The New York herald., 1862-12-13

spritedly, but, finding it impossible to drive the rebel
from their cover finally withdrew, leaving the disposition
OF the enemy 70 our artillery.
By this time It was sunrise. The engineers Fiftieti
New York; and the Fifty seventh and sixty ysixth New
York regiments had suffered heavily and the wounded
began crowd the floors Of the Lacy House. Other
regiments had also suffered though much less and tht
surgeons soon had WORK enough.
About eight O'Clock the artillery fire ceased The fog
so dense that objects were invisible one hundred yards
from the guns Fredericksburg was silent before
Again the engineers advance and again the enemy drive
them back orderlies gallop 70 the different batteries
with instructions; q message orders from Aqua
special train with solid shot and again the thun
der breaks out anew For . time the roar is in
descrbaby awful the city from its walls
Of brick hurls back a thousand echoes, which
beat up against the Falmouth blum. roll back again be
yond the town. and then from the distant hills more
swell over TO us, as though the heavens were rent
asunder. At General Summers headquarters, half mile
distant, Il becomes difficult converse In low tone,
while at the batteries orders be signalsd BY and
by the firing ceases and s almost stricken with
the profound silence The mist still clings to the river
the sun struggles up red and fiery, and the air
is sunocating with the odor Of gunpowdcr. Pre-
sently the bank OF fog begins 10 iift little,
the gistening roofs CLEAN family through the
veil then the sunbeams scatter the clouds that intervene,
and fredericksburg utterly desoate stands out before
t,l-s a
ment above the livd flames, that leap and hiss and
crackc licking up tho upon the roofs with ambcnt
tongues and stretching like giant. The guns renew
their roar and the solid shot plunge through the
masonry as though we're psseboard; other buildings
are Hrod and before sundown Of houses IN
ashes while not ono seems to have escaped
the pitilcss storm Of iron. less number
have been fred than anticipated; but the damage
done by solid shot is Terrible and viii require years
repair Among the sufferers is Mr.. Garland, loyal re-
fugee who witnessed the bombardmcnt from the head
quarters Of Gen. Sumner, OF whose staff his Is
ber. The residence OF Mr.. Slaughter, father Of the
Mayor Dr. walacs's. Mrs. Hayes and Undertakes
tion and commission store, are among the buildings
burned An English ensign hung conspcuously from ono
Of the houses which, fortunately FOR the inmates less
exposed to ere. Females could be datn through
the Streets negroes carrying furniture from burning
houses, and and then rebel gliding from one hiding
place another. Our artillery would drive the enemy
from their cover upon tho bank Of the rve but when
compelled coase in order not to cndsnger the lives Of
the regiments the rebels would Immediately steal back
and pick on our men with the rife.
In the mean time 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 tho vicinity was wc nigh abandoned in the desire 70
witness the bombardment number OF females appeared
at the windows in the city from time TO te waving white
flags and shouting to US tina, they wished 70 come over
A we were In the same preacament the disappointment