The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1863-01-22
Correspondence Of the New York World.
The Last Charge at Fredricks. ..
hNrg.

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In Camp near Falmouth, Va, Dec. 25.-
The true history Of the battle of Fredricks-
burg has not been written. As official state
m ,nts are compiled. AMI as o,uses and re-
suits are discussed over blazing camp fires
th ,se frosty nigh is, the real facts, the greai
and heroic incidents Of the day, one by one,
come to light T,sre ars still thousand
glorious deeds of that me norable day un.
chronic'e1; and many brave soul who fell
on that hard .Eught field, will go down to
posterity unraln unhonorel and
unknown, save to the few whose hear tstrings
were touched when he fell.
No part Of the battle has been 50 m;srep.
resented and so completely distorted as the
part which occupied the half hour before
dark upon the right Of the battlefield; thatt
part where Gen. Hooker attempted to exc
cute the order;to take the crest at all haz-
ards" that part whsrc the gallant Hum
phreys twic. led the forlorn hope Of tn. day,
and whsre h. was twice reollse1 with VIC
tory almost within his grasp. 1t is not too
late to do justice to an event which will live
through centuries as monument to the
bravery Of Americans. .-.
Il was wei! nigh four o'clock when Gener-
al Hooker returned from his personal visit
to General Burnside, in which he hi forci-
bly, exposed his opinioa that the assault
from the front was i:npracticabl, but had
likewise promised "to do tn, b,st he could
when he fouad his comm IN ling General de
tsrninsd upon m,kin, one mprs trial.
Humphreys division Of Butter ields corps
Was rsstin, on its arms in tn, streets of
Fre1ricksburs Gen. Bitterfeld sent an
order to move 1t to tn, front; simultaneous
" Hooker ordered Hazard and Frank to take
their batteries to the crest, which our infan.
try had made their q ghting line all the day
long; to open rapidly and concentrate their
fire upon certain point in the stone WALL
This was p,rous undertaking, but W as
executed in most gallant manner. Hazard
was at once in position, though losing l6
men and ls horses before he fairly began
Frank followed, took up po sition further to
the left on the sams line, and then both bat
terias op,n.d with shell and solid shot at a
range of only 275 yards.
While their cannonads was going on,
Humphreys. at the head Of Allabach's Sec
ond brigade, had crossed the mlrace, and
was forming his men behind the crest ready
for the charge, aud Tylsr's first brigade was
following closely after, ready to support
The limo was formed, tn, colunn moved gal
lantly forward, reachad tho li,e Of battle,
passed fifty yards beyond, when deadly
fire from behind the stone wall caused it to
recoil, and finally to fall back, reforming un-
der the crest from which it started. Hum
phreys and staff, and many other field off,
GERS were dismounted in this charge, their
horses being killed, while the brigade lost
five hundred men in fifteen minutes.
Now there was but one more chanc.. Ty-
ler's brigade had coma up, and, notwith-
standing the turmoil and great confusion,
Con. Humphreys had sncceoded in forming
in gallant style. The only hope now was
with the bayonet The men were ordered
not to fire-to rely solely upon their trusty
steel. Then, with great exertion, the bat
teries and the lines Of troops on the crest
were persuaded to cease firing while the
charge was being made; then Gen. Hooker
orlered his men not to quail, not to look
back; to disregard the men in front who
were lying down. covered by every projse-
ti,n, to riie right over them.
The officers were ordered to the front
then the brigade, led in person by Genera.
Ty'er and General Humphreys, moved for
ward with glorious cheer. They reached
the little rise in the ground. within eighty
yards Of the stone wall, where line after
line Of our men lay fat upon the ground !;
they began to move over the living mass,
when, suddenly the PROSTATE mass cried
out: Don't go there; It's certain death ~
and, rising, began to impede the progress Of
the column; and by protestations of every
nature, implor.d the men not to go forward
Then the crisis came. The division was
fighting its maiden battle; older troops than
they quailed before the murdernus volleys
now making gIeat gaps through their ranks.
The head Of the charging column was en-
vcloped in sheet Of living fame the hid
eous shells were bursting all around an 1 in
their midst. Was it any wonder that they
faltercd? The msn began to load and fire /;
the momentum Of the charge xas gone; the
column began to retire slowly. falling back
to its place Of formation. "Qh! men," said
Humphreys, "if you had only gone forward
as we'll as you came back!" And then,
again dismountsd. his second horse havin,
been killed, he reported the result to Gen.
Butterield, who ordered him to withdraw
his troops to point Of shelter.
And this was the forlorp hope Of the day
and this is what it did it demonstrated the
impregnability Of the enemy's position,
demonstrated that the bravest troops in the
world could not stem the torrent of FIRE
which poured and plunged and converged
into that fatal space; and it developed
quiet, courteous and accomplished man Of
science, with whom books. and charts, and
surveys have been studies, into a splendid
field genera Of the most vigorous mien and
distinguished bravery.
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