EVENTS PRECEDING FREDERICKSBURG
Burnside in command of Army of the Potomac--Sketch--Lee's plans--At
Fredericksburg--General Patrick, U. S. A.--Flag of truce--Arrival
of army in position--Poor defensive works--Bad-weather march--Some
expedients by Longstreet--The stone wall--Major-General McLaws,
Major-General Hood, Major-General Anderson, Major-General
Walker--Sketches.
The new commander of the Army of the Potomac was one of the most highly
respected officers of the United States Army, but he was not equal
to the command, and so stated to the officers who brought him Mr.
Lincoln's commission and orders.
McClellan was of decided ability in many respects; timorous, but safe;
and there was no better organizer. He seemed to hate battle, and it is
surprising that with such a record he should have secured and retained
the devotion and confidence of his men to the very end. There was no
lack of physical courage; it was a mental doubt with him.
Burnside had no prominent reputation, but made a success of an
unimportant expedition into North Carolina. He conspicuously failed
at Sharpsburg, where all day the bridge on the right was the scene of
combat, without his movement to seize it. His great corps, held idly in
hand, was equal to it ten times over. But he may have been waiting on
McClellan, with whom he was in the closest intimacy of friendship.
At all events, Burnside could and would fight, even if he did not know
how, and after "Little Mac" this was what Mr. Lincoln was trying for.
He was a handsome man, from Rhode Island, of fine, courteous bearing.
Franklin should have been, I think, the man for Lincoln; but who knows?
There was a powerful clique always about McClellan, most unwisely at
difference, sometimes, with the Administration.
A pause in the operations ensued while we lay about Bunker Hill and
Winchester. But Lee had, in the first half of November, decided where
he should make Burnside fight. It was Fredericksburg. Longstreet had
previously sent McLaws's division east of the mountains to the vicinity
of Culpeper, and about November 16 started him for the old town on the
Rappahannock, following a day or two later from his Valley camps with
the remainder of the corps.
The gaps of the Blue Ridge were well occupied and defended by Jackson
and Stuart's cavalry during Lee's transfer of his army in this delicate
strategical operation.
I parted from Longstreet for a day or two, and arrived near
Fredericksburg with some of the leading troops, before him.
My ride was in the worst weather, roads deep in mud, with rain in
torrents. Fredericksburg is one of the oldest and most aristocratic
of the Virginia towns. A dwindling trade had thinned the population
and quieted its ambitions. At this time the place was the home of
families of historical importance and present interest, with a thorough
knowledge of good living, and still respectable cellars of old Madeira
that had been imported by them many years before.
The enemy had a small garrison there and a provost marshal, an elderly
United States officer, kind and gentle in his authority, and much liked
by the citizens.
From this officer I received a request to meet him under flag of truce,
and we made acquaintance in a little block-house just outside the town.
The good old General Patrick was quite in ignorance apparently of the
great operation that was then culminating. Expecting to hold the city
with his little garrison he wished to avert any shelling of the town by
our guns.
His friends had not yet made their appearance on the Falmouth Hills,
commanding the town on the left bank of the river. We had outstripped
their march.
General Patrick was informed that he must at once withdraw from
Fredericksburg, that we should occupy it in force. He smiled, thinking
it a bluff, and wanted to know where the soldiers were. On this point
he got no information, of course, and we parted. However, he was soon
to see our men pouring forward, and McLaws's division seizing the city
and posting his gallant Mississippians on the river front, under the
intrepid Barksdale.
Patrick's little gang had, of course, immediately slipped away when
they saw what was coming.
This I think was about November 21. The entire army soon after arrived
and took position behind the Rappahannock, a wide, undulating plain
for the most part stretching between our lines and the river itself.
Longstreet took the left and Jackson the right; the former's most
important point being the stone wall and sunken road at the foot of
Marye's Hill.
Looking back at the situation, it seems surprising that we did so
little in the way of defensive field-works. The enemy in great masses
were crowding the Falmouth Hills, and we knew intended to cross and
strike us. But yet we contented ourselves with the little stone wall
(which proved helpful), and two or three tiers of light trenchwork
extended on the slope of the hill behind and on our left.
The like observation applies to Jackson, whose lines were above the
same as ours in strength, except the stone wall.
Later in the war such a fault could not have been found. Experience had
taught us that to win, we must fight; and that fighting under cover was
the thing to keep up the army and beat the enemy. He knew it, too, and
practised it, so later on veterans no sooner got to facing each other
than they began to dig, if ever so little; a little trench, a tiny
hillock is often a very helpful defense and protection.
