an advantage over the hero of the public printsGeneral Hooker.

The army was now divided into three grand divisions, each consisting of two corps, and commanded by Generals Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin; among the subordinate generals no change was made, excepting in the case of General Fitz John Porter, who was deprived of his command and placed under arrest, to await trial on charges resulting from occurrences connected with Pope's campaign.

It was Burnside's plan to make a demonstration on the Rappahannock, and then rapidly marching down the left bank of that river, to cross by means of pontoons at Fredericksburg, and depending on the Potomac and on the Aquia Creek rail for his supplies, to advance on Richmond by Hanover Court-house. He considered that he would thus avoid the evil of having to protect long lines of communication necessitated by a movement against Richmond by Gordonsville, and, on the other hand, would defeat the objection raised to the adoption of the line of the Pamunkey and James Rivers, by his ability to cover Washington from Fredericksburg almost equally well as from Warrenton and Gordonsville. He depended for success on the rapidity of his movements; he supposed that General Jackson was still west of the Blue Ridge, and that by a rapid march he might cross the Rappahannock, and advancing on Richmond, might fall with his whole army on a portion only of that of his opponent.

Requisitions were sent to General Halleck for the movement of the pontoons and supplies to Aquia Creek, the former especially to be transported as speedily as possible, either by land or water, to Fredericksburg. Shortly afterwards General Sumner was ordered to

march on the same point, followed by Franklin and Hooker; whilst to General Pleasanton, now in command of the cavalry, was assigned the duty of protecting the right rear of the army, and preventing the incursions of the Confederate troopers; and General Sigel, with an independent corps, was detached to guard the upper Potomac, as also the direct route between Gordonsville and Washington.

Such was General Burnside's plan of operations; but his adversary General Lee was well informed of all his movements, and as Sumner advanced along the banks of the Rappahannock to Fredericksburg, Longstreet moved in a parallel line on the same point. Thus, when Sumner reached Falmouth opposite Fredericksburg, he found that the enemy's batteries were facing him on the other side of the river, and that the pontoons on which he had depended for effecting a passage had not arrived. The plan of surprising the enemy, and establishing the army on the heights beyond Fredericksburg preparatory to an advance on Richmond, had miscarried, and it remained for General Burnside to concentrate his forces at Falmouth and attempt (if so disposed) by open force, what he had failed in accomplishing by strategy.

The time necessary to collect the Federal forces was equally sufficient to allow of the arrival of General Jackson, and thus by the 25th of November the whole Confederate army-augmented in numbers since the battle of Antietam-was in position on the heights overlooking the quiet little town of Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River.

The fate of the town was singularly unhappy: under the guns of the Federal batteries, it was yet occupied by the out-pickets of the Confederate army, and its

inhabitants were dependent for safety and for life on the forbearance of the Federal general, whom any belligerent act on the part of the advanced pickets might provoke to wreak vengeance on the helpless population. There were associations connected with Fredericksburg similar to those which formerly attached to the banks of the Pamunkey. It had been the scene of the earlier portion of Washington's life; here his mother had dwelt; and in the neighbourhood of the town much of his boyhood had been passed. As Fredericksburg resembled the White House in its associations, so did it partake in its fate.

For nearly three weeks the two armies remained confronting each other, the Confederate pickets holding the town of Fredericksburg and the right bank of the Rappahannock; the Federals the left bank and the small town of Falmouth. The inhabitants had removed from Fredericksburg, and the trains from Richmondwhich ran regularly to the head-quarters of the Confederate army-stopped two miles outside the town. The breaking up of the weather, and the imposing position occupied by Lee, made the Federal general hesitate before ordering an attack. At length, owing possibly to the pressure put upon him by the Government, or by public opinion, Burnside took measures for a general advance against the Confederate position. He determined to cross the river by means of pontoon bridges, constructed in front of his centre, opposite to the town of Fredericksburg, and also to effect a passage at a point about a mile and a half lower down the river, where the conformation of the ground on the right bank afforded play for the guns posted on the higher ground on the left bank. His army, consisting of three grand divisions, held the heights immediately overlook

ing the Rappahannock, and extended for a distance of about four miles along its left bank. The right grand division was under the command of General Hooker, the centre under General Sumner, the left under General Franklin; the total numerical strength being about 150,000 men. A more than ordinary powerful artillery was attached to the army, of which no less than 143 guns, overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, commanded the course of the river and the opposite bank.

The Confederate army under General Lee, numbering about 80,000 men, was drawn up along the heights, which, retiring in a semicircle from the river, embrace within their arms a plain six miles in length, and from two to three in depth. These heights, or bluffs, rise higher and steeper immediately in rear of the town of Fredericksburg than those which stretch away towards the East; they are also almost bare of trees, whilst, on the contrary, the hills receding from the river are thickly covered, and their lower ridges, or spurs, clothed with brushwood. This semicircle of hills terminates at Massaponax River, about five miles below Fredericksburg. The right of the Confederate army, extending nearly as far as the Massaponax, comprised the cavalry and horse artillery under General J. E. B. Stuart, posted on the only ground at all suitable for that arm of the service. On his left was General Jackson's corps, of which Early's* division formed the right, and A. P. Hill the left, the divisions of Generals Taliaferro and D. H. Hill being in reserve. The left wing of the army under General Longstreet comprised the division of General Hood on the right, next to it that of General Pickett, then those of Generals