The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1881-10-08

troops IN silence marching 10 the Tray, camps uo
| serted, the camp fires burning DIM, the WOODS
pouring out their thousands, every one every
thing moving towards the river, the infantry
massino in rear of the bluffs by the stream and
the chief of artillery Colonel Hunt, covering those
beiohts with one hundred and forty seven cannon.
The pontooners were hurrying the boats, planks
and bridge material to the waters edge.
Working rapidly, swiftly but so noiselessly that
those within one hundred yards Of the enemy's
pickets, who were lined on the opposite shore,
were not heard the pontoons were brought down
and quietly let into the water, great piles plank
| inc arose a multitude of spectral men were hurry
ing to and frO cannon was got into position, more
than one hundred thousand cavalry and infantry
massed at hand. Yet no confusion, no clashng
so perfect the discipline; the silence profound
no sound save the tapping Ofthe waves on the PROV
of the pontoons, the moaning of the wind in the
forest trees. The night wore on. Two regiments
of engineers the Seventeenth and Twentieth New
York, stood prepared to build the bridges, and
two regiments of Hancock's division, the Fifty
seventh New York, Colonel Chapman, and the
I Sixty-sixth New York, Colonel Bull were on hand
/, to cover and support them. Towards dawn the
work began-swiftly fastening the boats to the
bank, getting others in position, flashing them to-
gether, putting down the planking, so the work
| for few minutes, went on: then the sharp crack
of rifle broke the stiffness Of the night, pom
toOner dropped his burden, fell forward into the
! dark, cold water, and went floating down with
the tide the first victim the first corpse of the
! fight: then more shots and balls went whistling
/ through the fog. Then two loud reports of heavy
. ordnance peal from Marye's Heights. echo along
/ the Valley Of the Rappahannock, reverberate
among the hills, the signal for the concentration
I of the Army of Northern Virginia. the battle of
! Fredericksburg begins. The firing becomes heay-
Ter. voleys of musketry, the rifle balls rattle on
the TANKS and the boats are riddled. Many, very
many of the pontooners fall and go floating away.
1t is so dark and the fog 50 dense that we
can see but a few yards from the edge OF the
shore. Men 90 out on the bridge in the dark
ness and never return. The fire is hot and
/ deadly, but the men stick TO their work most
gallantIy; but every moment the numbers of
the irtificers become less Bull and Chapman
return the fire, but they shoot at random and
into the dark while the enemy know by the
sound Of the bridge building where to throw
their iron. Colonel Bull falls MORALLY wounded,
and the losses are so great that the engineers
fall back and for time give up the attempt.
Again they try it and again they fail, and
third time they rush at the work hut find it
an impossiblity to continue, and the brave little
band falls back, leaving the bridge half finished,
slippery and saturated with blood. Then day
light is upon us. The work must be pushed.
The bridge must be finished. The rifemen that
checked our work must be driven out Of their
shelter, and for that purpose General Burnside
decides upon treating us TO one of those rare
and magnifcently grand spectacles Of war, the
bombardment Of a city, so the order went forth
to batter down the town. and about ten O'Clock
our twenty mine batteries one hundred and
forty-seven guns, opened fire. Then for an hour
or two the fire was incessant the sharp crack
of the rifed guns, the heavy boom of the larger
ordnance mingled with the echoes from the
woods and hills until we could no longer dis
tinguish separate sounds, and the roar became
continuous; clouds of sulphurous smoke rolled
back from the massed artillery, the air became
loaded, suffocating, with the odOr of gunpowder.
The fog still lay heavy on the river: the water
margins and the low lands and the city were
almost hidden from view. One of the church
spires shot up through the mist glittering in the
morning sun, and few of the tallest chimneys
and buildings struggled into sight. Tons of iron
were hurled into the town; Shells solid shot,
shrapnel and canister raked and swept the
streets. We could not see yet. We could hear
the walls crumbling and timbers crashing; then
pillar of smoke rose up above the fog; another
and another increasing in density and volume.
rose skyward and canopied the doomed city like
pail Flames Ieaped high out of the mist-the
! CITY was on fire Again the engineers make an
attempt to finish the bridge, but they find Banks
dale with his Mississippians still at their posts
and their fire still as accurate, and the effort is
finally abandoned.
Then Colonel Hunt drops an idea that party be
sent in open pontoon boats to drive the sharp
shooters from the opposite shore Strange that
the simple device was not thought Of before. His
toric examples TO suggest it were plenty. So late
as 1899 this was successfully employed by Mas
SIENNA in the passage of the Limmat, where the
bridges and boats started simultaneously
and in three minutes from starting six hundred
French troops were landed, had captured the enc
my's pickets, and the bridge was then finished
without further molestation. But better late
than never dozen of the boats lie by the river
band and plenty of volunteers ready to man
them. The Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth and
Twentieth Massachusetts, rush down the steep
bank launch the boats and are Off The Oarsmen
mil IuStiIV the Southern markSmeu re6ouhle