Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-30

sweeps along hid by its high banks. q sue
cession OF hills rise much more abruptly
than on the right, the face Of the Inns
bare or clothed with struggling pines and
SUBMITS crowned with dense timber" And
this was the center Of FIVE great battle
| fields.
Bur nstde,s Brave I'm, Uufortunate At
tempt.
You have done Your best to sacrifice
| this army" That was the surprising SEN
tence with which Gen. George B. Mcclellan
closed letter to Stanton, Secretary Of
War. on June q. 1889, and 1t cost him his
head as commander of the Army Of the
| Potomac. He was most bitterly opposed
| to the policy OF the then War Department,
and took thar method of saying that but
| for the hindrance In Washington he would
| have been more successful in his cam
| paigns- Presloent Lincoln had urged Nc
Clellan to give battle to the enemy or drive
10 take the rebel capital. McCIelian either
| couldn't or wouldn't move and Burnside
/ was placed at the head of the Army of the
Potomac. That general put into execution
on Richmond began. Fredericksburg was
| the point where the first battle of this CAM
! paign was fought. a campaign SO filled
with bloody norrors that 1t has never had
I a
| Esdraeion, the warning factions surged
back and forth like the ebb and flow of the
tide. leaving human wreckase. until nearly
one hundred thousand men had Redeemed
| its soil with their blood. Five awful con-
! tests from December. 1852 to May. 1864, in
| which from hrst to last 100000 men were
numbered among the killed. wounded and
missing.
The story Of carnage BEGAN ON the morn.
ing Of December IL. 1892, when the Union
forces crossed the Rappahannock river on
the pontoon bridges. under the murderous
ire Oh ;,,,, DnsAGe OF Mississippians. who
were sknfuiiy intrenehed on the Freder-
icksburg side. Hundreds fell under the
deadly rain OF shot and she'll but with the
determination that comes Of desperation.
the Union forces Fought their way across
the river on the -FOUR pontoon bridges, and
at last 100000 boys in blue were almost
face to face with $1,000 of the sray-clad
confederates. who. under Lee and Jackson
and Lonsstreet. Were massed on Marye's
Heights, a position Of their own choosing
and OF their own fortifying Gen. e. p
| Alexander. the confederate engineer and
superintendent OF artillery. said to Long
street of these fortihcations: General. we
cover that ground now-meaning the town
of Fredericksburg, occupied by the federal
troop5-so well that we will comb Ii as with
fne-tooth comb. A chicken could not live
so Ii proved. Burnside had taken his de-
voted men into the trap laid for them, and
though the heroes strove bravely to support
the 14I guns that they trained on the en-
envy. they went Gown before the rebel bat
teries like the 'fnnumerable caravan that
moves forever through the gate of death"
A Terrific and Sublime Scene.
An English correspondent who was on the
ground wrote to the London Times: such
a scene. at once terrific and sublime, NOR
tai eye never rested on before unless the
bombardment Of Sebastopol by the com
bined batteries Of France and England re-
vealed a more fearful manifestation of the
hate and fury of man. The laundering
believing roar Of hundreds Of pieces Of ar
| tillery. the bright Jets Of issuing flame the
screaming. hissirg, whistling, shrieking pro-
jectiles, the wreaths OF smoke as shell after
shell burst in the still air the savage
crash Of round shot among the trees Of the
| shattered forest, formed a scene likely to
sink forever into the memory Of all who
| witnessed It, but utterly defying verbal de-
/ lineation. A direct and enfilading fire swept
each battery upon either side as it un-
| masked. Folley replied to volley. crash
succeeded crash. until the eye lost all power
| Of distinguishing the lines Of CONTESTANTS.
and the plain seemed like a lake Of fire, a
seething. molten lake Of lava, coursed over
| by iucarnate iends, drunk with fury and
revenge" The Richmond Enquirer said on
| the day after the battle: THE Yankees
| commenced storming the hill at half-past
| IL. and were repulsed four times with i'm
| inense slaughter. They were moved down
were counted on space occupied by only
one regiment" 1t was here that the sixty
pinth. the famous Irish brigade, with their
green and gold flag, and each man wearing
in his hat a sprig Of shamrock. rolled itself
against the rife pits. the breastworks and
batteries Of the enemy. OF the 1000 that
Gen. Meagher led into the charge on that
bloody 18th only go reported for duty on
the morning of the l4thi Battered and be-
grimed, sorrowing for their dead comrades,
but strong for renewed endeavor, they met.
still wearing the shamrock In their hats
and ready to precipitate the feeble remnant
upon the enemy's guns.
An Enemy's Tribute to Union Bravery.
Longstreet said Of the heroic courage Of
the federals: Five times the Union troops
formed and charged and were repuIsed: a
sixth time they charged and were driven
back, and then night came to end the dread
full carnage. and the federals withdrew,
leaving the battlefield literally heaped with
the bodies OF their dead. Before the we'll
directed FIRE Of Cobbs brigade the federals
had fallen like the steady dripping Of rain
| from the caves Of the house. Our musketry
alone killed and wounded at least 5000, and
| these. with the slaughter by the artillery,
left over 1900 killed and wounded before
the foot Of Marye's Heights. The dead were
piled sometimes three deep, and when the
morning broke the spectacle that we saw
| upon the battlefield was one Of the most
| distressing that I ever Witnessed. The
charges had been desperate and bloody. but
utterly hopeless / thought. as / saw the
federals come again and again to their
death. that they deserved success. II courage
| and daring could entitle soldiers to victory.
| The killed, wounded and missing on the
| Union side was 1878, on the confederate
| side, 4,576."
The London Times said of the defeat Of
| the Union troops: 1T was memorable day
| to the historian Of the decline and fall Of the
| American republic" And then went on to
say that the confederates were supersti-
| tiously sure of winning the battle, for, on
| the evening. previous. the aurora borealis
which spread over the heavens darted blood
red tongues of flame swiftly from the
meridian down to the horizon: this was &C
cepted as an omen that the battle would be
theirs, just as the cross outlined on the sky
was accepted by Constantine as an earnest
of victory
Thus, the year that had opened so auspi-
aster and despair Not one ray OF light H.
lunined the gloom from the Rappahannock
to the Mississippi. for, In addition to the
$1,000 who lay dead and wounded on the
bloody slopes Of Maryes Heights. 10000
more had fallen among the cedars at Stone
River, with only nominal victory, and
Sherman had marked bis recofl from before
The blow was stunning!
The Battle of Chsncellorsvflle.
Demoralized. but defiant, the Army of the
Potomac recrossed the Rappahannock and
went into winter quarters, under the nose
Of the enemy. still snugiy intrenched In and
about Fredericksburg On May 1. 1858. re-
vised, and under a new commander. this
time one of the lighting Hookers." the
Army Of the Potomac, Increased to 125.OOO
men. with a commander who had the repu-
faff ton, Of hal. = ln0