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 Wassaw Sound The Battle of Wassaw Sound (or the Capture of the CSS "Atlanta") was an American Civil War naval battle between the Confederate ram CSS "Atlanta" and the "Passaic"-class ironclad monitors USS "Weehawken" and USS "Nahant" and the gunboat USS "Cimmerone" (later named "Cimmaron"), which took place on 17 June 1863 in Wassaw Sound, a bay in the present day state of Georgia. "Atlanta" ran aground while attempting to break the Union blockade, and after a short battle surrendered to the Union forces. Captain Rodgers became a national hero, and he was promoted to Commodore and received the Thanks of Congress as a result of his decisive victory.