Battle of Fredericksburg • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Facts • Armies
The “A Bloody Crossing” and “Pontoon Bridges” wayside markers are at Chatham Manor, Stop Two on the Fredericksburg Battlefield Auto Tour. (see map below) The markers are on the terrace in front of the house (the side facing the river and town) next to the pontoon display.
The “A Bloody Crossing” (left) and “Pontoon Bridges” (right) wayside markers at Chatham Manor. A pontoon (at 80% scale) is in the background with the “Between Battle” historical marker
A Bloody Crossing wayside marker
A Bloody Crossing
Church bells in Fredericksburg tolled 3 a.m. on December 11, 1862, as Union engineers wrestled pontoon boats toward the river’s edge in front of you. They intended to use the boats to construct two of the six floating bridges that the Army of the Potomac would need to cross the Rappahannock. For two hours the engineers toiled in darkness, trying to complete the spans before Confederate sharpshooters on the opposite bank spotted them.
At 5 a.m. Confederate musket fire burst from cellars and windows across the river. Those engineers not shot down scrambled for cover on the shore. Union cannon atop these heights responded with an eight-hour-long bombardment that ravaged the city but failed to silence the Confederates. Only by ferrying troops across the river under fire was the Union army able to drive the Confederates from the town and complete the bridges.
Such a feeling of anxiety and suspense I never experienced. I could scarcely breathe.
Sergeant Clark Baurer, 50th NY Engineers, watching the bridge builders about to come under fire.
From the caption to the background painting:
Laying the two bridges cost the Union army twelve hours and dozens of lives.
The background painting on the marker is Essayons: Engineers at Fredericksburg by Dale Gallon. Essayons is the motto of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, meaning “Let us try.”
Pontoon Bridges wayside marker
Pontoon Bridges
At Fredericksburg, the Union army crosseed the Rappahannock River by means of temporary, floating bridges built upon pontoons. In front of you is a reconstructed section of such a bridge, built to eighty percent of its original size. More than 30,000 Union soldiers crossed the two bridges that spanned the river below you.
Under ideal conditions skilled engineers could construct a bridge in a couple of hours. First, they would row or pole pontoon boats into the river. Then they would connect the boats by means of large side rails known as bulks. Wooden boards, called chesses, placed across the bulks as flooring completed the bridges. Engineers staked the bridge to the shore and dropped anchors in the river to steady it against the force of the current.
From the caption to the background photo:
Union engineers constructed pontoon bridges at three points of the Rappahannock River. This photograph, taken in June 1863, shows pontoon bridges at Franklin’s Crossing, two miles down stream.
Closeup of the pontoon construction. The display is 80% actual size.
Closeup of the deck of the pontoon bridge showing its construction
Location of the markers
The markers are on the hillside between Chatham Manor and the river, about 200 feet southwest of the manor. (38°18’29.6″N 77°27’22.7″W)