The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-23 00:00:00

THE SOUT.

tainly dae to the Federal generals for passing
nearly 100,000 men and all their cannon in one
night across three pontoon bridges witho•it accident
or confusion. If the purpose of the F,47erals had
been penetrated, and the immense con 'entration of
troops in the streets of Fredericksb g had been
known to Gen. Lee, no doubt a few *hells thrown
into the town might have caused considerable
slaughter, and occasioned great confusion among
the dense masses of the enemy. But when the
morning of the 16th dawned great was the surprise
of Gen. Lee and of the Confederates to find that not
one Yankee, save those who lay stiff and stark, and
a few wounded men in Fredericksburg, too badly
injured to bear transportation across the river, re-
mained on the southern side of the Rappahannock.
There is a certain rhyme about the King of France
and the manner in Ns hich he handled his 40,000 men
which irresistibly recurred to the memory when it
was found that Gen. Burnside and his troops were
all gone.

fashion
of ?
between Gone, indeed, they were ; but in what
A glance at the long slope eenthe town
Fredericksburg and the foot of Marye's Heights
gave the best idea of the magnitude of the toll which
had been exacted for their passage of the Rappa-
hannock. A ride along the whole length of the lines
told also a sad tale of slaughter; but when the eye
had once rested upon the fatal slope above men-
tioned the memory became fixed upon the spot; nor
for 50 years to come will that scene ever fade from
the memory of those who saw it. There, in every
attitude of death, lying so close to each other that
you might step from body to 1314', lay acres of the
Federal dead. It seemed that most of the faces which
lay nearest to Col. Walton's artillery were of the well
known Milesian type. In one small garden, not more
than half an acre in size, there were 151 corpses. I
doubt whether in any battle-field of modern times
the dead have ever lain so thick and close. By uni-
versal consent of those who have seen all the great
battles of this war, nothing like it has ever been
seen before. It is said that the morning after a vic-
tory always breaks upon naked corpses. It was not
so in this case, but thesole reason was that the pickets
of both armies swept the slope with their fire, and
that any living thing which showed upon it was the
target for a hundred bullets. But three or four
mornings after the battle it was seen that the fur-
tive hand which invariably glides into the pocket of
victory had been busily at work, and naked corpses
and others from which everything but their under
clothing had been rifled were visible in abundance.
So tremendous was the fire, chiefly emanating from
Cobb's Brigade, posted in the lane at the foot of
Marye's Heights, that even chickens in the gardens
in front fell pierced by it. It was remarked by a
Confederate General intimately acquainted with the
Federal General Sumner, who commanded the
Federal right, " Was there ever any other General
but Sumner who would have got his men into a
place in which not even chickens could live ?'' But
the fire across the slope was fatal not only to men
and chickens, but also to every other living thing.
Horses by dozens were strewn along the hillside;
and occasionally a dead cow or a dead hog lay close
to the silent and too often fearfully torn and mue:=
lated human bodies which everywhere met the view.
Such a sight has rarely been seen by man. It is
doubtful whether any living pen could do justice to
its horrors; but it is certain that it would be easy
to write more than any ordinary reader would care
to read. It is known that during the nights of the
13th and 14th very many bodies were carried off
and buried by the Federals; but when the party of
Federals detailed to bury their comrades had com-
pleted their task it was found that under Marye's
Heights they had buried 1,493 corpses, and 800 more
on the Federal left. Computing that 3,000 Fede-
rals fell dead on the field, and adding six or seven
times that number of wounded, you may gain an
approximate estimate of the Federal loss on the 12th
December. To this must also be added upwards
of a thousand prisoners taken by the Confederates,
and all the stragglers and deserters who strayed
away from the Federal army. It is incontestable
that the 13th of December will be graven as deep
in the annals of the great Republic as is the anni-
versary of Jena upon the hearts of the Prussian
people.
It remains for me to give some account of the
town of Fredericksburg, and the condition in which
it was left by its ruthless invaders. Desolate it had
appeared to me at the end of last month; how shall
I describe its appearance now? The first impres-
sion of those who rode into its streets, and who had

witnessed the feu d'enfer which the Federal guns
had poured upon it for hours upon Thursday, the
11th of December, was surprise that more damage
had not been done. But this is explained by the
fact that the Federals confined themselves almost
entirely to solid round shot, and that very few shells
were discharged into the town. Neverthless, a more
pitiable devastation and destruction of property it

would be difficult to conceive. Whole block; o,

buildings have in many places been given to the
flames. There is hardly a house through which at
least one round shot has not bored its way, and
many are riddled through and through. The Bap-
tist church is rent by a dozen great holes, while its
neighbour, the Episcopalian church, has escaped
with one. Scarcely a spot can be found on the face

of the houses which look towards the river which is
not pockmarked by bullets. Everywhere the houses

have been plundered from cellar to garret ; all
smaller articles of furniture carried off, all larger
ones wantonly smashed. Not a drawer or chest
but was forced open and ransacked. The streets

were sprinkled with the remains of costly furniture
dragged out of the houses in the direction of the
pontoons stretched across the river. Many of
the inhabitants clung to the town, and sheltered
themselves during the shelling in cellars and
basements. Among others, it is stated that Mrs.

Slaughter, the wife of the Mayor, returned two

or three days after the bombardment to her
house, which she found ransacked and gutted. A

Federal officer offered a few words of explanation

or apology, when she replied, pointing to half a

dozen dead Federals lying within sight of ;ler

house,

" I am repaid for all I have suffered by the

sight of these." But there are sights more hor-
rible than the devastation of property, and which,
like the hillside below Marye's Heights, neither

admit of nor invite description. It must be remem-

bered that into the narrow limits of the town of

Fredericksburg four-fifths of the Federal wounded
were carried on the 13th and 14th of December.
Hardly a house or shed but was converted into a
hospital ; the churches and municipal buildings
were crowded to bursting with dying and mangled
men. Shutters and boards were laid down in gar-
dens and yards, and upon them layer after layer of
wounded men was stretched. Upon the night of
the 13th the whole town was one continuous lazar-

house; a few days later, when it was occupied by
none except the dead, it became a continuous char-
nel-house. Death, nothing but death everywhere;
Great masses of bodies tossed out of the churches as
the sufferers expired ; layers of corpses stretched

- __....
on the balconies of houses as though taking a siesta.

In one yard a surgeon's block for operating was
still standing, and, more appalling to look at even
than the bodies of the dead, piles of arms and legs,
amputated as soon as their owners had been carried
off the field, were heaped in a corner. There were
said to be houses literally crammed with the dead;
but into them, horrified and aghast at what I saw,

I could not look.
A gentleman who never left the town
occupation by the Federals, but concealduringed
its
occupation m selsf
during the bombardment in a cellar, tells me that
for hours and hours the long procession of men
with stretchers, bearing the wounded down to the
pontoons and across the river, filed through the
streets. If any human being could look upon
Fredericksburg this week and fail bitterly to exe-
crate the men who, never exposing their little fin-
gers to risk, drive ignorant German and Irish pea-
sants up such a slope of death, high indeed must
be the value at which he appraises the Union to the
family of man. Strange is the infatuation which
induces Northern statesmen and journalists to re-
present the Union as the last and only hope of
mankind. Will the surface of the continent of North
America be circumscribed by half an acre or its fer-

tility be diminished because the Union has ceased

to exist ? Are free institutions in danger, and wil,

the liberty of the individual in two Republics be
leas than it has been in one ?, The conclusion is ir-