The Words of War

by Donagh Bracken

  The Charleston Mercury

  December 22, 1862

  Incidents of the Battle

  From the accounts contained in the Richmond papers, several of which came to hand yesterday, we glean the following incidents of the battle:

  The behavior of our troops is said to have been admirable, full of zeal and courage. It is said that such an eagerness for fight was never before manifested by soldiers of the Confederacy; and we are assured that on the day of the action not one thousand stragglers could be counted in our whole army.

  The Yankees are said to have exhibited more than their ordinary cowardice on the field, and to have fought with but little display of zeal or energy. Several hundred prisoners were captured in one lot, who excused their surrender by the circumstance that all their officers had run away.

  The portion of our force actively engaged is said not to have exceeded eight to ten thousand men, while that of the enemy could not have been less than thirty thousand. The enemy occupied a low flat, partly wooded, and was not in a position to use his artillery with any effect. From our semicircular line of battle on the crown of the Massaponax hills a deadly fire was poured into the enemy ranks. There was no hand-to-hand encounter during the day, the fight being conducted with artillery and distant musketry. We did not lose a single piece of artillery nor any prisoners, but a few stragglers who may have fallen into the enemy hands.

  On the left, where the fighting was intensely severe, the brigade of South Carolinians, commanded by General Kershaw, suffered heavily. The 3d Regiment of S.C.V. was badly cut up. In the early part of the engagement, their Colonel, Nance, Lieut. Colonel, and Major were all wounded, and the command devolved upon the senior Captain, who was killed in fifteen minutes after assuming the command. His place was supplied by the second senior Captain, and he, too, fell mortally wounded in a very short time.

  At several points on our line the enemy made repeated charges, which in every instance were repulsed. At one point, just outside of the town of Fredericksburg, our troops were sheltered behind a stone wall. It is said that three different attempts were made by the enemy to take this position, without success. The third time, as their column of assault was broken, our troops rushed from their cover and pursued the enemy, our men loading and firing as they ran after the mass of fugitives until they had got to the cover of their batteries.

  One of the most conspicuous spectacles of the action is said to have been the figure and behavior of Gen. Jackson; this commander, who has the reputation of being rather seedy in his dress, having donned, for the first time, for the particular occasion, a splendid new uniform, which attracted all eyes, and might naturally be supposed to make him a mark for the enemy fire. In his unusual and magnificent attire, General Jackson is said to have ridden along the line of battle, his appearance alone being sufficient to give to the men whom he commanded inspiration of fresh and invincible courage.

  Siegel corps has come up to the Rappahannock. The importance of this event, however, is not considerable. This command is formidable neither in number or material, as according to the best accounts, it does not exceed fifteen thousand men, and is composed entirely of raw troops raised by the recent levies. A report from Gordonsville says that Siegel went to Washington, thence down the Potomac on the Maryland side to Budd Ferry, and crossed over at Evansport to join Burnside.

  BUILDING PONTOON BRIDGE AT FREDRICKSBURG (WAUD). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

  The enemy shamefully violated the flag of truce under which he had sought permission to bury his dead. His ambulance trains had no sooner come upon the battle field than they fell to work removing the wounded, who were properly prisoners within our lines. This system of recaptures was indignantly protested against by Gen. Jackson, in consequence of which the permission given to the enemy was withdrawn, and his dead and wounded left alike in our hands.

  Telegraphic News

  Latest from the North

  Comments of the Yankee Press on Burnside’s Defeat

  RICHMOND, December 19 – The Washington Chronicle, of the17th, LINCOLN’S organ, has the following article, based on BURNSIDE’S despatch that he had re-crossed the Rappahannock: ‘At this writing, we have nothing but the simple telegraphic announcement yesterday morning, from Falmouth, that our troops are all this side of the river, and that the pontoons are up. If they retired back to Falmouth without loss of men and material in the operation, as it is reported they did, it indicates skill and good fortune on the part of our Generals, or inattention or over caution on the part of the rebels, or all these things together. Our army, if unable to face the enemy works, was in a most dangerous position on the south side of the Rappahannock, and the rebels, in permitting the escape, have lost an opportunity such as they have not had since they neglected to take Washington, after the first battle of Bull Run. The failure at Fredericksburg has taken the public, especially our military authorities, so much by surprise, that opinions are hardly yet formed as to what ought either now be done, or what is likely to be done. For ourselves. we hope that as a few weeks will terminate the winter of this latitude, the army designed for the defence of Washington will go at once into winter quarters.’

