FRANKLIN’S BATTLE-FIELD AS SEEN FROM HAMILTON’S CROSSING.
Fredericksburg steeples in the distance. (From a sketch made in 1884.)
CONFEDERATE WORKS ON WILLIS’S HILL, NOW THE SITE OF THE NATIONAL CEMETERY.
From a war-time photograph.
Hooker came he ordered Frank’s battery to join Hazard. But this last effort did not last long. In the midst of it I rode to the briek house, accompanied by Colonel Francis A. Walker, Lieutenant Cushing, and my orderly, Long. The smoke lay so thick that we could not see the enemy, and I think they could not see us, but we were aware of the fact that somebody in our front was doing a great deal of shooting. I found the brick house packed with men; and behind it the dead and the living were as thick as they could be crowded together. The dead were rolled out for shelter, and the dead horses were used for breastworks. I know I tried to shelter myself behind the brick house, but found I could not, on account of the men already there. The plain thereabouts was dotted with our fallen. I started to cross to the fork of the road where our men, under Colonel John E. Brooke, were holding the cluster of houses.
When it became dark the wounded were being brought off the plain, and Hooker was talking about relieving my men in front by putting in Sykes’s division, and I said, “ No! No men shall take the place of the Second Corps unless General Sumner gives the orders. It has fought and gained that ground and it shall hold it.” Later the order came for Sykes to relieve the Second Corps, which was done about II o’clock.
That night was bitter cold, and a fearful one for the front line hugging the hollows in the ground, and for the wounded who could not be reached. It was a night of dreadful suffering. Many died of wounds and exposure, and as fast as men died
as our men. I determined to send a battery upon the plain to shell the line that was doing them so much harm; so I ordered an aide to tell Colonel Morgan to send a battery across the canal and plant it near the brick house. Morgan came to me and said, “General, a battery can’t live there.” I replied, “ Then it must die there! ”
Plazard took his battery out in gallant style and opened fire on the enemy’s lines to the left of the Marye House. Men never fought more gallantly, and he lost a great many men and horses. When
lery fire was simply terrible. I sent word several times to our artillery on the right of Falmouth that they were firing into us and were tearing our own men to pieces. I thought they had made a mistake in the range. But I learned later that the fire came from the guns of the enemy on their extreme left.
Soon after 4 o’clock, or about sunset, while Humphreys was at work, Getty’s division of Willcox’s corps was ordered to the charge on our left by the unfinished railroad. I could see them being dreadfully cut up, although they had not advanced as far
and after a few minutes said, “ Well, Couch, things are in such a state I must go over and tell Burnside it is no use trying to carry this line here,”—or words to that effect,— and then he went off. His going away left me again in command. Burnside was nearly two miles distant. It was not much after 2 o’clock when he went away, and it was about 4 when he returned. This was after Humphreys had made his charge and the fighting for the day was substantially finished. We were holding our lines.
Hooker left word that Humphreys, whose division was ready to advance, should take his cue from me. Butterfield also gave Humphreys orders to that effect. After a lull in the battle General Caldwell, a brigade commander under Hancock, sent word to the latter that the enemy were retreating from Marye’s house. It was probably only a shifting of the enemy’s troops for the relief of the front line. But, assuming that the report was true, I said, “ General Humphreys, Hancock reports the enemy is falling back; now is the time for you to go in!” He was ready, and his troops around him were ready. The order had evidently been expected, and after an interval of more than twenty-five years I well recollect the grim determination which settled on the face of that gallant hero when he received the words, “Now is the time for you to go in!” Spurring to his work he led his two brigades, who charged over precisely the same ground, but who did not get quite so near to the stone wall as some of French’s and Hancock’s men.
The musketry fire was very heavy, and the artil-
FRANKLIN’S MEN CHARGING ACROSS THE RAILROAD.
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