now had fallen, and in some places it still
remained banked up in shaded corners. To those who had to stand picket
out in the plain between the armies the cold was fearful. The enemy
had no fires outside of the city, and their sufferings from cold must
have been severe. My company, from the Third, as well as one from
each of the other regiments, were on picket duty, posted in an open
cornfield in the plain close to the enemy, near enough, in fact, to
hear voices in either camp--with no fire, and not allowed to speak
above a whisper. The night became so intensely cold just before day
that the men gathered cornstalks and kindled little fires along the
beat, and at early dawn we were withdrawn.

All knew full well, as the day preceding had passed without any
demonstrations, only maneuvering, this day, the 13th, would be a day
of battle. A heavy fog, as usual, rose from the river and settled
along the plains and hillsides, so much so that objects could not be
distinguished twenty paces. However, the least noise could be heard
at a great distance. Activity in the Federal camp was noticed early
in the morning. Officers could be heard giving commands, wagons and
artillery moving to positions. At half past ten the fog suddenly
lifted, and away to our right and near the river great columns of men
were moving, marching and counter-marching. These were in front of
A.P. Hill, of Jackson's Corps. In front of us and in the town all
was still and quiet as a city of the dead. The great siege guns from
beyond the river on Stafford Heights opened the battle by a dozen or
more shells screaming through the tree tops and falling in Jackson's
camp. From every fort soon afterwards a white puff of smoke could be
seen, then a vivid flash and a deafening report, telling us that the
enemy was ready and waiting. From the many field batteries between
Jackson and the river the smoke curled up around the tree tops, and
shell went crashing through the timbers. Our batteries along the front
of Longstreet's Corps opened their long-ranged guns on the redoubts
beyond the river, and our two siege guns on Lee's Hill, just brought
up from Richmond, paid special attention to the columns moving to the
assault of A.P. Hill. For one hour the earth and air seemed to tremble
and shake beneath the shock of three hundred guns, and the bursting
of thousands of shells overhead, before and behind us, looked like
bursting stars on a frolic. The activity suddenly ceases