IN FRONT OF THE STONE WALL AT FREDERICKSBURG.

123

a Diorning nap. So we shook off sloth from our°istened bodies willingly, and rolling up the grayj a akets set about breakfast. The bivouac break-i g a n earer approach to its civilized congeneraa the bivouac bed. Coffee can be made hotad good j n Slackened tins; pork can be properlylz zled only on a stick over an open fire ; hard-ao ' 1 is a better, sweeter morsel than the averageg ^rican housewife has yet achieved with hera a eratus, sour-milk, “empt’ins,” and what-not;I a a pipe ! — who can estimate what that littleb P le nient has done for mankind ? Certainly none® ter than those who have sought its solace after; ^ivouac breakfast that succeeds a bivouac bed,JDeeember.

Veu 6 n ° W ^ e S an to ta ^ e u °t e ; through the mistyb of the wreck of men and horses cumbering thej Q °Und about us, and a slight lifting of the graya ® showed us the story of yesterday’s repeated^ Sa ults and repeated failures. When our pipesC j re exhausted we got up to inspect and criti-a fa' 3 ' 16 s ituation. Just here was the wreck of“nee, which seemed to have been the liigh-naark of our advance-wave of battle. Thetur ^ WaS a Carrier which, slight as it was, hadli^^kack the already wavering and mutilatedscan 0l: ' assai1 ^' Almost an army lay about us andhack over the plain toward the town.h a corpses, but many of the badly wounded,to<)^ distinguishable from the dead, were here1, To die, groveling on the ground or fallena hd t mire ! is dreadful indeed. The pallid faces,look clamm y hands clenching their muskets,ghastly by the fog-light. The new, bright,overcoats only made the sight the ghastlier.

eighty yards in front the plowed fieldfunded by a stone-wall, and behind the walla,l 3 me n in gray uniforms moving carelessly_ This picture is one of my most distinct\v a p ories °f the war — the men in gray behind thiskefs’ ^ a Jkiug, laughing, cooking, cleaning mus-s °ldi ^j^ing locks,— there they were!—Lee’s

tide

fe nc e

'ter

the Army of Northern Virginia! We

f° rg 6 absurdly near this host of yesterday’s vie-h&rf we seeme< f wholly in their hands and aT?°^ ®ieir great mass ; cut off and remote from%e e deral army J) and almost within the lines ofiw 6 ^ ern y — prisoners, of course. That was thefir^ 6 d la te impression, as we stupidly gazed in theg foment of the awkward discovery.ear s ®^ ar P whistle of a bullet sounded in ourSUroh^d a rebel’s face peered through the puff ofthep 6 ’ as ^ le removed the rifle from his shoulder;by ra pidly half-a-dozen more bullets whistled° r der’ + ant ^ w aruing sent us all to earth . Thepr ae p 10 down is theoretically infrequent, but^M P an , y i4 is often given in modern warfare.kelly!, 6011 ’ 8 m axim that “an army travels on itst>s a y ' Vas metaphorical, but long-range and re-Ut 6r , ® ri ^ es have gone far to make it true in atbg . Se nse. Our double lines of battle sought'k'avri, 6 ^ er , 0 ^ the ground as soon as blood wasThi s had the effect of hiding us from

the enemy, or partially so, for the fusillade slack-ened.

It was irksome to keep one position, even atfull length, hut the watch over us was veryvigilant; hardly a movement was made at anypart of our line that did not draw fire from thewall. Necessity compelled us, however, to keepup something of a lookout upon the enemy at anyrisk. A cautious inspection showed great care-lessness in their lines, the men still strolling andlounging — a group at cards, even, evidently ignor-ant or careless of our proximity.

What to do about it was to us a topic secondonly in interest to the probable action of theenemy. Could we long lie thus without wakingup the big guns, whose black muzzles looked downat us from the hill-tops on our right ? And if not,what then ? From these guns there would he nopossible shelter. Retreat alone was more danger-ous than to remain as we were, or even to advance.The field behind us stretched away toward thetown, level and exposed •— the focus of an arc ofbattery-crowned hills, with no inequality of groundto protect us from a convergence of fire that wouldhe singularly effective.

The situation had already forced upon us a policyof masterly inactivity, which alone seemed to meetour immediate difficulties. So we drifted into a com-mon understanding that no doubt an abler coun-cil of war would have approved. Shots might rousethe. enemy from his carelessness .or ignorance;certainly a volley from our line would not go unan-swered, and the odds were great. Let them stickto their cards and forget us if they would! Butwe arrived at this policy only as the least ofmany evils.

The enemy riddled every moving thing in sight:horses tied to the wheels of a broken gun-carriagebehind us; pigs that incautiously came gruntingfrom across the road; even chickens were broughtdown with an accuracy of aim that told of a fatallyshort range, and of a better practice than it wouldhave been wise for our numbers to face. Theyapplauded their own success with a hilarity wecould hardly share in, as their chicken-shootingwas across our hacks, leaving us no extra room forturning. But this was mere wantonness of slaugh-ter, not indulged in when the higher game in blueuniform was in sight. The men who had left ourranks for water, or from any cause, before we werepinned to the earth, came back at great peril. In-deed, I believe not one of them reached our lineagain unhurt. Some were killed outright; otherswere mortally wounded, and died within a fewsteps of us; and several who tried to drag them-selves away flat upon their faces were put out oftheir misery. This, too, showed us plainly whatwe might expect, and fixed our bounds to suchsegments of the field as were hidden from theenemy. This was not alike throughout the line.At one point the exposure was absolute, and still-ness as absolute was the only safety. A slightharrier was afterward formed at this point by a

i The

force hero consisted of Buchanan’s and Andrews’s brigades of regulars, of Sykes’s division, andStockton’s brigade of volunteers, of Griffin’s division, Fifth Army Corps.— Editors.