daybreak, again took up the line of march, passed through a beautiful country (it being in Loudoun County), and through a small village called Wheatland, and went into camp,the men just at the edge of the woods, the officers just in the edge of the woods, the tents placed in a circle, in the centre of which was a great fire, day and night. Here we remained from Thursday, October 30th, till Sunday, November 2d.

-

"Early Sunday morning the order came: 'Have your command in readiness to move in thirty minutes;' but the movement did not commence till 9 A. M. Delightful day; magnificent country! Marched twelve miles, keeping step to the thunders of our artillery, which moved in advance to shell the rebels from forests, ravines, and other hidingplaces. We bivouacked that night in a narrow little valley near Unison. Next afternoon (Monday, November 3), again went 'marching on,' and after proceeding a mile, the artillery firing ahead becoming quite sharp, the order came to our column to 'halt and load.' This caused considerable excitement, some believing that the rebels had made a stand, and that a fight was imminent. We marched that day and bivouacked at night in a high open field; the officers of my regiment getting security from the wind under the leeward side of a stone wall. Started early next morning (Tuesday) and marched four miles, to a village called Upperville, not far from 'Snicker's Gap,' in Fauquier County. There I slept in a house for the first time after leaving Concord, N. H. I took with me Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, and went to the house of a reb; he being in the Southern army, but his wife and family remaining at home. Having received orders to march at six o'clock on Wednesday morning, we got off, and marching only six miles that day, bivouacked at night near Piedmont Station.

"Thursday, November 6th, we marched twelve miles, through a much poorer country, and halted that night near a town by the name of Orlean. This was a very cold day, and the field officers took possession of an old, unoccupied log-house for the night. The next afternoon, at four o'clock,

weather cold, and snow falling, we commenced another march. Some general in command was drunk or lost. We took the wrong road, a narrow, rocky, muddy lane, and marched in the deep mud and dense darkness till seven o'clock, then halted and tried to get out; could n't countermarch, so had to 'about face' and push out by the left flank. It was a slow, wearisome, vexatious job. But we got out at last, marched nearly back to Orlean, took another road, marched a mile, filed into the woods at midnight, and lay down on the snow. Thus ended Friday, November 7, 1862. Next day, marched ten miles; country indifferent, crossed the head branch of the Rappahannock at a little village called Glenn Mills, and there entered Culpeper County. While a bridge, on which the men were to cross this stream, was being got ready, I took a pioneer's axe for a table, and wrote a letter to my wife, it being her birthday. We went on that day to Jeffersonville, and encamped; weather warmer, and the snow all gone.

"Monday, November 10th, our regiment was called out in haste to repel an anticipated attack from a detachment of the rebel army at Culpeper Court House. The regiment marched off with alacrity, but the rebs skedaddled. Wednesday, November 12th, at three o'clock in the morning, without noise or the building of fires, we moved off, in quick time, in a northeasterly direction, three miles, to Warrenton Springs, and went into camp. In less than two hours after leaving our camp at Jeffersonville, it was occupied by an overwhelming force of the rebel army. On Saturday, the 15th of November, we broke camp at the Springs, and moved again in the direction of Richmond. Had gone only about a mile when we were attacked; the rebels opened a battery upon us, and we opened on them. They were silenced in about two hours. One lieutenant was killed on our side, and another lost an arm. Two men of my regi

ment were hit, but only slightly hurt. Two wagons of our train were destroyed. We 'put up,' that night, near a place called Fayetteville, having marched but three miles.

"Sunday, the 16th, we marched eight miles to the Or

ange railroad, near Warrenton Junction. The army is now under the command of Major-General Burnside; General McClellan having been relieved at Warrenton. Monday, 17th, marched eight miles farther, through a miserable sandy country, and bivouacked for the night near no place that we could hear of. Tuesday, 18th, marched twelve miles more, finding a better country, and went into camp at Hartwood, eight miles short of Fredericksburg. We are now in Stafford County. Fauquier (at least, most of what we have seen of it) is very poor. Stafford, so far, looks

better.

"Wednesday, November 19th, we broke camp at six o'clock in the morning, and marched, we hoped and believed, for Fredericksburg. The distance made to-day was eight or nine miles. On arriving on the bank of the Rappahannock, below Falmouth, and directly opposite Fredericksburg and in full view of that city, the officers of the Eleventh, while the column was at a halt, came together under the branches of an oak-tree, and grew eloquent over the prospect of the easy capture of that place. No rebels. of any account are now there, the river can be forded without difficulty, and the men are ready for it. But remarkable counsels prevail. We must wait - wait for pontons to cross on, which will be simply waiting for the rebel army to arrive and intrench itself. After tedious waiting, this afternoon, we got into camp at six o'clock, on a high plateau, a little below Fredericksburg, but on the left bank of the Rappahannock.

"From Warrenton Junction to this point we have presented a magnificent spectacle. An immense army, feeling itself engaged in a holy cause, and marching on to glorious victory, could not feel otherwise than elated at the prospect before it. We have marched from that point in three lines abreast. To explain it, it may be said, that three roads running parallel, and very near each other, were occupied by our army during these last three days. These were, however, in reality, no roads at all, or next to none, except such as we made through forest and field, as

we moved upon the Confederacy. In this great advance we have had six army corps, amounting in all to 100,000

men.

"December 1st. Pay Day. The boys of my regiment have had a happy day. The paymaster has visited us. Major Sherman, of New Jersey, an old scholar of mine in that State, — has been here, and paid the regiment to October 31st."

So the march had terminated, not at Richmond, but at Fredericksburg; and there the Union army tarried three weeks, upon the "left bank of the Rappahannock," till the enemy got into position, and lay in deadly wait across the river. It had been better for that army to tarry longer, even to go at once into winter quarters where it was; and so, it seems, felt its commander, who had reluctantly become McClellan's successor. But the public mind was impatient, and Burnside was compelled to attempt an immediate advance. Though there were apprehensions of desperate, as well as fruitless, encounter, yet no adequate prevision was there of that magnified image of death which should loom so terrible on yonder plain and slope.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

1862.

It was decided on the 10th of December, 1862, in the council of Union officers, to cross the Rappahannock at three places. But the completion of one of three bridges requisite, that at the city of Fredericksburg itself, was so hindered on the 11th of December by the murderous volleys of Confederate sharpshooters sheltered in the houses, that Burnside ordered bombardment. The surrender of the place had been demanded three weeks before, so that due notice had been given; and he could not allow his men to be slaughtered by foes lurking beneath its roofs. The order was executed by thirty-five batteries numbering one hundred and seventy-nine guns, throwing sixty solid shot and shells a minute, "till nine thousand were fired." But the guns could not be sufficiently depressed to shell out the mischievous enemy. Then it was that brave men of the Michigan Seventh took to boats, crossed under the sharp fire of the hidden marksmen, charged up the bank, “cleared the houses in front of them, and took more prisoners than their own party numbered." 1 The bridge was finished, and at sunset Union troops, impatient of delay, were crossing to take possession of the shattered city.

Colonel Harriman's diary notes shall now picture, in outline, the events of the three days at Fredericksburg, comprising the great battle and its preliminaries:

"Thursday, December 11th, occurred the bombardment of the city of Fredericksburg. Our officers had demanded the surrender of the place, giving the enemy a certain num1 Four Years of Fighting, by C. C. Coffin.