...ole force upon Fredericksburg, making that the base of his operations, with Richmond as the objective point. On the 17th of November his advance, Sumner's column, 33,000 strong, arrived in front of Fredericksburg . Had his pontoons arrived, Burnside says, Sumner would have crossed at once over a bridge in front of a city filled with families of Rebel officers and sympathizers of the Rebel cause, and garrison...