Army of the South Hardee, and cavalry commanded by Wade Hampton; both were under General P. G. T. Beauregard, commander of the Confederate Military Division of the West. However, both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and general-in-chief Robert E. Lee questioned Beauregard's ability to handle the situation in the Carolinas, so on February 23 Lee appointed General Joseph E. Johnston to command the Confederate forces in the Carolinas. Johnston established his headquarters at Smithfield, North Carolina and named his force the "Army of the South". It consisted of four separate field forces present in North Carolina: Johnston had a total of less than 25,000 men,
First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia charge of the Left Wing. With the authorization of corps later that year, the Right Wing was redesignated as the First Corps. At this time, Longstreet's corps contained twenty-one brigades organized into five divisions under major generals Lafayette McLaws, Richard H. Anderson, George E. Pickett, and John B. Hood, and Brigadier General Robert Ransom, Jr. Note: see Fredericksburg order of battle for the command structure of the Army of Northern Virginia at this time. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, starting on December 11 and concluding December 15, 1862, between Lee's Army of Northern Virginia