In December 1862, the outcome of the Civil War hung in the balance. Antietam had been a tactical failure for both sides - although the Union army had brought the Confederates to bay, it had not been able to pin them in one place long enough to destroy them. In December 1862, General Burnside, newly appointed to command the Army of the Potomac, planned to seize and secure the town of Fredericksburg, and then take the Confederate capital of Richmond...