“ [346] of the magnitude of his preparations, and the extent of his force, seemed to be comparatively insignificant. Believing, therefore, that he would attack us, it was not deemed expedient to lose the advantages of our position, and expose the troops to the fire of his inaccessible batteries beyond the river, by advancing against him. But we were necessarily ignorant of the extent to which he had suffered, and only became aware of it, when, on the morning of the 16th, it was discovered that he had availed himself of the darkness of night, and the prevalence of a violent storm of wind and rain, to recross the river.” The battle of Fredericksburg presented a disproportion of loss on the Federal and Confederate sides, such as no battle of the war had as yet exhibited. A great victory, measured by the list of casualties, had been obtained by the Confederates with a comparatively small loss. Gen. Burnside, in his official report, stated: “Our killed amounts to 1,152, our wounded to about 9,000, and our prisoners to about 700.” A few days after he despatched: “On the authority of our medical director, the whole number of wounded is between six and seven thousand.” Gen. Lee, in his official despatch, writes: “Our loss during the entire operations, since the movements of the enemy began, amounts to about eighteen hundred killed and wounded.” Among the killed were two conspicuous names--Brig.-Gen. Maxcy Gregg of South Carolina, and Brig.-Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb of Georgia-men, who, aside from military merit, had earned the reputation of statesmen, and had adorned the councils of the South by brilliant eloquence and chivalrous sentiment. “The country,” wrote Gen. Lee, “consents to the sacrifice of such men as these, and the gallant soldiers who fell with them, only to secure the inestimable blessing they died to obtain.” This sentiment was written when the cause of the Confederacy was above all earthly things in the minds of its people, and when the dying words of Gregg were commemorated like a phrase of antique heroism: “Tell the Governor of South Carolina I cheerfully yield my life for the independence of my State!”
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“ [346] of the magnitude of his preparations, and the extent of his force, seemed to be comparatively insignificant. Believing, therefore, that he would attack us, it was not deemed expedient to lose the advantages of our position, and expose the troops to the fire of his inaccessible batteries beyond the river, by advancing against him. But we were necessarily ignorant of the extent to which he had suffered, and only became aware of it, when, on the morning of the 16th, it was discovered that he had availed himself of the darkness of night, and the prevalence of a violent storm of wind and rain, to recross the river.” The battle of Fredericksburg presented a disproportion of loss on the Federal and Confederate sides, such as no battle of the war had as yet exhibited. A great victory, measured by the list of casualties, had been obtained by the Confederates with a comparatively small loss. Gen. Burnside, in his official report, stated: “Our killed amounts to 1,152, our wounded to about 9,000, and our prisoners to about 700.” A few days after he despatched: “On the authority of our medical director, the whole number of wounded is between six and seven thousand.” Gen. Lee, in his official despatch, writes: “Our loss during the entire operations, since the movements of the enemy began, amounts to about eighteen hundred killed and wounded.” Among the killed were two conspicuous names--Brig.-Gen. Maxcy Gregg of South Carolina, and Brig.-Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb of Georgia-men, who, aside from military merit, had earned the reputation of statesmen, and had adorned the councils of the South by brilliant eloquence and chivalrous sentiment. “The country,” wrote Gen. Lee, “consents to the sacrifice of such men as these, and the gallant soldiers who fell with them, only to secure the inestimable blessing they died to obtain.” This sentiment was written when the cause of the Confederacy was above all earthly things in the minds of its people, and when the dying words of Gregg were commemorated like a phrase of antique heroism: “Tell the Governor of South Carolina I cheerfully yield my life for the independence of my State!”
1866.
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