The storm cloud of war, so long hovering over the land, was now about to burst, and Lieutenant James seeing separation and perhaps war inevitable, resigned his commission, and hastened to offer his sword to his native State.  He commanded a battery at Fort Johnson, on James’ Island, and shared with General Ruffin the honor of firing the first gun at Fort Sumter, a shot that was to electrify the world and put in motion two of the grandest and mightiest armies of all times.

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CHAPTER XIII

Battle of Fredericksburg—­The Fifteenth Regiment and Third Battalion Join Brigade.

A portion of the Federal Army had preceded Lee, reaching the heights opposite Fredericksburg two days before the arrival of Kershaw’s Brigade and the other parts of the division.  The Federals had been met by a small body of Confederates doing outpost duty there and held at bay till the coming of Longstreet with his five divisions.  General Lee was not long in determining the route Burnsides had selected and hurried Jackson on, and placed him some miles to our right, near Hamilton’s Crossing, on the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad.  When Burnsides became aware of the mighty obstacle of Lee’s battalions between him and his goal, the deep, sluggish river separating the two armies, he realized the trouble that lay in his path.  He began fortifying the ridges running parallel to and near the river, and built a great chain of forts along “Stafford Heights,” opposite Fredericksburg.  In these forts he mounted one hundred and thirty-seven guns, forty being siege pieces brought down from Washington by way of the Potomac and Acquia Creek, and lined the entire range of hills with his heaviest and long-distanced field batteries.  These forts and batteries commanded the river and plain beyond, as well as every height and elevation on the Southern side.  The range of hills on the opposite side were much higher and more commanding than those on the Southern side, still Lee began fortifying Taylor’s, Mayree’s, and Lee’s Heights, and all the intervening hills also, by building forts and heavy redoubts, with protected embrasures on the flanks.  Between these hills and along their crests the infantry threw up light earthworks.  It could not be said that ours was a fortified position in any sense, only through natural barriers.  There is a plain of a half to a mile in width between the river and the range to the South, commencing at Taylor’s Hill, half a mile above the city, and widening as it diverges from the river below, terminating in a broken plateau down near Hamilton’s Crossing.  The highlands on the opposite side come rather precipitous to the water’s edge.  Along the banks, on either side, were rifle pits, in which were kept from three to five pickets, and on our side a brigade was stationed night and day in the city as a support to the videttes guarding the river front.  These pickets were directed to prevent a crossing at all hazards until the troops at camp in the rear were all in position in front of Fredericksburg.  Stuart, with the body of his cavalry, guarded the river and country on our right below Jackson, while Hampton kept a lookout at the crossings above on the left of Longstreet.