Meade's Breakthrough at Fredericksburg

Today, when we hear or read of the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, attention is focused on the countless infantry charges up Marye´s Height´s into the artillery and rifles of the Confederate Army. Scenes of The Irish Brigade storming the rebel wall and of Richard Kirkland giving water to wounded men in blue dominate the Fredericksburg story. Yet as Francis O´Reilly, Fredericksburg Historian and author has stated for many years, the key to the entire Battle on December 13,1862 was the action downstream where Meade´s Pennsylvania Reserves broke, for a short time, the Confederate lines attempting to carry out what many feel to have been Major General Ambrose E. Burnside´s intended plan that day. Inspired by this fact and mindful that a book focusing solely on the "Meade Assault" had yet to be researched and written, Don Ernsberger has written the story of Meade´s Breakthrough and the Confederate Response.
About the Author: Don Ernsberger has been an educator, political activist and Civil War buff for almost all of his life. At age 59, he now spends his time as Deputy Chief of Staff for a US Congressman in Washington DC when he is not out on a Civil War reenactment site or battlefield tour or traveling the world or at his summer home in Cape May New Jersey. For 30 years, he was a High School and College teacher of American History and Philosophy and spent a large amount of his life as an activist with the Libertarian Movement in America. As an undergrad at Penn State University, he was active in libertarian causes from student rights to resistance to collectivism and the military draft and actively opposed the Vietnam war. During his teaching career, he earned is graduate degrees, built a house, raised a family and was active outside the classroom with the Libertarian Party as an organizer, member of the National Committee and candidate for the US House and US Senate. His lifelong interest in the War between the States stretches back to 5th grade when he wrote a small book on the issues that caused the war and when his parents took him to Gettysburg in 1863. He has read and studied all of the classic works on the war and has been involved as a Civil War reenactor with the 69th Pa "Irish Volunteers" for the past 11 years with his son Mike. He can be found hiking across battlefields or on a backpack trail; playing his guitar or riding his waverunner; working on Congressional legislation or researching & writing a new book; traveling the world or just pondering philosophy.