Year: 1863

Ourg, WIN your permission will give them
q correct account Of what fell under my
own observation. They have oil heard, no
doubt of the correspondence that took
place between Gen Sumner and bis honor,
the Mayor Fredericksburg, aud of course
have been anxiously looking for something
definite to be done about it, aud have
doubtless wondered at the delay Of the
Grand Army of the Potomac. In this re-
spect, however, you have not been more
puzzled than have the troops themselves.
But the evenlful day at length cume, and
their anxiety was relieved on the 10Th lust.
when the whole army received order to
march with four days cooked rations iu
their hayersacks, and twenty extra rounds
of amunition in their pockets, and they com
meneed moving the same night and early
on the morning Of the 11th The engineer
corps began laying the pontoonf bridges a.
cross the Rappahanhock, opposite the city.
Seeing this, the rebel sharp. shooters open
ed fire on them and killed and " ounded
quite a hunber, and succeeded in driving
them away from the work. This act of
hostility sealed The fate of the city. Our
big guns Immediately opened upon it /, aud
such athunderiug of artillery was never
heard before. There must have been fifty
guns in play, aud they kept up an incessant
roar all day. Towards night The engineers
again went to work on the bridges, aud this
time wit bout being moested Our artillery
had driven almost every living thing out of
the town aud there was scarcely house
left untouched. The firing ceased about
sundown, and then the night of the Ilth,
and the whole of the 18th were occupied
by our troops in crossing, no opposition be-
lug offered by the enemy. But on the morn.
ing of 18th, when our men marched out of
the city to form line of battle the rebels
opened on them with their big guns in their
fortifcation, about mile back from the
city. This is good range for their guns,
and they were terribly destructive, but in
the face of this our brave fellows marched
boldly to the trout, formed into line, and
waited for our artillery to get into position.
This was soon accomplished, and then the
ball opened 10 earnest. Oar light guns
being planteu jnst inside the city limits,
and the siege guns laundering away from
this side the river. Thus continual fire
was kept up all day from both sides, infant
ry as well as artillery, and it was hard to
tell which side had the best of the fight.
But it was very apparent that the rebels
had tie advantage in position, having their
heavy guns projected by strong earthworks,
and their Infantry posted behind a stone
wall, from which it was apparently impos
sible 10 dislodge them About 4 o'clock
in the afternoon our troops were ordered to
charge the rebel works, hoping to carry
them by storm. but they were repulSed With
heavy loss | think it was the Irish Brig.
Ade that made the charge, the brave fei
lows marched boldly into the jaws Of death
aud only fell back after loOsng fiVe-Sevenths
of their number, having started with near
1000, ard returning with but little more
than 800. This was q severe blow TO the
gallant sons Of Erin. 1t seemed at the
time almost as hopeless as that at Balakla-
va for the gallant Six hundred for there
were batteries in front of them, batteries
to the right, batteries to the left, and o.
perfect hail storm of bullets from the infant
Ty and sharpshooters behind the stone
wall, which our troops must climb over be-
fore they could get to the batteries.--
You will have some idea of the difficulty s
danger in doing this when / tell you that
there were three hundred yards of clear,
level ground to pass over before reaching
the stone-wall After the failure of this
attempt to carry The rebel works, neither
side made any advance but kept up con-
tiDnal FIRE until the darkness put an end
TO the strife During the whole day the
entire army behaved most admirably. All
appeared to realize magnitude Of the work
before them, and were animated with a de-





termination to conquer OF die. Not a man
thought of retreat. Whipple's division
crossed the river about l2 O'Clock amidst a
storm of sbct aud shell from the rebel bat
teries, but not a man quailed, Officers and
men faced the foe with GOODNESS and de-
termination that would have done credit
to the best veterans in the world, Only .
part of this division we're brought into Ac-
tiOn, although all were exposed to the FIRE
Of the enemy through the whole day. The
llth N. Y Battery is attached to this di-
vision, but not brought into action. To
wards night, however, ono section Of the
battery, Lit. Warrington commanding
was ordered forward, to protect two diieF-
ent streets of the city from. q Sudden dash
by the enemy, but they were not allowed
to Gre, notwithstanding they were within