CHAP. LVIII.] FREDERICKSBURG. 469 he found, however, that the passage across the river to Fredericksburg was checked. The bridges had been burned, and the pontoons expected from Washington had not arrived a delay which gave Lee the opportunity of fortifying the heights behind the town. The armies confronting each other. The national army thus lay on the range of hills on the north side of the Rappahannock, the Confederates on the range of hills on the south side. Between them was Fredericksburg. The plain on which the city stood was completely commanded by the guns of both sides. Whichever entered it must be destroyed. The national troops, as we are now to see, ventured, and met with a bloody repulse. The Confederates did not dare to pursue them. It was not until the night of December 10th that things were ready for throw ing the pontoons across the river, and in the interval the Confederate cavalry had made an excursion as far as Dumfries, in Burnside's rear. pontoons. There was a sharp struggle in completing the pontoon The laying of the opposite the city, daylight having come before it was finished; the sharp-shooters, from their rifle-pits and from the houses on the edge of the river, made it impossible to continue the work. Through the fog which hung over the city columns of smoke were seen here and there ascending from houses set on fire by the furious bombardment with which Burnside hoped to drive off the Confederate riflemen. The cannonading was in vain, except as a cover to one hundred volunteers who daringly crossed over in boats, and expelled the Confederates from the houses and rifle-pits with the bayonet. The bridge was now (4 P.M.) finished, and troops thrown across. A second pontoon, lower down the river, was laid without interruption, the plain in front of it. being commanded by the national artillery, Passage of the river. and the opposite bank having thus been secured, others were added without delay, and the passage of the Rappahannock completed. Sumner's grand division and a section of Hooker's crossed before dark at the upper bridge; that of Franklin, consisting of the corps of Reynolds and Smith, at the lower. The movement was continued on the morning of the next day (12th) without intermission. The fortified position of the Confederates on the heights in the rear of Fredericksburg consisted of two lines of batteries overlooking the city. Their army, about 80,000 strong, lay in a semicircle from a point a mile above Fredericksburg to one about four miles below. Stonewall Jackson commanded on their right, Longstreet on their left. On the national side, Franklin was on the left, Hooker occupied the centre, and Sumner the right. The Confederate army at Fredericksburg. Behind Fredericksburg, the plain, gradually ascending, presents many inequalities of surface, and the bounding heights, trending toward the river, not only command the space in front, but also flank it. The Confederates had planted batteries in every available position to sweep this plain. There was a narrow road, skirted by a stone wall about four feet high, which ran along the foot of the heights. Burnside had learned from a prisoner that the Confederates had cut another road in the rear of the line of heights, by means of which they connected the two wings of their army, and avoided a long detour through a difficult country. Plan of the battle. His object, therefore, was to obtain possession of this road by making a powerful attack with his left, and, as soon as that had succeeded, to assault the position with his right. He then intended to advance his centre against their front and drive them out of their works. These operations would therefore bring CHAP. LVIII.] THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 471 successively into action Franklin, who was on the left, Sumner on the right, and Hooker at the centre. Franklin's force was strengthened by two of Hooker's best divisions, and was from 55,000 to 60,000 strong. By some alleged misunderstanding, Franklin, instead of making a vigorous-the main-attack, limited his operations to a mere reconnoissance, and, as we are now to see, the direct attacks of Sumner and Hooker, being unsupported, failed. ericksburg. A dense fog had covered the valley of the RappahanThe battle of Fred- nock on the morning of the 13th of December, but before eleven o'clock it had been dispersed by the rays of the sun. Concealed in its cloudy veil, the Confederate General Longstreet had personally come so near the national lines that he could hear their officers' commands. He found that an attack was to be made on Jackson, and notified him of it. Franklin's attack. The attack on the left by Franklin's grand division was made by General Meade with about 4500 men. He broke through the Confederate lines, reached the heights they had occupied, and got into the presence of their reserves, but the divisions which were to have sustained him failed to do so, and he was driven back. If he could have held his ground, the evacuation of the works in the rear of Fredericksburg must have taken place. He lost more than one third of his force in this attempt. Sumner's attack on the Confederate batteries. Sumner, on the right, had been making ready to storm the fortifications on Marye's Heights in his front. He had selected the corps of French and Hancock for that purpose, and had Howard's division in readiness to support them. A little before noon, French's corps, preceded by skirmishers, was seen, as a long black line, deploying in the rear of the city, and steadily advancing to the assault. Behind it followed another black line. It was Hancock's corps. The Confederate batteries were silent until their enemy was half way across the plain, when, in an instant, from the front, the right, the left, they poured forth a tempest of fire. Longstreet says that the gaps made by the artillery could be seen half a mile off. The thin line moved through the focus of death, quivering but still advancing, its own batteries in the distance giving it what help they might a canopy of iron. The line grew thinner and thinner; becoming too weak to hold together, it halted, and was dispersed. Another attempt was made. The line moved through the rain of grape and canister, and, closing the gaps torn through it, it seemed as if Fortune, unable to resist such daring, was about to smile on it. Two thirds of the plain were passed; a few steps more, and the flaming hill itself would give some protection-one moment CHAP. LVIII.] THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 473 for taking breath, then a bayonet charge up the heights, and the Confederates would be hurled out of their fortifications. Attack on the stone wall. In front was the gray stone wall. The Confederates had artillery that raked it right and left. In an instant it was fringed with fire and hidden in smoke. Enfiladed by the batteries, confronted by a mile of rifles, which were securely discharged behind its protecting cover, the surviving assailants were forced back to the shelter of a ravine, within musket-shot of the enemy. Here a line of assault was once more formed, and a bayonet charge made on the Confederate artillery. Thrice was that attack made-thrice vainly. The storming party, almost annihilated, was compelled to retire. Such was the fate of Sumner's attack on the right. That of Hooker on the centre fared no bet Hooker's attack. ter. He says: "I proceeded against the bar rier as I would against a fortification, and endeavored to breach a hole sufficiently large for a 'forlorn hope' to enter. Before that, the attack along the line, it seemed to me, had been too general-not sufficiently concentrated. I had two batteries posted on the left of the road, within four hundred yards of the position upon which the attack was to be made, and I had other parts of batteries posted on the right of the road, at the distance of five hundred or six hundred yards. I had all these batteries playing with great vigor until sunset upon that point, but with no apparent effect upon the rebels or upon their works. "During the last part of the cannonading I had given directions to General Humphreys's division to form, under the shelter which a small hill afforded, in column for assault. When the fire of the artillery ceased, I gave di rections for the enemy's works to be assaulted. General Humphreys's men took off their knapsacks, overcoats, and haversacks. They were ordered to make the assault with |