  The Star says: ‘The failure to bag the rebels has stricken the whole country with feelings of painful surprise.’ It adds, sarcastically, that perhaps the army was not gotten up, after all, to annihilate the rebels, but to guard Washington, and advises that it go into quarters for the remaining winter months.

  Intelligence from Norfolk states that a desperate affray occurred in that town on Monday night, between a large number of soldiers and the forces of the Provost Marshal. Someone in the Theatre proposed three cheers for JEFF. DAVIS, when the applause shook the building. The Abolitionists then called for three cheers for LINCOLN, which met with a faint response. Four hundred rioters were arrested and sent to Fort Norfolk.

  A body of Confederate cavalry had made a raid to Poolville, Maryland, and captured about forty Yankee cavalry. BANK’S expedition passed Hilton Head on the 16th. A despatch from Nashville, of the 16th, says there were no signs of a rebel advance.

  The Federal Generals JACKSON and BAYARD, and Colonel DICKENSON, were killed at the battle of Fredericksburg.

  The Confederate war steamer Alabama is still operating successfully on the commerce of the United States. A ship has arrived at New York from Port Petrie, brought the crew of the ship Levi Starbuck, which was captured and burned by the Alabama on the 2d of November, when five days out. On the 8th of November the Alabama captured and burned the ship T.B.Watts, of and for Boston, from Calcutta, with a valuable cargo of saltpetre, gunny cloth, &c. The Alabama put into Point Petrie on the 17th, and landed the Captains and crews of these ships. The same afternoon the U.S. steamer San Jacinto arrived outside to wait for the Alabama, but the latter vessel escaped during the night. Capt. SEMMES boasts that he has been within seventy miles of New York.

  The Charleston Mercury

  December 23, 1862

  Letter from Richmond

  (Correspondence of the Mercury)

  Richmond, Thursday, December 18

  How terrible was that defeat at Fredericksburg which our General modestly heralded as a ‘! From many points we hear that the enemy loss was from 18,000 to 20,000. Three thousand of his dead he left unburied, after laboring hard all Saturday night and all day Sunday in the sad work of interment and the removal of the wounded. Leesburg has been reenacted on a grand scale, as we shall learn ere long, although Washington papers of the 16th received this morning, do not admit even a defeat, but declare that General Burnside is satisfied with the result of Saturday fight. ‘’I shouldn’t wonder’ – as the showman remarked when asked if the Siamese twins were brothers.

  I learn, on good authority, that Gen. Lee was so confident that the battle would be renewed on Monday, that he had disposed his forces to meet the shock in a manner that would have horrified those who thought they tested the whole rebel strength on Saturday. A story is floating about to the effect th
at Jackson, who generally goes to sleep at councils of war, was quite excited on Saturday night, and insisted that the Yankees should be driven into the river forthwith, without waiting for morning. My information is that near 200,000 of the enemy were more or less actively engaged, against only 22,000 on our side – 14,000 of Jackson corps and 8,000 of Longstreet.

  All the talk of the town is about the great victory which we achieved almost without knowing it, and I could fill a dozen letters with the accounts, all joyous, of parties who have come down from Fredericksburg. But everybody seems to be at a loss in regard to the next move of the enemy. Reports say he has gone down the left bank of the river, but there is not a point between Fredericksburg and the mouth of the river where he would be likely to fare any better than he has done. He is, to the best of everybody’s knowledge and belief, a up man, and we have made a long step towards independence. Government authorities say Burnside will go home, and his army return to Washington. We shall see.