The march to Fredericksburg in bad weather and over almost bottomless
roads had caused great suffering to the men and some losses among the
animals. It was then that Longstreet told his men of an expedient that
as an old soldier he had often resorted to. "Rake," he sent word to the
men, "the coals and ashes from your cooking fires and sleep on that
ground; it will be dry and warm." And so it proved. Also, there being
many barefooted men, "Take the rawhides of the beef cattle, killed for
food; cut roughly for a moccasin-like covering for the feet, and there
you are with something to walk in." But this did not go. The foot-wear
had nothing like soles of stiffening, and in the mud and icy slush of
the Virginian roads the moist, fresh skins slipped about as if on ice.
The wearers, constantly up or down, finally kicked them aside and took
the road as best they could, barefooted or wrapped with rags or straw.
Richmond did its best to supply, but there was always trouble for want
of shoes. Great quantities were run in from England by blockade, but
they were worthless, shoddy things that might be done for in a day's
use. I once wore a pair of them, and in a single day of wet and mud the
cheats came to pieces and developed bits of paper and odds of leather
things, where should be good, strong, well tanned cow skin.
It is said that our friends, the enemy, across the lines fared badly as
well in shoddy, and that too from their own neighbors and countrymen.
It was awfully nasty work getting down to that stone wall for giving
orders or receiving information, the way swept by the enemy's volume
of fire over every foot. Once at the wall it was fairly snug, but the
coming back was still worse, and one drew a long breath on emerging
safely from the deadly fusilade.
We could only manage it on foot by making short rushes from point to
point, affording perhaps some little cover. It was on such a duty that
my friend Lord King was killed. He was A. D. C. to McLaws, of the
family of Kings of southern Georgia.
The ranking major-general of our corps was L. McLaws, his division
made up of Georgians, Mississippians, and South Carolinians. He was
an officer of much experience and most careful. Fond of detail, his
command was in excellent condition, and his ground and position well
examined and reconnoitered; not brilliant in the field or quick in
movement there or elsewhere, he could always be counted on and had
secured the entire confidence of his officers and men.
Maj.-Gen. John B. Hood's appearance was very striking; in age only 34,
he had a personality that would attract attention anywhere. Very tall
and somewhat loose-jointed; a long, oval face shaded by yellowish
beard, plentiful hair of same color, and voice of great power and
compass.
With very winning manners, he is said to have used these advantages
actively for his own advancement. But apart from that, his services in
the field were of the best. Resigning from the United States Army he
was made colonel of one of the three Texas regiments that were sent to
Virginia. There he quickly showed his soldierly qualities and was made
brigadier-general over the brigade formed of the three Texas regiments
and the Third Arkansas. It was conspicuous in all of the many combats
in which it was engaged, and Hood soon came on for promotion to one of
the divisions of Longstreet's corps. As major-general he continued to
display high qualities and he might be considered an ideal officer of
that rank and command. At Gettysburg he received a wound in the arm.
It is said that at Richmond, while convalescing, he suffered himself
to criticize very freely our operations in Pennsylvania. As soon as
recovered he resumed his division, which he took to Chickamauga,
where his conduct was magnificent. There he lost a leg. Longstreet
immediately recommended him to promotion to lieutenant-general, which
was done, and on recovery Hood was assigned to the Western army under
J. E. Johnston. There I must leave him. His biographers will relate
his promotion to the rank of full general; his superseding Johnston;
his march to the enemy's rear; the sanguinary battles of Franklin and
Nashville, and the crushing defeat of his expedition by Thomas, making
possible the great decisive strategic operation of Sherman's "March to
the sea."
Maj.-Gen. G. E. Pickett we already know. He had a very fine division
of five Virginia brigades, all well commanded by brigadiers who greatly
helped the Major-General to the high reputation gained by this gallant
body of men.
Maj.-Gen. Richard H. Anderson, of South Carolina, had been a captain
of cavalry in the United States Army, and was rather an interesting
character. His courage was of the highest order, but he was indolent.
His capacity and intelligence excellent, but it was hard to get him to
use them. Withal, of a nature so true and lovable that it goes against
me to criticize him. He had served well as a brigadier-general, and
now with Longstreet, commanding a division, had more to do. Longstreet
knew him well and could get a good deal out of him, more than any one
else. His division was of Georgians, South Carolinians, Alabamians and
Mississippians.
Maj.-Gen. J. B. Walker was commanding two brigades of North
Carolinians. I had no intimate knowledge of this officer, who it was
known would be with the Virginia army but for a short time. He bore a
high reputation among those of his acquaintance.