Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 6.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[101] we lost was thrown away. We did not take a battery or silence a gun. We did not reach the crest of the heights held by the enemy in a single place. But so determined was Gen. Burnside to carry out his programme, that he ordered a renewal of the attack on Sunday morning, and determined to rush a column of fifteen thousand men upon the rebel batteries. The orders to this effect were actually given, and the divisions to make the assault assigned their places, when the vehement protest and expostulation of General Sumner, who declared his troops unfit for the enterprise, prevailed, and the madness that would again have decimated the army was quieted.

Sunday morning was clear and breezy, and the rebel lines of battle were plainly seen upon the hills, extending for miles. There was a good deal of skirmishing during the day, and several times the musketry was rapid, but there was no general advance or considerable engagement. Sunday afternoon our principal generals were for several hours engaged in consultation at Gen. Sumner's headquarters. The night passed with occasional firing of musketry. On Monday morning there was heavy artillery-firing for a few minutes on the left. It was supposed to be shelling the rebels out of the ambuscades, from which their sharp-shooters annoyed his pickets. I left the neighborhood at half-past 8 o'clock am. That night, the telegraph tells us, the army was withdrawn from the enemy's trap — that is to say, Fredericksburgh. We should be grateful that the operation was successfully performed. The enemy would have been delighted with further exhibitions of valor like that of Saturday on our part. The occupation of Fredericksburgh was a blunder — the evacuation of the place saves the army. Our losses are heavy — heavier than have been admitted in official quarters. The loss in Couch's corps, which suffered far more than any other, was, as I was told, on high authority, one thousand five hundred killed, and five thousand five hundred wounded. Franklin's loss, I was told at General Burnside's headquarters, by a gentleman, who, probably, knew as much about it as the General himself, was between four and five thousand. There were considerable losses in divisions outside Couch's corps.

Making all due allowances for the exaggerations that, particularly if the news is unfavorable, may be looked for after a battle, and for the return of stragglers, I do not see how it is possible to reduce the figures of the loss of Saturday, in killed and wounded, below ten thousand, and I very much fear they will reach twelve thousand, while the immediate reduction in the force of effectives from all causes is not far from fifteen thousand.

The army has, however, been reinforced by Sigel and Slocum, and is altogether the largest and best appointed army we have ever assembled; and was not, so far as I could observe, (though my opportunities for observation after the fight were not very extensive,) disheartened by the reverse suffered. The army, placed upon the right line of operations against Richmond, and under competent leadership, is still ample for the task that has been set before it — that of conquering the capital of rebeldom.¹

Since the recent battle at Fredericksburgh I have noticed many accounts in our various Northern journals of the first crossing of the river by our troops. One says that a hundred volunteers from various regiments crossed first; another says that the Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth Massachusetts volunteers volunteered to cross first in boats; another still says the Pennsylvania reserves were in the advance, etc.; another says that two of Baxter's Fire Zouaves got killed, and that they had the good fortune to find out the name of one of them. We think here that the man who made this discovery ought certainly to have been rewarded. Not having the good fortune to belong to one of those regiments which have gained their reputation by corresponding with the papers, and never having written a line for publication myself, it is with the greatest reluctance that I make the attempt, but a sense of duty, in justice to our noble little regiment, and to our State, which all justly feel proud of, compels me in this case to offer a few facts.

They are simply as follows: On the morning of the eleventh of December, we were in line at daybreak, and marched between three and four miles to the Lacey House, which stands on the bank of the Rappahannock, directly opposite Fredericksburgh. On arriving there we found that the engineer corps, which had been laying down the pontoon bridge during the night, and had succeeded in getting it about two thirds of the way across at daylight, had since that time been continually fired upon by the enemy's sharp-shooters, who were concealed in the houses and cellars along the opposite bank, and who killed and wounded so many of the workmen that they were forced to abandon the bridge. At this juncture we were ordered to deploy as sharp-shooters along the edge of the bank and below the bridge. This we did, and opened our fire at will against the enemy on the opposite side, but under the protection of brick houses, cellars, and rifle pits he could laugh at us with impunity. One hundred and forty pieces of artillery were then opened upon this part of the town, but could not dislodge them. The attempt was again made to put down the bridge, but again failed. General Burnside then proposed that a party of volunteers be made up from the corps to cross in the boats, and dislodge therm. Our Colonel, (Hall,) now commanding the brigade, told General Burnside that he had a regiment which would volunteer to cross, and made us the offer, which was promptly accepted. Arrangements were made that the men of the engineer corps should man the boats and row us over. We placed our men along the banks of the river at proper intervals, so that they could