  The Examiner has some statements about the treatment of the wounded, which conflict with those made in a recent letter of mine; but the mass of evidence shows that there is more system and attention than heretofore.

  A singular feature in this war is the youthfulness of many of our distinguished artillery officers. The Pelham, as Gen. Lee calls him, is an Alabamian about 20 years old; Pegram, of the Purcell Battery, is hardly 21; Latimer, the Captain of the Letcher Artillery, is only 17; and Dearing, of Lathamold battery, is not above 22 or 23.

  Clear freezing weather. We will get plenty of ice.

  HERMES

  The Charleston Mercury

  December 25, 1862

  Interesting Facts in Regard to the Battle of Fredericksburg The Richmond Dispatch presents the following statement off acts in regard to the late battle, which it obtains from sources in every respect trustworthy:

  A small proportion of our army only was engaged, not more than 25,000 men at farthest. Burnside rates his own force engaged at 40,000. It was certainly double that figure. Burnside writes that he lost but 5,000 men. General Armistead, of the Confederate service, took the precaution to count the dead bodies left on the field by the Yankees, and they were rather more than 3,500. This was on Tuesday, after the Yankees had employed two whole days in burying. At the lowes tcalculation, then, we must have killed at least 5,000 of their men, and this may be what Burnside means when he says his loss was 5,000. The wounded, after a battle, usually stand to the dead in the proportion of five to one, so that 25,000 of the Yankees must have been wounded, and their whole loss, exclusiveof 1,300 prisoners, must have been 30,000 men. Any person who saw the field of battle and Fredericksburg after the retreat, would readily credit the estimate. At the place where General Cobb was killed, within the enclosure of a stone fence, a regiment of his brigade was posted. It was assaulted by a whole brigade of Irishmen, who behaved with the most determined bravery, and were repeatedly led to the assault. Only four of this regiment – exclusive of General Cobb himself – were killed, and they killed more than five hundred of their enemy, whose bodies were left on the field. In Fredericksburg across one of the streets, the Yankees dug a trench, and left beside it five hundred dead bodies piled up. Our informant had no doubt that they intended to make a breastwork of these bodies, as they had placed them on the edge of the ditch and covered them with dirt, as if they had been logs. All about the streets in every direction, dead bodies of the Yankees were lying in piles of two, three, and as high as a dozen. In the porch of Mayor Slaughterhouse, there were no less than five dead Yankees. The night of the battle, the dry grass in a portion of the field took fire, and many of the Yankee wounded were burned. The explosion of their cartridge boxes, as the fire reached them, and the shrieks of the sufferers were heard all night long by our pickets, who had it not in their power to relieve the sufferers.

  That the Yankees were greatly averse to the fight, and that they could be brought to engage in it with great difficulty, is absolutely certain. A section of the 1st Howitzers (Richmond) was placed upon an eminence which commanded a full view of the whole Yankee army. Before the cannonade began, on their part, they were of course all busy in looking at the advancing enemy. They distinctly saw large bodies of men marching behind the advancing columns, with fixed bayonets, evidently forcing them into battle. On more than one occasion they saw the officers fire on their own men, and repeatedly they saw them riding after and endeavoring to bring them up. Little idea had we of the tremendous defeat we had inflicted on the enemy.

  The battles of the war have hitherto been fought in the woods. The battle of Fredericksburg, like European battles, was fought in a clear space, which might be taken in at a single glance. It formed the grandest panorama ever witnessed on this Continent. It continued after nightfall, and the long line of fire was visible for miles around. It was one of the most sublime sights it is possible to see.

  The Charleston Mercury

  December 29, 1862

  The Slaughter at Fredericksburg

  The army correspondent of the Savannah Republican, writing after the late battle on the Rappahannock, says:

  I went over the ground this morning, and the dead still remaining there, after two-thirds of them had been removed, lay twice as thick as upon any other battlefield I have ever seen. On a piece of ground not exceeding two hundred yards square, it is estimated that the enemy left between thirteen and fourteen hundred dead! Allowing five wounded for every one man killed (the usual proportion), it would be safe to put down their loss in killed and wounded on this bloody square of two hundred yards at 6,500! The blood may still be seen in puddles on the ground, as in a butcher pen, and the way along which their wounded were carried back into the town is still red with blood, notwithstanding the rain this morning.

