The Army of the Potomac was now composed of three grand divisions, under the command of Generals Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin. The position of each division after crossing the river and the sites of the several bridges are clearly shown in the map. The Confederates occupied the range of hills back of the town, their artillery commanding all the open ground in front over which the Union troops would have to pass. Stonewall Jackson commanded on their right and Longstreet on their left. The morning was very foggy, and it did not clear until about eleven o'clock. General Franklin then opened the battle by sending General Meade to attack Jackson, but through some

WASHINGTON ARTILLERY.

misunderstanding of orders he used only a small part of his fiftyfive thousand men. Meade forced the enemy from their first lines and reached the top of the hills, but not being aided in time, was driven back with great loss.

In the mean time Sumner on the right had attacked the enemy in his front. Just back of the town is a height called Marye's Hill, from Mr. Marye, whose residence was on it, which was crowned by strong batteries, among them the famous Washington Artillery, of New Orleans. Along its base is a sunken road with a stone wall bordering the side nearest the city. In this road, which was unknown to the Union commanders, was posted a strong body of Confederate riflemen, protected by the wall, which was about four feet high. Several attempts were made to storm this hill, but in vain. The plain in front of the hill was swept by the fire from the Confederate batteries, which made great gaps in the Union lines and compelled the survivors to fall back in disorder, amid the yells of the enemy. Again the lines were formed, and again the brave boys in blue rushed into the iron hail. The stone wall was reached, and in an instant a fringe of flame leaped from the rifles behind it, while batteries placed at the ends poured grape and canister into

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the surging mass in its front. A canopy of smoke hung like a pall over the struggle, hiding it from view, but in a few minutes the Union lines, crushed by the dreadful fire, came reeling back and sought shelter in a little ravine that crossed the plain. A third assault was repulsed in like manner, and most of the Union generals saw that it would be useless to sacrifice more lives in attacking so strong a position.

General Burnside had watched the struggle from a hill on the other side of the river. When he saw the result of the attacks he rode down to General Hooker, whose division had not yet crossed the river, and exclaimed in desperation: "That crest must be carried to-night." Under his orders Hooker crossed over, but after consulting with the other officers, all of whom agreed with him that such an attack would be only sending the men to certain death, he rode back and tried to persuade Burnside not to try it again. But Burnside insisted, and ordered a fresh assault. Hooker began with a fierce artillery fire, hoping to silence the Confederate batteries on the hill, and about sunset ordered General Humphrey to assault the hill with four thousand men. The soldiers laid aside their knapsacks and overcoats, and moved forward with empty muskets, expecting to storm the works with the bayonet. They rushed forward bravely, and reached the stone wall, where they were met with a fire such as had thrown their comrades into confusion before, and the whole column was driven swiftly back, more than seventeen hundred of their number being left behind killed or wounded. Night now put an end to the battle, in which the Unionists had lost more than twelve thousand men, while the Confederate loss had been little more than five thousand. General Burnside was determined to continue the fight in the morning, and was only prevented from doing so by the opinion of all his principal officers that the enemy's position was too strong to be taken. The army lay two days in and around Fredericksburg, and on the night of December 15, during a violent storm of wind and rain, recrossed the river and again occupied its old position on Stafford Hills.

When the news of the victory reached Richmond there was great rejoicing, and it was fully expected that General Lee would destroy Burnside's army, which was supposed to be in a very perilous position with the river at its back. Indeed, Burn

side was in much the same predicament as Lee himself had been at Antietam, although he was much stronger in numbers than the Confederate general had been at that time; and Lee has been blamed nearly as much as McClellan for not following up his success on the following day. But Lee says that Burnside's attack had been so easily repulsed that he expected it would be renewed on the next day, and he thought it best to keep his strong position, where he was sure of victory, rather than go down into the plain, where his men would have been under the fire of the Union guns from Stafford Hills. He knew, too, that Burnside was stronger than he was, and he did

JOSEPH E. HOOKER.

not know how much he had suffered in the attack.

