Battle of Fredericksburg • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Facts • Armies
The Slaughter Pen wayside marker is one of a set at the Slaughter Pen Farm.
From the marker:
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Slaughter Pen
On December 13, 1862, Union and Confederate troops clashed here, on muddy fields dubbed the “Slaughter Pen.” Union Gen. William B. Franklin had 65,000 troops, but employed only two divisions, numbering 8,000 men, under Generals George G. Meade and John Gibbon, to capture Prospect Hill – the key to the Confederate right flank.
Meade penetrated a gap in the Confederate line but did not receive reinforcements in time to exploit his gains. After two failed attempts, Gibbon’s men reached and captured part of the Confederate line only to be driven back due to lack of support. The Confederate repulse deprived the Union of its only real chance of victory at Fredericksburg. The day’s fierce combat around Prospect Hill and the Slaughter Pen resulted in more than 9,000 combined casualties. Here, on these fields, Union soldiers earned five Medals of Honor.
“This one differed from most of the battlefields of the war. It was not in woods, ravines, underbrush or wilderness. Our army was all in the open country… and the movements could be viewed in all their martial beauty and military glory from any quarter of the field.”
– Col. Thomas F. M’Coy, 107th Pennsylvania Infantry, USA
“The advancing force was visibly staggered by our rapid and well-directed artillery but soon, recovering from the shock, the Federal troops continued to press forward.”
– Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, CSA
From the caption to the photos in the center:
Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, CSA and Gen. William B. Franklin, USA, both made mistakes leading up to the battle, Jackson left a large, unmanned gap in his line, and Franklin only employed a small fraction of his available force.
From the caption to the photo o the upper right:
A postwar view from Gen. Jackson’s position on Prospect Hill toward the Slaughter Pen Farm.
From the caption to the photo on the lower right:
The Union assault pitted 8,000 attackers against 10,000 defenders. Meade’s and Gibbon’s divisions doubled the size of the gap in the Confederate line but could do no more.