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FRANKLIN’S “LEFT GRAND DIVISION.”
have been in favor of asuccess. When night fellthere were no longer fortythousand men in the LeftGrand Division, and wehad gained no importantadvance.
After Meade’s divisionhad been withdrawn fromthe front he came to Gen-eral Franklin’s headquar-ters, and on being askedsome question about thefight said, “ I found itquite hot enough for me,”taking off his slouched liatand showing two bullet-holes between which andthe top of his head theremust have been little space.During one of the feeble,skirmishing attacks madeon the lines of the SixthCorps later in the day,Meade, who was still at headquarters, was expressing great uneasiness lest theenemy should break through and capture the bridges. General Franklin quietedhim by saying that the Sixth Corps could not be driven from its position.
“ Mansfield,” as the Bernard house was called, was a large, stone mansion, thatlooked down on the Rappahannock River close beneath it, and was approachedby an imposing drive, while behind was an open grove of magnificent trees;in this grove was the headquarters of General Franklin. The house was evi-dently one of Virginia ’s ancestral homes, and had been in former days thecenter of generous hospitality. Though under artillery fire, it was used as atemporary hospital, and in it the brave Bayard died. The grove was filledwith saddled horses, not for the use of fair ladies and gay cavaliers, as in theolden time, but for staff-officers and orderlies to carry orders into the fightand bring back reports from the field. The testy owner, who remained aboutthe house during the early part of the day, and whose word had been law forso many years to all the country side, did not realize, when he demanded theimmediate evacuation of his premises, that he spoke to a man who com-manded 40,000 men, and one who on that day had little regard for proprietaryrights, and did not stand much in awe of a Virginia magnate or constable. ,1
j When I first arrived at the Bernard house I upon staying at tho houso to protect it. Reynold*found Mr. Bernard holding a lively interview with on such occasions was a man of few words, and IReynolds. It seemed that Mr. Bernard protested presently saw Mr. Bernard hurrying toward theagainst the use of his house and grounds l>y the pontoon-bridges between two soldierH, and he "'8 stroops because they would spoil them, and insisted not seen again in that vicinity.— W. B. Franklin-