at the time, where our whole army, had it been necessary, might have crossed. General Burnside replied "that he did not think it advisable to occupy Fredericksburg until his communications were established." This enabled General Lee to locate his whole army on the heights south of the city, and to erect there all the fortifications he desired, before our commander was ready to attempt a crossing; full twenty days being spent in getting open the communications referred to.

The battle of Fredericksburg.

What might have been done without firing a gun on the 17th November had become most palpably impossible on the 11th, 12th, and 13th December following. What General Lee feared above all things at the first period mentioned, he as strongly desired on the second, namely, a crossing over of our army in front of his bristling fortifications. When, before any rumour of the results of the battle had reached us, we heard of the manner in which the laying of the pontoon bridges was resisted, we said to our pupils, and to not a few individuals in the community, that one of two things was true,-that Lee had retreated and left only his rear guard to delay our crossing, or that he was making a feigned resistance to decoy Burnside over; and that if General Lee was, with his army, on those heights, a most disastrous and bloody defeat was just as sure to Burnside as anything future. Nothing bu the infatuation of patriotic ignorance can shield our commander from the voice of the blood of those 13,771 brave men so senselessly slaughtered in that presumptuous battle. It is to the credit of General Hooker that he required repeated and most imperative orders from General Burnside before he would order his men across into the field of the dead.

To form an apprehension of the field of battle, let the reader conceive of the Rappahannock as running for some distance an almost due east course, and then at the village of Falmouth, located on the north side of the river, turning a south-easterly direction. From one to two and a half miles below Falmouth, and on the south side of the river, is the city of Fredericksburg. In the river, from one to two

miles west of Falmouth, is located Beck's Island. Opposite, and just south of this island, commences a series of irregular heights running parallel with the river for the distance of about four miles, until they are broken by the valley formed by the Massaponase Creek. On these heights, which were capable of being impregnably fortified, General Lee located his army, and had diligently employed the twenty days allowed him by Burnside's delay in perfecting his defences, placing in position his 300 heavy guns, and locating his forces. This period Burnside had spent in perfecting his communications with the Potomac at Aquia village. By the 10th December all was in readiness for the fatal crossing, which was favoured by the nearness of the banks to the brink on the north side of the river. One entire day, the 11th, was spent in laying down the pontoon bridges, the delay being occasioned by the hot fire of the sharpshooters located in the brick houses in the city, houses near the shore. These being dispersed by troops ferried over the river, by the morning of the 12th the means of the passage of the army were perfected. Sumner's grand division passed over opposite the city, and deployed into the rising plain beyond for the purpose of storming the heights above them; Franklin with his own grand division and one of Hooker's corps, about half the army, passed over about two miles below the city; while Hooker with his other corps remained as

a reserve.

The most essential features of the plan of General Burnside were that the first and most effective assault should be made by Franklin, who was to turn Lee's right, and having carried the heights near Massaponase Creek, was to roll up the enemy's line upon his centre and left, when Sumner was to advance and storm the remaining portion of the position. This was the only plan that presented the remotest promise of success. The order to Franklin, however, was so indefinite as to imply that he was to act as above stated, or to make a demonstration in his front, and wait for final orders. He and his two corps commanders adopted the last and cowardly exposition as the true meaning, and hence one half of the army did not even attempt anything effective during the day. The absolute duty of

Franklin was, the meaning of his order being uncertain, to have sent a currier to Burnside for definite instructions, which could have been done in less than one hour. Such acts, however, were not to be expected from such a General as Franklin, especially after "his master," McClellan, "had been taken from his head." Burnside, also, when he found that his intended instructions were not obeyed, should have hastened to his left, and seen that the vital movement was made; at least, he should have sent a special and positive order to that effect. The only movement which rendered success possible was not made, and hence, if for no other reason, the disasters which everywhere followed.

On our right, Sumner's division was deployed opposite a stone wall which ran along near the bottom of the heights in their front. Behind this wall Longstreet's forces were securely located, and shot down our men at their leisure, while the artillery above completed the death-doings of the day. Our only son held his company in one of those lines until he was hit by a rifle bullet, and was then thrown ten feet into the air by a large clod of earth hurled against his breast by a cannon ball which struck the ground near him. For some time he lay upon the spot where he fell, apparently dead. At length, a fellow officer, observing that his associate was still breathing, had him put into an ambulance and sent across the river; that officer then going back to the ranks, probably to fall as his associate had done before him. Our son lingered on till the next June, and then died from the internal injuries received as above stated, and when dying expressed his full satisfaction that his life had been sacrificed for his country. On the failure of Sumner's efforts, Hooker with his remaining corps was ordered over. After crossing the river and surveying the field around him, Hooker hastened back, and entreated Burnside to call off his army, and not to continue the useless slaughter any further. Burnside was inflexible, and ordered an onward move. Hooker's corps then went in to be slaughtered as Sumner's had been. Thus ended. this dreadful day. Through a strange infatuation, our commander determined to renew the battle on the next day. That determination was met by such an unanimous remonstrance from the Generals under him, that he finally

desisted; and after the two hostile armies had confronted each other for two more days, ours recrossed to their Driginal position.

Subsequently, General Burnside made an attempt to cross his army above Fredericksburg, and turn Lee's position by falling upon his communications,-the only proper movement which should have been attempted at all. When his army had arrived at the banks of the river, and when success seemed certain, crossing, and a further prosecution of the enterprise, were rendered impossible by a fearful winter's storm and flood. Finding afterwards that leading Generals of his army had secretly leagued together for his removal, and had visited Washington to secure the result, he prepared a general order to dismiss or relieve from service Major-Generals Hooker, Franklin, Smith, and Brig. Generals Brooks, Newton, Cochrane, Ferrero, and Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor. The President, however, after consultation, relieved General Burnside, appointed General Hooker in his place, silently relieved General Franklin, and General Sumner at his own request, General Burnside being continued as a Major-General in the army.

That General Burnside was a pure patriot, an honest man, and an able corps commander, facts render quite manifest. That he had any capacity to plan and execute a great campaign, or fight a great battle, we have no evidence from any facts known to history.

CHAPTER XIV.

MOVEMENTS IN TENNESSEE, KENTUCKY, AND MISSISSIPPI.

THE appointment of General Haileck as Commander-inChief of all our armies, July 23rd, 1872, left General Grant in supreme command of our army, then concentrated at Corinth, Mississippi. The utter fruitlessness of our conquest in the capture of that place soon became manifest by the events which followed. Our army, instead of attempting anything effective against the enemy, who had quietly retreated from the place, was, as we have formerly stated, scattered in various directions, and so located as to be rendered everywhere too weak to be of service to the Union cause. The Confederate army, intact, had moved south, and was soon ready to recommence operations. Through their cavalry under Forrest and Morgan, raids were everywhere made in the rear of our army, raids in which such places as Murfreesboro' and Clarksville, Tennessee, and Lebanon, Henderson, and Cynthiana, Kentucky, were captured, and with these several thousands of prisoners and an immense amount of provisions, military stores, and other property; just what always occurs when places are taken by armies advancing on single lines into an enemy's country, and the hostile army escapes unhurt. Had Halleck merely shut up Bragg and Beauregard in Corinth, and confined them there with their forces, we might have been the raiders, and ultimately starved out the enemy. As it was, we, after capturing a place utterly useless to us, and after scattering our forces as stated, were powerless for offensive operations, while the enemy could swarm all around us, and inflict upon us almost any injuries he might desire.