About a fortnight later General Burnside planned another movement against Richmond, intending to cross the river lower down, when he was suddenly called to Washington by President Lincoln. The President told him that he had heard from officers in his army that there was much dissatisfaction among the

troops, and that it was feared that another large forward movement would end in a great disaster. General Burnside was thus placed in a very unfortunate position: he had the confidence of neither his officers nor his men, yet he was kept by the government in a command for which he felt he was not fitted, and which he had been obliged to take against his wishes. To his honor be it said that he took upon himself all the responsibility for the great disaster which had befallen the Union arms. But his disagreements with his officers continuing, he prepared shortly afterward an order dismissing from the army some of its principal generals, including Generals Hooker and Franklin, and asked the President either to approve it or to accept his resignation. As it was impossible to dismiss

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all the best officers of the Army of the Potomac, General Burnside's resignation was accepted and the command was given to Major-General Joseph Hooker. At the same time General Franklin was relieved from duty and General Sumner was appointed to the command of the Department of the Missouri, but the latter soon after died. General Burnside was given command of the Department of the Ohio. The Army of the Potomac now went into winter quarters on the banks of the Rappahannock, where the soldiers built huts and cabins and made themselves as comfortable as they could. The Confederates followed their example, and the two armies lay inactive, within sight of each other, but with the river rolling between them, until spring once more made military movements practicable.

But how different was the condition of these two great bodies of men! The Union army was as well provided for as any which ever took the field: it was furnished with good clothing, warm blankets, and the best of food, and what the government did not supply the soldiers was sent to them by sanitary commissioners and kind friends at home. Indeed, so careful were people at home of their brave defenders in the field that not only necessities but even luxuries, such as sweetmeats and preserves, were freely sent to them. The government carried all these things to the army free of expense, taking care only that liquor should not be sent. But a great deal was smuggled into the camps in queer ways, packed in clothing or in little flasks hidden in loaves of bread or of cake. A story is told of an Irish woman in a Western city who went through the market one day looking for a very large chicken. On being shown one, she asked if it would hold a pint flask. The marketman was curious to know why she wanted a chicken for such a purpose, and she finally explained to him that she intended to cook the chicken, put the flask in full of whiskey for stuffing, and send it to her husband in camp.

The sutlers, or men who follow the army to sell provisions and other things to the soldiers, often supplied them with liquor, and the soldiers were very clever about hiding it from the officers. One day a soldier was seen coming from the sutler's with a tin coffee-pot in his hand.

"What have you there?" asked an officer whom he met.

The soldier did as he was ordered, and the officer, seeing milk run out, said "All right," and passed on. But when the man reached his tent, he showed his friends, who were awaiting him there, his coffee-pot full of whiskey. He had stopped the bottom of the spout with a cork and filled only that part with milk.

The poor Confederates, on the contrary, had very few of the comforts of life. Many of them were without suitable clothing, hats, or shoes, and few of them had decent blankets. to protect them from the sleet and snow. Their food, too, was seldom what it should be. So many of the Southern ports had been closed during the year either by capture or by the strict enforcement of the blockade that fewer supplies than usual had been brought in. General Lee had hoped to make up for this by captures in Maryland and elsewhere in the North, but the campaign had proved a failure and the shattered army had fallen back into Virginia only to be called upon for fresh efforts against its better-clad, better-fed, and better-armed enemy. It is almost impossible to tell the sufferings of the poor privates who trudged through that terrible campaign that lasted from the time of leaving Richmond until it went into winter quarters on the Rappahannock. In an appeal to the people of the South for aid they were likened to those endured by the French in their dreadful retreat from Moscow. This appeal was bravely answered, especially by the ladies. Carpets were taken up from the floors of hotels and private houses and made into overcoats and blankets, and beds were stripped of their coverings and sent to the soldiers on the Rappahannock. Women, young and old, rich and poor, went to knitting socks and mittens, and many plans were devised for furnishing shoes and hats. Much food, too, was collected and sent to the suffering soldiers at the risk of want at home; for the South had already begun to feel severely the privations brought on by the war, and only the rich could buy anything more than the bare necessities of life.

It is interesting to note some of the means taken to supply the daily wants of the people, thus nearly cut off from the world around them. It must be remembered that the Southern States had been engaged almost exclusively in planting and