Military operations in Fredericksburg, Virginia, were a significant part of the Chancellorsville Campaign, but they are overshadowed by what occurred in the wilderness of Spotsylvania County, where Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson’s forces overwhelmed a hapless Union army. To demonstrate how a Union force overpowered Confederate troops in and around Fredericksburg, Erik F. Nelson emphasises the role of terrain and re-examines contemporary documentation.