Named Entity Results, Marye's Heights (Virginia, United States)

A hot day on Marye's Heights. by William Miller Owen, First Lieutenant, C. S. A. On the night of the 10th of December we, of the New Orleans Washington Artillery, sat up late in our camp on Marye's Heights, entertaining some visitors in an improvised theater, smoking our pipes, and talking of home. A final punch having been brewed and disposed of, everybody crept under the blankets and was soon in the land of Nod. In an hour or two we were aroused by the report of a heavy gun. I was up iMarye's Heights, entertaining some visitors in an improvised theater, smoking our pipes, and talking of home. A final punch having been brewed and disposed of, everybody crept under the blankets and was soon in the land of Nod. In an hour or two we were aroused by the report of a heavy gun. I was up in an instant, for if there should be another it would be the signal that the enemy was preparing to cross the river. Mr. Florence, a civilian in the bivouac, bounced as if he had a concealed spring under his blanket, and cried out, Wake up! Wake up! What's that? The deep roar of the second gun was heard, and we knew what we had to do. It was 4 o'clock. Our orders were that upon the firing of these signal guns we should at once take our places in the redoubts' prepared for us on Marye's Hill

ts, even on that bitter cold day, in her anxiety to administer to necessities greater than her own. Mrs. Stevens still lives in her old home at the foot of Marye's Heights, honored by every Confederate soldier. Not long ago, hearing that she was very sick, I went out with a party of gentlemen friends who were visitors in Frederreplied: Yes, ask Major Mason in,--we were old soldiers together. After Burnside had withdrawn his forces across the Rappahannock, General Lee rode over to Marye's Heights, where I then was, and said to me: Captain, those people [meaning the enemy] have sent over a flag of truce, asking permission to send a detachment to bury th return, he wrapped up a bottle of brandy to give me at parting, and sent me under escort to the river. Having recrossed, I mounted my horse and rode back to Marye's Heights, but, enjoyable as this escapade had been, I said nothing, of course, about it to my army friends till long afterward. That day I witnessed with pain the b

day. He was cheerful in his tone and did not seem greatly oppressed, but it was plain that he felt he had led us to a great disaster, and one knowing him so long and well as myself could see that he wished his body was also lying in front of Marye's Heights. I never felt so badly for a man in my life. The next day, Sunday, the 14th, our men began digging trenches along the edge of the town. We were on the alert, for there was some fear of an Warehouse in Fredericksburg used as a hospitalericksburg at all hazards. I had an argument with General Burnside upon that point, telling him that I was willing to have him throw all the responsibility upon me; that if we held the town we should The ground between Fredericksburg and Marye's Heights. From a War-time photograph. The portico of the Marye mansion is faintly marked among the trees of the hill in the middle-background. The road on the right is the end of Hanover street and the beginning of the Telegraph road, by which m

ttle only to see a field full of flying men and the sun low in the west shining red through columns of smoke,--six deserted field-pieces on a slight rise of ground in front of us, and a cheering column of troops in regular march disappearing on our left. But the day was then over and the battle lost, and our line felt hardly bullets enough to draw blood before darkness put an end to the uproar of all hostile sounds, save desultory shell-firing. For an hour or two afterward shells from Marye's Heights traced bright lines across the black sky with their burning fuses. Then, by command, we sank down in our lines, to get what sleep the soggy ground and the danger might allow us. Experience had taught us that when the silent line of fire from the shells had flashed across the sky and disappeared behind us the scream and explosion that followed were harmless, but still it required some effort to overcome the discomfort of the damp ground, and the flash and report of bursting shells, and

per fire where the second was completed. By 9 o'clock that night the division of General Howard and my brigade had obtained possession of the town, the former taking the right of the line and the latter the left. The whole of the 12th of December into the night was occupied in crossing the army, and on the morning of the 13th the battle began and continued at intervals until darkness set in. During a considerable portion of that day, while the attacks upon the enemy's center, known as Marye's Heights, were being made, General George W. Getty, my division commander, and myself were on the roof of the Slaughter house, a high residence at the lower end of the city, named after its owner. From this prominent position our repeated repulses and the terrible destruction of the Union troops had been witnessed. At about half-past 3 o'clock the order came for General Getty's Third Division of the Ninth Corps to make an attack upon that part of the enemy's line to the left of where the princ

ch he said that he had visited their city but once before, and although his reception now was not nearly so warm as on that former day, yet it was far more agreeable to him,--a conceit which greatly pleased his hearers. Our drive over the Fredericksburg field, which we visited on the way, was on one of the most perfect of autumnal days, and at every turn fresh reminiscences of that battle were suggested. As we approached the flag-staff of the National Cemetery, on the hill adjoining Marye's Heights, where more than fifteen thousand of the Union dead of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania are buried, General Hooker said: I never think of this ground but with a shudder. The whole scene is indelibly fixed in my mind, as it appeared on that fatal day. Here on this ground were ranged the enemy's cannon, and the heights farther to his left were thickly planted with pieces; all the infantry he could use was disposed behind earth-works and stone walls

d to ; ride ahead and tell Colonel Shaler to brush away the enemy's The Stone wall under Marye's Heights. From a photograph taken immediately after Sedgwick carried the position by assault. picgreat caution through the streets and in the outskirts of the town. As the morning dawned, Marye's Heights, the scene of the fierce attacks under Burnside in the previous December, were presented to. Sedgwick says, Nothing remained but to carry the works by direct assault. The attack on Marye's Heights was made under direction of Newton. Two columns, each marching by fours, were formed on thutskirts of the town and to the left The capture of a gun of the Washington artillery, on Marye's Heights. of the Telegraph road, which commanded a full view of the assault. The movements of the e enemy along the Salem Church ridge, and they extended their right until on Monday morning Marye's Heights and Fredericksburg, won at so great a sacrifice, were again theirs. Sedgwick's position,

afterward, and the advance of his troops in the narrow road on which alone they could move was checked by the shell and canister of twelve Napoleon guns, from an elevation within five hundred yards. The slaughter and confusion were greatly increased by this terrible fire in the night, so that the pause in the attack was one of those fatalities of war that no foresight can prevent. It was about 1 o'clock on Sunday, May 3d, that Lee received information that Early had been driven from Marye's Heights and was falling back before Sedgwick. Jackson's corps, which had been fighting since 6 o'clock the previous evening, with very little rest during the night, renewing the conflict at daylight, and capturing the positions at Chancellorsville, was much diminished by casualties and much exhausted by fatigue, hunger, and thirst; but it was preparing to move upon Hooker's last line of intrenchments, erected during the night on very strong positions. My division was in the lead in line of ba

st his superiors; but I never heard him attribute to Sedgwick such high qualities for a great command as he imputed to some other officers of that army.--C. F. B. The first-named had a strong popular lead, but General Halleck, backed by the Secretary of War, contended that there were reasons of an imperative character why he should not be intrusted with an independent command of so high a degree of responsibility. Stress was laid upon the fact that in the dispositions for the attack on Marye's Heights, General Burnside, who at that time could have had no valid motive for jealousy of Hooker, had intrusted him with no important part, although he was present on the field and of equal rank with Sumner and Franklin, to whom the active duties of the battle were assigned. President Lincoln apparently yielded to the views of those in charge of the military department of affairs, and thereupon Halleck confidentially inquired of Reynolds if he was prepared to accept the command. Reynolds rep