mmand respect, and in time of war to give the soldier that
confidence he so much craves from a superior officer, were all there.
He turned his head quickly, and looking me all over, rode up the line
and away as quickly and silently as he came, his little courier hard
upon his heels; and this was my first sight of Stonewall Jackson."

From his own lines Jackson passed along the front, drawing the fire
of the Federal skirmishers, who were creeping forward, and proceeded
to the centre of the position, where, on the eminence which has since
borne the name of Lee's Hill, the Commander-in-Chief, surrounded by
his generals, was giving his last instructions. It was past nine
o'clock. The sun, shining out with almost September warmth, was
drawing up the mist which hid the opposing armies; and as the dense
white folds dissolved and rolled sway, the Confederates saw the broad
plain beneath them dark with more than 80,000 foes. Of these the left
wing, commanded by Franklin, and composed of 55,000 men and 116 guns,
were moving against the Second Corps; 30,000, under Sumner, were
forming for attack on Longstreet, and from the heights of Stafford,
where the reserves were posted in dense masses, a great storm of shot
and shell burst upon the Confederate lines. "For once," says Dabney,
"war unmasked its terrible proportions with a distinctness hitherto
unknown in the forest-clad landscapes of America, and the plain of
Fredericksburg presented a panorama that was dreadful in its
grandeur." It was then that Longstreet, to whose sturdy heart the
approach of battle seemed always welcome, said to Jackson, "General,
do not all those multitudes of Federals frighten you?" "We shall very
soon see whether I shall not frighten them;" and with this grim reply
the commander of the Second Corps rode back to meet Franklin's onset.

9 A.M.

The Federals were already advancing. From Deep Run southward, for
more than a mile and a half, three great lines of battle, accompanied
by numerous batteries, moved steadily forward, powerful enough, to
all appearance, to bear down all opposition by sheer weight of
numbers. "On they came," says an eye-witness, "in beautiful order, as
if on parade, their bayonets glistening in the bright sunlight; on
they came, waving their hundreds of regimental flags, which relieved
with warm bits of colouring the dull blue of the columns and the
russet tinge of the wintry landscape, while their artillery beyond
the river contin