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[242] side, they rushed up the steep bank, when the Confederate marksmen, seeing the new turn of affairs, emerged from cellar, rifle-pit, and stone wall, and scampered off up the streets of the town; but upwards of a hundred of them were captured. The buildings that had afforded shelter for the sharp-shooters were taken possession of, and the pontonbridges were in a few minutes completed. Thus by a simple stroke of genius was accomplished what the powerful enginery of a hundred guns had failed to effect. The affair was gallantly executed, and the army, assembled on the northern bank, spectators of this piece of heroism, paid the brave fellows the rich tribute of soldiers' cheers. That evening Howard's division of Couch's corps crossed the river and occupied Fredericksburg, having a sharp skirmish in the upper streets of the town; and the next day, under cover of a fog, the other divisions of Couch's corps, and the Ninth Corps under General Wilcox (thus including the entire Right Grand Division under Sumner), passed to the south side of the Rappahannock. At the same time, Franklin crossed several divisions of his command by the bridges he had constructed below. The Centre Grand Division under Hooker was still held on the north bank of the river. The whole of the 12th of December was consumed in passing over the columns and reconnoitring the Confederate position. The troops lay on their arms for the night under that December sky: then dawned the morning of Saturday, the 13th, and this was to be the day of the battle. Eight-and-forty hours had now passed since that signal gun, booming out on the dawn, sounded the note of concentration for the Confederate forces. Longstreet's corps was already at Fredericksburg; Jackson held the stretch of river below—his right at a remove of eighteen miles. But he had had abundant time to call in his scattered divisions, and the morning of the 13th found the entire Confederate army in position.1 Whatever hope of a successful issue attached to
1 ‘Early on the morning of the 13th, Ewell's division under General Early, and the division of D. H. Hill, arrived after a severe night's march from their respective encampments in the vicinity of Buckner's Neck and Port Royal—the troops of Hill being from fifteen to eighteen miles distant from the point to which they were ordered.’—Jackson: Report of Fredericksburg in Reports of the Army of Northern Virginia, vol. II., p. 434.
1866.
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