A dangerous place to leave.
--The experience of Federal
Generals has surely been that
Fredericksburg was one of the safest places on the continent for them to occupy, but of all places on the continent the very worst for them to ‘"pull up stakes"’ and leave.
Death, disaster, and defeat, has been the portion of most of those who lingered here a while, enjoying the music of the waters of the
Rappahannock.
Gene
McCall and
Reynolds, with their army, had not left this vicinity more than ten days before both were captured at the fight of
Frazier's farm, along the
Chickahominy.
Gen. Shields and his army sojourned here for three days quietly, but returning towards the
Valley he met with a most terrible drubbing, and has not, we believe, been in service since.
Gen. King lived here in composure for months, out of the sound of villainous saltpetre and the reach of explosive shells, but he was knocked into ‘"fits"’ (an epileptic fit, it is said, which has certainly kept him from duty ever since,) at
Bowen's farm, in
Culpeper, by the bursting of a shell in his immediate vicinity.
Gen. Auger, who was the first to occupy this place with his brigade, when the rights of person and property were to be respected, met with a very severe and almost fatal wound — losing one of his limbs, we understand.
Gen. Gibbon, another
Brigadier of
King's division, had his brigade terribly cut up, but we believe escaped personal injury.
Gen. Patrick, who, on becoming our
Military Governor the second time, is reported to have said that during the first he administered the gospel, but that he now came to give the law — and whose two Administrations might very well have been thus designated — this officer was reported as killed during the
Manassas fight.
Gen. Stevens, who was our
Military Governor for a few brief days, and ordered to reinforce
Pope, was killed on the field of battle.
Gen. Reno, another of
Gen. Burnside's corps, was killed last week in the fight near
Middletown, Maryland.
This list speaks volumes as a commentary upon the war. Several of the officers volunteered in
Lincoln's service to invade Southern soil; the forfeit to them has been life itself--
Fredericksburg (Va) Herald. 
