Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[228] attack. Sumner's right grand division held the town. Couch's Second Corps occupied it, and Wilcox's Ninth Corps stretched out from Couch's left toward Franklin's right. At 8.15 A. M. Couch received an order from Sumner, who was across the river at the Lacy House, “to form a column of a division for the purpose of seizing the heights in the rear of the'town” ; to advance in three lines, and be supported by another division to be formed in the same manner as the leading division; but the movement should not begin until further orders. French's division in column of three brigades, at two hundred yards' interval, was selected to lead, Hancock's in similar formation to follow. About eleven o'clock, the fog lifting, Couch signaled to Sumner that he was ready, and received orders to move. The troops debouched from the town, crossed with difficulty the bed of an old canal at right angles to their course, and deployed along the bank bordering the plain over which they were to charge. At this time Burnside, the army commander, was two miles away, across the river at his headquarters, the Phillips House. Sumner, the right grand commander, was at his headquarters also, on the other side of the Rappahannock. Couch, in command of the corps, and Howard, his remaining division commander, climbed the steeple of the courthouse in the town, and the battle began. It was not long before Couch exclaimed to Howard: “Oh, great God! See how our men, our brave fellows, are falling!” And so they were. They “could not make reply” or protest, and nothing was left but “to do and die.” “I remember,” said Couch, “that the whole plain was covered with men prostrate and dropping, the live men running here and there, and in front, closing upon each other, and the wounded coming back. The commands seemed to be mixed up. I had never before seen fighting like that, or anything approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction. There was no cheering on the part of the men, but a stubborn determination to obey orders and do their duty. As they charged, the artillery fire would break their formation and they would get mixed. Then they would close up together, everywhere receiving the withering infantry fire, and those who were able would ”