fled precipitately. A number of prisoners
were captured, among them the officer of the picket-guard. Colonel
Irwin, of the Forty-ninth Pennsylvania, who had, at Antietam, commanded
the Third brigade of the Second division, was among the wounded on our
side.

At sunrise the Second division filed down to the river side, and took
position in line of battle. Our horses cropped the green blades which
had sprung from the grain scattered for their food nearly five months
before. The division was upon the very spot where it lay before, at the
first battle of Fredericksburgh. The bridge also was in the same place
that Franklin's bridge had been. The point was known as Franklin's
Crossing.

The First division of our corps (Brook's) was on the other side of the
river, holding the plain for some distance. The pickets of that division
formed the half of a circle of about three-fourths of a mile in
diameter, the center being at the pontoon bridge, where some earthworks
were thrown up. At our left, about a mile down the river, the First
corps had also effected a crossing. The rebels had offered strong
resistance, but the crossing was gallantly accomplished by Wadsworth's
division in boats. Like the First division of our own corps, Wadsworth's
division was holding a semi-circular portion of the plateau; but being
able to maintain the position by some fighting.

Sickles' Third corps was upon the high ground in the rear, ready to come
to the assistance of the corps at the river. The three corps, First,
Third and Sixth, were under command of General Sedgwick.

The rebels spent the day in throwing up intrenchments and shelling
Reynolds' position. Toward night the artillery practice ceased, and the
First and Sixth corps bivouacked where they had stood during the day,
but Sickles and his corps were ordered to the assistance of Hooker, on
the right.

The morning of the 30th was lowery, but the clouds dispersed as the day
advanced. About noon the troops were massed by brigades, and a
congratulatory order from General Hooker was read to them, amid great
cheering. "The enemy," said the order, "must now come out and fight us
on our ground, or retreat ingloriously." Nothing more of interest
occurred that day; but, in the afternoon of the following day, the First
corps became engaged in a fierce artillery duel with the enemy, in which
the corps lost a large number of its men in killed and wounded. At
sunset an order came from General Hooker,