  Just in front of our line is a thin plank fence, behind which the enemy sought shelter as they advanced up the hill. Some of the planks in this fence were literally shot away from the posts to which they were nailed, and one can hardly place his hand upon any part of them without covering a dozen bullet holes. At the foot of the stone wall behind which the Confederates fought, thousands of flattened musket balls may be seen, whilst the hills behind it have been converted into a partial lead mine.

  The Sack of Fredericksburg

  The same correspondent writes of the appearance of Fredericksburg:

  I have often read of the scenes attending the sacking of a city, but was never able to realize the full import of the term until this morning when I rode into Fredericksburg. The number of houses destroyed by fire is not so great as at first reported, but otherwise the ruin is complete. Chimneys were knocked down, roofs torn away, great gaps made in the walls, streets barricaded, furniture hacked to pieces or used for firewood, store houses opened and rifled of their contents, tables were stolen, mattresses taken into the streets and alleys for the vandals to sleep upon, books, paintings and looking-glasses scattered over the ground, provisions consumed, cellars ransacked, and the enclosures around private residences and lots pulled down and used for firewood or to rest upon. There is hardly a structure in the whole city that does not bear some traces of the fearful struggle in the streets and suburbs. The floors of many of the houses into which the wounded were taken are covered with blood, and in some instances the dead still remain in the silent chambers, their eyes fixed in death, yet glaring wildly up at blackened and blood stained walls. A few of the inhabitants concealed themselves in cellars, and now and then they may be seen timidly peeping out from their hiding places, or flitting across the streets like mysterious shadows. The churches and better descriptions of buildings seem to have been the mark of the enemy spite. But nothing escaped their fury, and it will be a long while before the town can recover from the terrible ordeal through which it has passed.

  From The New York Times

  December 15, 1862

  Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac

  Saturday, Dec. 13, 1862

  11 o’clock A.M.

  The great ba
ttle, so long anticipated between the two contending armies, is now progressing.

  The morning opened with a dense fog, which has not entirely disappeared.

  Gen. REYNOLDS’ Corps, on the left, advanced at an early hour, and at 9:15 A. M., engaged the enemy’s infantry. Seven minutes afterward the rebels opened a heavy fire of artillery, which has continued so far without intermission.

  Their artillery fire must be at random, as the fog obstructs all view of almost everything.

  Our heavy guns are answering them rapidly.

  At this writing, no results are known.

  ATTACK ON THE REBEL WORKS AT FREDRICKSBURG (WAUD). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

  Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac

  Saturday Dec. l3, 1862

  IN THE FIELD – 11 o’clock A.M.

  The fog began to disappear early in the forenoon, affording an unobstructed view of our own and the rebel positions.

  It being evident that the first ridge of hills, in the rear of the city, on which the enemy had their guns posted behind works, could not be carried except by a charge of infantry, Gen. SUMNER assigned that duty to Gen. FRENCH’s Division, which was supported by Gen. HOWARD’S.

  The troops advanced to their work at ten minutes before 12 o’clock at a brisk run, the enemy’s guns opening upon them a very rapid fire. When within musket range, at the base of the ridge, our troops were met by a terrible fire from the rebel infantry, who were posted behind a a stone wall and some houses on the right of the line. This checked the advance of our men, and they fell back to a small ravine, but not out of musket range.

  At this time another body of troops moved to their assistance in splendid style, notwithstanding large gaps were made in their ranks by the rebel artillery. When our troops arrived at the first line of the rebel defences, they “double quicked,” and with “fixed bayonets” endeavored to dislodge the rebels from their hiding places. The concentrated fire of the rebel artillery and infantry, which our men were forced to face, was too much for them, and the centre gave way in disorder, but afterwards they were rallied and brought back.