Type: Exhibition caption

Detail: Francis Butler of Paterson was a Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the Twenty-fifth New Jersey Volunteers, which suffered grievous losses at Fredericksburg. Soldiers often communicated what they experienced through drawings. The futility of the Fredericksburg endeavor is apparent from Francis Butler’s effort seen in this letter to Rev. William H. Hornblower of Paterson. Butler himself died of wounds received at Suffolk, Virginia on May 4, 1863.

Type: Exhibition case

Name: From Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville

Detail: In late 1862, General Ambrose Burnside, who had had some success at Roanoke Island and New Bern, North Carolina, replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside devised a plan to go around Robert E. Lee and on to Richmond by crossing the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. For many of the recently recruited nine-month and three-year New Jersey regiments, including the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-eight, the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 would be their first experience of warfare. By the end of the day, the Union army, unable to break through the Confederate defenses, had suffered one of the worst defeats of the war. The defeat caused low morale in the army and at home, and dissatisfaction with Burnside, who was replaced by Joseph Hooker in January 1863. In May, Hooker made another attempt to cross the Rappahannock upstream from Fredericksburg, in what became known as the Chancellorsville campaign.