The weekly examiner., 1901-06-01
Written for this paper.
 FAME OF MARYE'S HILL.
(By R. M. Calhoun, Washington, D.

FAME UT HA<1N A D AAAAs
 [By R. M. Calhoun, Washington, D. C.]
 But time passes swiftly on. More than hundred years have passed since then and Fredericksburg has slept quietly on. Then came the great bat tie. The iron mouths of 15O cannon woke the city of Fredericksburg from it's slumbers in the early morn. The horrible screaming and yelling of men, women and children and barking Of dogs could be distinctly heard, only to be swallowed up in the thunder tones of the cannon. Two hundred thousand armed men are gathered on the hills, the bravest and best in the land. At night 40, ,OOO soldiers were massed in these quiet streets, alert and ready for the next days carnival of death. Gallant fellows, they. I think l can see them now, through the open streets of Fredericksburg, deployed on the open fields beyond, amid hail of converg- ing artillery fire from the semi-circle of hill-tops, and charge steadily on to glory and death at the stone wall Of Marye's Heights. I look a little at the left and see General Thomas H. Mea- gher's brave Irish brigade charge across the race course or fair grounds to slight elevation of land and lying flat upon the ground. Going into that bat tie with 1900 strong, and all that an- swered roll call next morning was 28O.
 Brigade after brigade, regiment after regiment, charged across this open field or slaughter pen, only to be moved down and repulSed. And after the charge was over the ground was covered with the dead and wounded like wheat sheaves in the field. l see an Ohio battery go into position near Hazel Run. The Washington artillery turn their guns upon them, and they are nearly annihilated, losing several men and nearly all of their horses.
 General Couch, who was watching
 the fearful scene from the steeple of the
 court house, said to General Howard: "Oh, Great God; see how our men, our poor fellows, are falling!" The whole plain was covered with men prostrate or. 5ronning The living ran here and there, and in front closing in on each other. And the wounded coming back I had never before seen fighting like that; nothing approaching it in ter rible uproar and destruction: There was no cheering on the part of the men, but stubborn determination to obey orders and do their duty, so said Gen eral Couch.
 General LOngstreet, who held the coveted Heights, said of that fateful plain: We will comb it as with a fine tooth comb. A chicken could not live upon that plain when we open upon it with our artillery from front, left and right, tearing through their ranks. The Federals pressed forward with almost invincible determination maintaining their steady step and clos ing up their broken ranks. From the moment of their appearance from the town began the most fearful carnage. When they came in reach of Cobb's brigade (behind the stone walD a storm of lead was poured into their advancing ranks. And they were swept from the field like chaff before the wind. Hardly was this attack off the field before we saw the determined Federals filing out of Fredericksburg for another charge. This was repulsed, as was another fol- lowing it, and night ended the bloody battle.
 Pickettt's charge at Gettysburg last ed thirty minutes. French and Han cocks divisions butted all the after noon against this stone wall. Only one insignificant stone fence, to be sure, covering partially sunken road, wind ing across the foot of Marye's Heights l and Telegraph Hill. Looking to our extreme left we see General Franklin's S l grand division on the broad, open plain, l solid, black mass of troops, covering an area of over @ square mile. At noon 1 time the grand division makes an ad- l vance. It was the most beautiful sight ever saw. The thousands of bright, l glistening steel bayonets shining over ] that great army of soldiers, is a scene l shall always remember. They ad- l vanced a short distance, when the Con- 1 federate artillery opened fire along the 1 crest of hills and woods for over three | miles. We could distinctly hear the l boom of their cannon and see the smoke 1 which exposed their masked batteries. l
 The loss of the Union army on that one bloody day of Fredericksburg, was 12,653. At that time few brigades | in Caldwell's brigade, Hancock's divi- sion, made up of New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania regiments, was 952, or about one out of three. Mili- tary students will believe that the bat tie of Fredericksburg was lost because General Franklin, who commanded the left of the Union army, three miles be- low the city, having with portion of his command broken the enemy's lines and threatened their rear, allowed him. self to be forced back and placed in a state of innocuous de- suetuue, when only a comparatively small portion of his forces had been General Sewell, the newly elected commander of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, was at the battle of Fredericksburg, in command of the Sixth New Jersey regiment on the left. Soon afterward he succeeded to the command of the famous fighting Second New Jersey brigade (Hookers old guard) as it came to be known through the Army of the Potomac. How it saved the day at Chancellors- vile and rolled back the foe on the day at Gettysburg, are matters of history