Stepping around and over the men felled in the earlier assaults, U.S. soldiers advanced across grass “slippery with. On December 13, wave after wave of U.S. troops crossed six hundred yards of open ground commanded by enemy artillery to assault a Confederate line well protected in a sunken roadbed at the base of Marye’s Heights. Tools of the TradeĮager to clear a pathway to Richmond in December 1862, United States troops first needed to dislodge the Confederate army at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Haskell of the 1st South Carolina Infantry, who was killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania-robbed Confederate armies of command experience that could not be replaced as the war continued. The loss of experienced officers-like twenty-six-year-old Capt. Decisive victories eluded the Confederates north of the Potomac, and the strategy extracted a high price in human and material resources that ultimately compromised the southern war effort. Some thought a decisive Confederate victory there would crush northern morale, while others believed that troops from Virginia should be used to defend threatened areas of the Confederacy.
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territory and crossed the Potomac River into Maryland and beyond into Pennsylvania. To relieve war-torn Virginia and compel United States forces to submit, Confederate armies sought victories in U.S. Though an effective strategy, many Confederate commanders-and civilians-were loath to fight solely on the defensive. Thus, the best strategy was often to move into a threatening position and let one’s opponent attack. On the battlefield, long-range weapons gave defending forces a distinct advantage. They did, however, need to win enough battles to erode northern will to keep fighting and convince southerners that the war could be won. Confederate armies did not have to conquer northern territory to win independence. To win the war, United States troops needed to invade and control an unfriendly South and subdue Confederate armies.