Which of the serious defeats for the Union came first in the American Civil War: the Battle of Chickamauga or the Battle of Fredericksburg?
Battle of Fredericksburg The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside, as part of the American Civil War. The Union Army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city are remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than three times as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln as a "butchery."
Battle of Pea Ridge The Battle of Pea Ridge (March 7–8, 1862) (also known as the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern) was a battle of the American Civil War. It was fought at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas, near Leetown. Union forces, led by Brigadier-General Samuel R. Curtis, moved south from central Missouri, driving Confederate forces into northwestern Arkansas. Major-General Earl Van Dorn launched a Confederate counter-offensive, hoping to recapture northern Arkansas and Missouri. Curtis held off the Confederate attack on the first day and drove Van Dorn's force off the field on the second. This Civil War battle, one of the few in which a Confederate army outnumbered its opponent, essentially established Union control of most of Missouri and northern Arkansas.