ed the base of the hill, when the brigades of Cobb and
Cooke, posted behind a stone wall running parallel with the Telegraph
road, met them with a sudden fire of musketry, which drove them back
in terrible disorder. Nearly half the force was killed or lay disabled
on the field, and upon the survivors, now in full retreat, was
directed a concentrated artillery-fire from, the hill.

[Footnote 1: Longstreet.]

In face of this discharge of cannon, General Hancock's force,
supporting French, now gallantly advanced in its turn. The charge
lasted about fifteen minutes, and in that time General Hancock lost
more than two thousand of the five thousand men of his command. The
repulse was still more bloody and decisive than the first. The second
column fell back in disorder, leaving the ground covered with their
dead.

General Burnside had hitherto remained at the "Phillips House," a mile
or more from the Rappahannock. He now mounted his horse, and, riding
down to the river, dismounted, walked up and down in great agitation,
and exclaimed, looking at Marye's Hill: "That crest must be carried
to-night."[1]

[Footnote 1: The authority for this incident is Mr. William Swinton,
who was present.]

In spite of the murderous results of the first charges, the Federal
commander determined on a third. General Hooker's reserve was ordered
to make it, and, although that officer protested against it, General
Burnside was immovable, and repeated his order. General Hooker
sullenly obeyed, and opened with artillery upon the stone wall at the
foot of the hill, in order to make a breach in it. This fire continued
until nearly sunset, when Humphrey's division was formed for the
charge. The men were ordered to throw aside their knapsacks, and not
to load their guns, "for there was no time there to load and fire,"
says General Hooker. The word was given about sunset, and the division
charged headlong over the ground already covered with dead. A few
words will convey the result. Of four thousand men who charged,
seventeen hundred and sixty were left dead or wounded on the field.
The rest retreated, pursued by the fire of the batteries and infantry;
and night fell on the battle-field.

This charge was the real termination of the bloody battle of
Fredericksburg, but, on the Confederate right, Jackson had planned and
begun to execute a decisive advance on the force in his front. This he
designed to undertake "precisely at sunset," and his intentio