MG Hancock's Division at the Battle of FredericksburgIntroduction to the Battle of FredericksburgFredericksburg was the meeting place of the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia due to the political pressure on the Union to achieve a decisive military victory. Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan, which would have strangled the Confederacy into surrender through economic warfare, was overshadowed by Washington D.C.'s impatience and the aspirations of officers who were students of the great Napoleonic victories that had occurred less than a century earlier. President Abraham Lincoln called for a decisive victory. He was tired of his military leadership's failure to decisively confront and defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Allowing the war to drag on was to the Confederacy's advantage. Lincoln was so frustrated that he relieved General George B. McClellan for failing to defeat Lee at Antietam, and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside, who proved to be very conservative in the battle against General Lee. Knowing that General Lee was a scholar of the Napoleonic War, Burnside feared that Lee always had a large reserve corps waiting to flank him in case he was decisively engaged from the front. A Brief Background of Hancock and His Chain of Command Major General Winfield Scott Hancock was a member of the West Point class of 1844. He was commissioned into the infantry and served in the Mexican War. Before the Battle of Fredericksburg, Hancock had earned an excellent reputation as a combat leader for his actions in the Peninsular Campaign. General Hancock's first-line supervisor was Major General Darius N. Couch, who was the commander of the Second Corps. Major General Couch's Second Corps fell to General Edwin V. Sumne... middle of paper... the 150 he lost in the initial invasion of Fredericksburg. On December 14 and 15 the Second Corps returned to Fredericksburg. By 1 a.m. on December 16, they had all recrossed the Rappahannock. Works Cited Caldwell, “Report”, OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p233Couch, “Report”, OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.221French, “Report”, OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.286Howard, “Report”, OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.262Hancock, “Report”, OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.226Longstreet, “Report,” OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.578Meager, “Report,” OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt. 1, p.240Ransom, “Report,” OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.517William Marvel. “The Making of a Myth: Ambrose E. Burnside and the Union High Command at Fredericksburg ", in The Fredericksburg Campaign: Decision on the Rappahannock, ed. Gary W. Gallagher (Chapel Hill, 1995). Zook, "Report", OR, ser.1, vol.21, pt.1, p.253