American Civil War - “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”

With nearly 200,000 combatants—the greatest number of any Civil War engagement—Fredericksburg was one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War. It featured the first opposed river crossing in American military history as well as the Civil War’s first instance of urban combat.
(Dec 11 - 15, 1862)
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fredericksburg
The Union Army of the Potomac suffered more than 12,500 casualties. Lee’s Confederate army counted approximately 6,000 losses. The Federals retreated, losing an opportunity to advance further into Confederate territory and capture the capital of Richmond.
Wave after wave of Federal soldiers advance over open ground to take the road, but each is met with devastating rifle and artillery fire from the nearly impregnable Confederate position. Confederate artillerist Edward Porter Alexander’s claim that “a chicken could not live on that field” proves to be prophetic. Lee, appalled by the carnage, remarks, “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”
December 13, 1862 -aurora borealis - The Northern Lights in the night sky following the terrible “Slaughter Pen” of the Battle of Fredericksburg. The Northern Lights had almost never before been seen so far South. It was said of that night, “the Heavens are draped” in mourning.

Chamberlain: In the Roman civil war, Julius Caesar knew he had to march on Rome itself, which no legion was permitted to do. Marcus Lucanus left us a chronicle of what happened:

"How swiftly Caesar had surmounted the icy Alps and in his mind conceived immense upheavals, coming war. When he reached the water of the Little Rubicon, clearly to the leader through the murky night appeared a mighty image of his country in distress, grief in her face, her white hair streaming from her tower-crowned head, with tresses torn and shoulders bare she stood before him, and sighing said:

Where further do you march? Where do you take my standards, warriors? If lawfully you come, if as citizens, this far only is allowed.
Then trembling struck the leader's limbs; his hair grew stiff and weakness checked his progress, holding his feet at the river's edge. At last he speaks:

'O Thunderer, surveying great Rome's walls from the Tarpeian Rock --

'O Phrygian house gods of Iulus, clan and mysteries of Quirinus who was carried off to heaven --

'O Jupiter of Latium, seated in lofty Alba and hearths of Vesta --

'O Rome, equal to the highest deity, favor my plans.

Not with impious weapons do I pursue you. Here am I, Caesar, conqueror of land and sea, your own soldier, everywhere, now, too, if I am permitted. The man who makes me your enemy -- it is he who be the guilty one.'
Then he broke the barriers of war and through the swollen river swiftly took his standards. And Caesar crossed the flood and reached the opposite bank. From Hesperia's forbidden fields he took his stand and said:

'Here I abandon peace and desecrated law.

Fortune, it is you I follow.

Farewell to treaties.

From now on war is our judge.'"

Hail, Caesar: We who are about to die salute you.

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