Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1870-02-02

The BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.- -! From
the London Telegraph, December t. Upon
this day, seven years ago, was fought mi ghty
battle, which laid the great Transatlantic Re-
public PROSTATE and bleeding in the dust. As,
on the 18th Of December, 1862, the sun set
behind the low Virginia hills which skirt the
river Rappahannock and stand like scntincls
around the little town of Fredericksburg, its de.
clining rays gl!ntcd across plain upon which
to quote the words of an eye witness Of the
bloody scene, "lay acres OF the Federal dead
1t was said by many who had participated in
every great battle which Virginia had previ
ously witnessed, that upon no other field had
the dead lain so thick and close lmmC diatc'y
in front of Marye's heights, AGAINST w hich thc
fierce onslaughts Of General Mcaghcr and hIs
gallant Irishmcn, weIe directed, there lay, cold
and still, some fifteen hundred ccrpses With
out sustaining ans material loss, the Conicder-
ates Inflicted upon the attacking FederaIS at
Frederick shury the most crushing defeat oi the
American war. At no other moment, during
those four fatal years Of iratrlcldal strife, waS
the confidence Of the ConfcdctatcS or the de
preston OF the FedcralS, 50 great as at he close
If 1862. TO this hour, in the 'canc brakes
OF Alabuua, or in the ever pladrS' ot FLORIDA
NAV be found rebel priyates who Tough at Fred
erckshurg and who will bitterly tell yOu thai
if "lIncIc Robert for thus l% General L"c
still affectionatcy styled by the soldiers whom
he !cd--hah followed Sloncwall jackson = ad
vice, and consented to 4 night attack upon the
Fcdcrals, he would literally have annihIated
their army. Never was the decentralization Of any
Northern host during the American war 50 a1>o-
lutte as upun the night which followed III" battle
of Fredericksburg. 1t will b" remembered that
4 lew weeks before that battle. General Me-
Clcllan, who had gained at Sharps@u the
lt ia N,lnr,lS
was deprived OF his command, anil ordered by
the Washington Government To intTriSt his
army to the incompetent hands oi General
burnside. Whatever may have been General
Mcclellan : title to the affection ot his soldiers
he was always 4 lavUri;c with the Federal
armies. His successor, N the contrary, ID
spircd no confidence. aad ,wGkcnri 10 "n'hI-
sasru. Stronger positions have before now
been carried by attacking armies than that
which General Ice and the Confederate. ",cl
pied at Fredericksburg. In 1919 Napoleon
boldly threw his forces across tho Spree, aud
launched them against the allied armleS vi
Russia and Prussia, aS they lay, strongly en-
trcnched behind the river, At iiaWZ"u. E.iu-
ing forward at. the head OF his troops, ana
cheering them onward with his ott.rcpnatcd
cry Of "En ur,,,t, m,cS coLonncS'' the Little
Corporal Iaugh. General Burnside how armies
occupying strong defensive position might
be attacked and routed. But, even before the
battle OF ErederickS S5urr was fought It was
sufficiently apparen; that Burnside was no
Napoleon. and that the Federal armies which
buttlcd in 1862 had little of the rhW or fire of
the men who fought at Lutzcn or Bautzon. 1t
was reserved for Grant and Sherman 10 ami
mate the hopes and wisely direct the vaIor Of
their couutrymcn n 1863 and 1854 and thus
by utilizing the stupcndous efforts of the
Northern States, to aver; irow the Union the
imminent peril OF tisintegration which threat
cncd it when, in darkness and gloom, the cur
tain dropped upon that fatal Year which COM
mcnced with the defeat Of Mcclellan before
Richmond- witnessed the discontinue
of Pope before Washington-and ended with
the crushing rcpuse OF Burnside at Freder-
icksburg