the builders fled.  Twice, at intervals of half an hour, they ventured again upon the deserted bridge, and twice were they driven back.  Strong detachments were now moved forward by the Federals to cover the working parties, and artillery began to play upon the town.  The Southerners, however, securely posted in rifle-pits and cellars, were not to be dislodged; and at ten o’clock Burnside ordered the heavy batteries into action.  Every gun which could be brought to bear on Fredericksburg discharged fifty rounds of shot and shell.  To this bombardment, which lasted upwards of an hour, Longstreet’s artillery could make no reply.  Yet though the effect on the buildings was appalling, and flames broke out in many places, the defenders not only suffered little loss, but at the very height of the cannonade repelled another attempt to complete the bridge.

After a delay of several hours General Hooker, commanding the advance, called for volunteers to cross the river in boats.  Four regiments came forward.  The pontoons were manned, and though many lives were lost during the transit, the gallant Federals pushed quickly across; others followed, and Barksdale, who had no orders to hold the place against superior strength, withdrew his men from the river bank.  About 4.30 P.M., three bridges being at last established, the enemy pushed forward, and the Mississippians, retiring in good order, evacuated Fredericksburg.  A mile below, near the mouth of Hazel Run, the Confederate outposts had been driven in, and three more bridges had been thrown across.  Thus on the night of the 11th the Federals, who were now organised in three Grand Divisions, each of two army corps, had established their advanced guards on the right bank of the Rappahannock, and, under cover of the batteries on the Stafford Heights, could rapidly and safely pass over their great host of 120,000 men.* (* The three Grand Divisions were commanded by Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin.)

Burnside had framed his plan of attack on the assumption that Lee’s army was dispersed along the Rappahannock.  His balloon had reported large Confederate bivouacs below Skinker’s Neck, and he appears to have believed that Lee, alarmed by his demonstrations near Port Royal, had posted half his army in that neighbourhood.  Utterly unsuspicious that a trap had been laid for him, he had resolved to take advantage of this apparently vicious distribution, and, crossing rapidly at Fredericksburg, to defeat the Confederate left before the right could lend support.  Port Royal is but eighteen miles from Fredericksburg, and in prompt action, therefore, lay his only hope of success.  Burnside, however, after the successful establishment, of his six bridges, evinced the same want of resolution which had won him so unenviable a reputation at Sharpsburg.  The long hours of darkness slipped peacefully away; no unusual sound broke the silence of the night, and all was still along the Rappahannock.

Dec. 12.