Newspaper "New York Tribune", Dec. 19, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg

This is another nice item being offered, it is a “New York Tribune” newspaper dated “Friday, December 19, 1862”. Being that this paper was published right after the battle of Fredericksburg (Dec. 11 – 15) it is loaded with the reports coming from the field.

One article from the Army of the Potomac in Falmouth, Virginia reads “Yesterday morning, when daylight appeared, the enemy seemed to be, as they no doubt were, perfectly astonished that our army had succeeded in returning to this side of the Rappahannock River. On Monday, the pickets of the contending armies fronting the left wing, mutually agreed upon an ‘armistice’ among themselves, and freely intermingled with each other, exchanging their dead friends and comrades who lay on neutral ground”.

Many reports of the battle are written, and being a northern newspaper, the outcome of the battle was downplayed, but it was hard to avoid when faced with the facts. The newspaper is complete, and considering it is over 155 years old, is still in decent shape. It is amazing when you are reading what took place and you can imagine civilians of the time getting this same information for the first time, especially when many of their family and friends were participants in that very battle.