The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-16


can make money plentiful and lenders Of
it accommodating. But a good govern
ment, honest officials, industrious farmers,
and prosperous merchants, with home
manufacturers, making home market
for the produce of the soil, these are, and
have been, the wants Of South Carolina.
and these alone can bring capital into
the State and true prosperity to her peo-
pie.
MARYE'S HEIGHTS.
Burnside's Desperate Effort at Freder-
icksburs to Storm all ImpreSnable
Fortress.
From noon to dark Burnside contin-
ued to hurl one division after another
against that volcanic-like eminence,
belching forth fire and smoke and iron
hail. French's division was the first to
rush to the assault. When it emerged
from cover and burst out on the open
plain, in full view Of the enemy, it was
greeted with a frightful fiery reception
from all his batteries on the circling
summit. The ridge concentrated upon
it the convergent fire of all its enginery
of war. You might see at mile the
lanes made by the cannon balls in the
ranks. You might see bursting shell
throw up into the air cloud of earth
and dust, mingled with the limbs of men.
The batteries in front of the devoted di-
vision thundered against it. To the
right, to the left, cannon were answering
to each other in tremendous deafenlng
battle chorus, the burden of
Welcome to these madmen about to die.
The advance column was the focus. the
point of concentration, Of an arc-al-
most semicircle-of destruction. 1t was
a centre of attraction of all deadly mis-
siles. At that moment that single divis-
ion was going up alone in battle against
the Southern Confederacy, and was being
pounded to pieces. 1t continued to 60
up, nevertheless, toward the stone wall,
toward the crest above. With lips more
firmly pressed together, the men closed
up their ranks and pushed forward. The
storm of battle increased its fury upon
him; the crash of musketry mingled
with the roar of ordnance from the
peaks. The stone wall and the rifle pits
added their terrible treble to the deep
bass of the believing ridge. The rapid
discharge of small arms poured a con-
tinuous rain of bullets in their faces !;
they fell down by tens, by scores, by
hundreds. When they had gained a
large part of the distance, the storm de-
veloped into a hurricane of ruin. The
division was blown back, as if by the
breath of hell's door suddenly opened,
shattered, disordered, pell nell, down the
declivities, amid the shouts and yells of
the enemy, which made the horrid din
demonical. Until then the division
seemed to be contending with the wrath
of brute and material forces bent on its
annihilation. Tbs shout recalled the
human agency in all the turbulence and
fury of the scene. The division of
French fell back-that is to say, one-half
of it. 1t suffered loss of near half its
numbers. Hancock Immediately charged
with 5000 men, veteran regiments led by
tried commanders. They saw what had
happened; they knew what would befall
them. They advanced up the hill the
bravest were found dead within twenty
five PAGES of the stone wall it was
slaughter, havoc, carnage. In fifteen
minutes they were thrown back with a
loss of 20O0-unprecedented severity of
loss. Hancock and French, repulsed
from the stone wall, would not quit the
hill altogether. Their divisions, lying
down on the earth, literally clung to the
ground they had won. These valiant
men, who could not 60 forward, would
not 90 back. All the while the batteries
on the heights ragged and stormed at
them. Howard's division came to their
aid. Two divisions of the Ninth Corps
on their left attacked repeatedly in their
support. 1t was then that Burnside rode
down from the Phillips House, on the
Northern side of the Rappahannock, and
standing on the bluff at the river, staring
at those formidable heights, exclaimed,
''That crest must be carried tonight" "
Hooker demonstrated, begged, obeyed.
In the army to hear is to obey. He pre-
pared to charge with Humphreys divis-
ion; he brought up every available bat
terry in the city. II proceeded, he said,
against their barrier as l would against
fortifcation, and endeavored to breach
hole sufficiently large for forlorn hope
to enter" He continued the cannonad-
ing on the selected spot until sunset.
He made no impression upon their works,
"no more than you could make upon the
side of a mountain of rock" Humph-
rey's division formed under shelter of
the rise, in column, for assault. They
were directed to make the attack with
empty muskets; there was no time then
! to load and fire. The officers were put
in front to lead. At the command they
moved forward with great impetuosity
they charged at run, hurrahing. The
foremost of them advanced to within
fifteen or twenty yards of the stone wall.
Hooker afterwards said: "No campaign
in the world ever saw more gallant adj
vance than Humphreys men made there.
But they were to do work no man
could do" In moment they were
hurled back with enormous loss. 1t was
now just dark; the attack was suspended
Three times from noon to dark the can
non on the crest, the musketry at the
stone wall had Frustrated division after
division on Maryes Hill. And now the
sun had set; twilight had stolen out OF
the west and spread her veil OF dusk
the town, the flat, the hill, the ridge, lay
under the "circling canopy of nights
extended shade" Darkness and gloom
had settled down upon the Phillips
House, over on the Stafford Heights
where Burnside would after awhile hold
his council of war.
LIGHTNING STRIKING A TRAIN. An