ards of
one-fifth of the entire regiment having been either killed, wounded, or
found missing at the close of that sanguinary contest. The part taken by
the gallant Twelfth has also been graphically portrayed in the paper
just referred to, by one who took an honorable part therein, and it
would be presumption in me to attempt a word in addition.

The great Army of the Potomac, now upwards of one hundred thousand
strong, was stretched along the eastern bank of the Rappahannock from
Falmouth southward to, and including, General Franklin's division, and
for miles there was but little space between the regimental camps of
this mighty host. Our picket line was on the left bank of the river,
while that of the enemy was on the right in plain sight, and for the
most part the two lines were within reach of each other's rifles. But
there was little firing done, it seeming to be tacitly understood that
their principal business was to mutually watch, instead of shoot, each
other. Anxious to see how rebels in arms looked, I rode the length of
our picket line and inspected them as best I could, from this tolerably
safe distance, and became satisfied that a nearer approach was
undesirable.

Our base of supplies was Acquia Creek, about fifteen miles in our rear,
towards Washington, and thither I had to frequently go for our
subsistence. The trains to this place were daily laden with the sick and
wounded on their way to the great hospitals in and around Washington.
And some of the sights that I saw in connection with the removal of our
poor, maimed, sick and dying soldiers, shortly after the terrible
battle, would be too painful to relate. I do not mean that they were not
as well treated and as kindly cared for as was practicable under the
circumstances, but that from their great numbers, the inadequate means
for handling them, and the distance over which they had to be
transported in crowded box cars and filthy steamboats before much could
be done for them, it was impossible but that their sufferings in many
cases should be of the most aggravated character.

Our situation while in front of Fredericksburg was anything but
comfortable. The men lived in all sorts of rudely constructed cabins,
bough-houses and even subterranean huts, having no tents save the
miserable misnamed shelter tents, which were used only as roofs for the
conglomerate of structures which their ingenuity had devised. The
fire-places were made of logs cemented and