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protected by a stone wall.
The Washington Artillery, under Colonel Walton, occupied the redoubts on the crest of Marye's Hill, and those on the heights to the right and left were held by a part of the reserve artillery. Colonel E. P. Alexander was in charge of the division batteries of Anderson, Ransom, and McLaws.
A. P. Hill, of Jackson's corps, was posted between Hood's right and Hamilton's Crossing.
Early's and Taliaferro's divisions composed Jackson's second line, while D. H. Hill's division was formed in reserve.
Stuart, with two brigades of cavalry, under General Lee's son and nephew, was on Jackson's right.
A dense fog overhung the plain and river until after 9 A. M., obscuring from view the movements of the Federals.
Then, as the struggling rays of the sun lifted the mist, it unmasked to Lee and his army a picture unparalleled in surpassing splendor, unequaled in terrible sublimity.
From his lofty position on Telegraph Hill, in the center of his line, Lee saw the mass of Federals deploying in A. P. Hill's front.
Franklin was about to assault with “one division at least,” as ordered.
As a matter of fact, his attack was afterward made with Reynolds's First Corps of three divisions, under Meade, Gibbon, and Doubleday.
Meade, an excellent soldier, was sent in first; Gibbon to support him, and Doubleday to follow.
Meade selected for his point of attack the place where the ridge on Lee's right terminated and where it gradually reached the level of the plain.
It was a salient point, and at its southern end devoid of fortification.
Stuart had placed his cavalry and horse artillery far out on the plain, and his guns enfiladed the march of this attacking column.
The fire of his horse artillery, under his celebrated boy chief, Pelham, was very effective.
The second ball from a Whitworth gun tore through the knapsack of a Federal infantryman, distributed his clothing to the winds, threw a pack of playing cards twenty feet in the air, and created consternation and death as it flew a long distance down the line.
Doubleday's division was halted by Pelham's fire and the presence of cavalry on its flank, and Reynolds was deprived of its support, and with only two divisions and two regiments of Stoneman's Third
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