Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies: General Edwin Sumner's Account of the Battle of Fredericksburg (Illustrated)

Edwin Vose Sumner (January 30, 1797 – March 21, 1863) was a career United States Army officer who became a Union Army general and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the Civil War. His nicknames "Bull" or "Bull Head" came both from his great booming voice and a legend that a musket ball once bounced off his head.

In November 1861, Sumner was brought back east to command a division, and on May 5, 1862 he was promoted to major general in the Union Army. When George B. McClellan began organizing the Army of the Potomac in March, Sumner was given command of one of its new corps. McClellan had not originally formed corps within the Army; Sumner was selected as one of four corps commanders by President Lincoln, based on his seniority. McClellan originally formed a poor opinion of Sumner during the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. McClellan wrote to his wife, "Sumner had proved that he was even a greater fool than I had supposed & had come within an ace of having us defeated."

When Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside succeeded to the command of the Army of the Potomac, he grouped the corps in "grand divisions" and appointed Sumner to command the right grand division. In this capacity, the old cavalry soldier took part in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg, in which the II Corps suffered heavy casualties in frontal assaults against fortified Marye's Heights.

Sumner wrote an official account of the Battle of Fredericksburg that became part of The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. This edition of his account includes maps of the campaign and pictures of the important commanders of the battle.