flag was likely cut into small pieces and divided among the men. Even before the Fourth
joined the fight, assault after assault on Marye’s Heights had failed. With over 12,600 casualties,
the battle of Fredericksburg was one of the worst Union defeats of the war. |
(Photo: Mrs. Kathryn Willis,
Fredericksburg, VA) |
Monument
to the Seventh Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment
On August 31, 2003, members of the Seventh
Michigan Infantry Regiment, Company B, a modern-day reenactment organization, gathered on the banks
of the Rappahannock at the spot where the “old” Seventh crossed the river under fire 141 years
earlier. Now part of the National Park Service’s Fredericksburg National Military Park, members
dedicated a monument to the Seventh. Inscribed on the monument are words written in 1862 by
Winifred Lee Brent of Detroit. Upon hearing of the Seventh’s heroic action, she wrote a popular
poem which included the lines: "Although for us the day was lost, Yet it shall be our proudest
boast, At Fredericksburg, our Seventh crossed, Michigan, my Michigan."
(Information
about Michigan, My Michigan and link to complete poem) |
Photo:
Meri Schoof |
Fife and Drums Salute the Monument—and a Flag
The dedication of the Seventh’s monument provided an opportunity for another ceremony: the return
of the Fourth’s souvenired Confederate flag. What remained of the flag had been passed down
in Henry Seage’s family. In 1951, the family donated the flag to the state. Now Michigan and
Virginia Civil War reenactors, Michigan historians and dignitaries, and descendants of Henry Seage
himself gathered on the banks of the Rappahannock. They had come to return the flag taken by the
Fourth Michigan Infantry 141 years earlier. Musicians from the Fourth and Seventh Michigan Infantries
provided a stirring introduction to the flag ceremony to follow. |
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(The
WebSpinners thank Mr. Eric Perkins of the Michigan Historical Museum
Collections Unit and Ms. Kerry Chartkoff of the Save the Flags Committee for
providing this diary of the flag return. Michigan Historical Museum staff photos except where noted.)
Updated
10/06/2003
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The Fredericksburg Flag Homecoming
