Battle of Fredericksburg - Day 1

Thursday, December 11, 1862

At 6:30 A.M. the Twenty-Seventh Connecticut assembled with the Third Brigade near the Phillips House, the headquarters of General Edwin Sumner of the Right Grand Division. From this location the Twenth-Seventh Connecticut witnessed the crossing of the Rappahannock River by the Seventh Michigan and the Twentieth Massachusetts regiments under heavy fire at the Upper Pontoon Crossing. Confederate sharpshooters fired volleys into the advancing Union troops as they crossed. In order to assist the crossing General Ambrose Burnside ordered the artillery to launch barrages on the town. After a long day of hand-to-hand street fighting the roads of Fredericksburg were cleared for the Union advance and the town was under the control of the Federal troops.

The Twenty-Seventh Connecticut remained on the Falmouth side of the Rappahannock River for the entire day.¹

References:
¹Winthrop Dudley Sheldon The "Twenty-Seventh," : A Regimental History (New Haven, Connecticut: Morris and Benham, 1866), 22-24.