The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-12-19

trucks. Then we hear splashing In the river,
a dark pathway lengthens out upon the silver
surface, shadows fit here and there along its
track, and the lusty blows of hammers re-echo
| from side to side. And yet no sound comes
from the enemy. sHave they evacuated he
placer" ''Are we not to fight after all !" is
asked.
Suddenly, crack crackl crack! from hun.
dred muskets, tells us the ball is opened. A
cry of pain comes up the bank from the gallant
engineers; mules dash off, with pontoons thun-
dcring after, across the plot; the musketry grows
louder and the whiz of bullets more freq uent
| frightened teamsters fly, panic-strcken, and the
artillery horses plunge at the caissons. Sudden
ly, boom! goes gun-another and another,
until thirty pieces are pouring shot and shell
upon the devoted city.
Graham, who did SO gloriously at Antieam;
Kirby, with Ricketts, old Bull Run battery; Mill
| Ter, Durell, Tyler, Smith, Hazard, Kinsey and
| Dickson, all join in the uproar, and musketry
is lost to the in the mighty roar that re.ech-
oes again and again from hill to hill. Gradu-
ally the fire slackens, and the engineers again
attempt the completion of the bridg,, but in
vain; and after third trial they fall back,
Bearing in their arms their wounded, dead and
dying.
1t was designed to lay down two bridges
at once, one at the lower end and the other at
the upper end of the city. The enemy, posted
in the houses and cellars, upon the bank of the
river, were safe from our infantry and MAIN
tanned continuous fire. Our infantry return
ed the fire spiritedly, but, finding it impossible
to drive the rebels from their cover, finally with
drew, leaving the disposition of the enemy to
artillery.
BY this time it was sunrise. The engineers
(Fiftieth New York; and the Filty-seventh and
Sixty sixth New York regiments had suffered
heavily, and the wounded soon began to crowd
the floors of the Lacy House. Other regiments
had also suffered, though less, and the surgeons
soon had work enough.
About eight o'clock the artillery fire ceased.
The fog was so dense that objects were invisible
one hundred yards from the guns. Fredericks-
burg was as silent as before. Again the engin-
GERS advance, and again the enemy drive them
back; orderes gallop to the different batter
les with instructions; message orders from
Aqua special train with solid shot, AMI a.
gain the thunder breaks out anew. For q time
the roar is indescribably awful.
The city, from its walls of brick, hurls back
thousand echoes, which beat up against the
Falmouth bluff, roll back again beyond the
town, and then from the distant hills once more
swell over to us, as though the heavens were
rent asundcr. At Gen. Summers headquarters,
half a mile distant, it becomes difficult to con-
verse in low tone, while at the batteries or
ders must be signalized BY and by, the firing
ceases and one is almost awe stricken with the
profound silence.
- LIZ f,,f fIa 81,
giles up red and fiery and the air is suffoca-
ting with the odor of gunpowder. Presently
the bank of fog begins to lift little, the glisten
ing roofs CLEAN family through the veil, then
the sunbeams scatter the clouds that intervene,
and Fredericksburg. utterly dcsolate, stands cut
before us. A huge column of dense black
smoke towers like n monument above the livid
flames, that leap and hiss and cracklc. licking
up the snow upon the roofs with lanibent
tongues, and stretching like giant.
The guns renew their roar, and we sec the
solid shot plunge through the masonry as though
it were pasteboard; other buildings are fired,
and before sundown a score of houses are in
ashes, while not one seems to have escaped the
pitiless storm of iron. A less number have
been fired than was anticipated; but the dam
age done by solid shot is terrible, and will re-
quire years to repair. Among the sufferers is
Mr.. Garland, loyal refugee, who witnessed
the bombardment from the headquarters of Gen.
Sumner of whose staff his son is member.
The residence of Mr.. Slaughter father of
the Mayor, DIR. Wallaces, Mrs. Hayes, and
Undertakes auction and commission store, are
among the buildings burned An English en-
sign hung conspicuously from one of the houses,
which, fortunately for the inmates, was less ex-
posed to our fire. Females could be seen dar-
ting through the streets, negroes carrying flrni-
ture from burning houses, and now and then
rebel gliding from one hiding place to another.
Our artillery would drive the enemy from their
cover upon the bank of the river; but when
compelled to cease, in order not to endanger the
lives of the regiments, the rebels would imme-
dately steal back and pick off our men with
the rife.
In the meantime our own troops lined the
hills upon this side as far as the eye could reach,
all intensely watching the operations. Artillery.
cavalry and infantry, in solid columns, covered
every plateau, and every camp in the vicinity
was well nigh abandoned in the desire to wit
ness the hombardment A number of females
appeared at the windows in the city at times
waving white flags and shouting to us that they
wished to come over. AS we were in the same
predicament, the disappointment was mutual,
and the atfrightcd females were left to the un-
disturbed enjoyment of our sympathy. When
ever such signals were displayed, however, tho
buildings were spared by onr artierists, so that
the inmates were but little less safe than they
would have been upon this side.
As night approached it was found that the
enemy had no idea of yielding to us free
passage across the river. With their facilities
for shielding themselves, our artillery could not
permanently disodgo them, and companies c
and G., of the 7th Michigan rcgimont, gallantly