Instead of
rapidity there was great delay, with the result that the early days of
December found Lee intrenching strongly upon the heights behind
Fredericksburg on the south bank of the Rappahannock, having his army
now reunited and reinforced to the formidable strength of 78,288 men
"present for duty." Burnside lay upon the north bank, with 113,000 men,
but having exchanged the promising advantages which had existed when he
took command for very serious disadvantages. He had the burden of
attacking a position which he had allowed his enemy not only to select
but to fortify. Happily it is not our task to describe the cruel and
sanguinary thirteenth day of December, 1862, when he undertook this
desperate task. When that night fell at the close of a fearful combat,
which had been rather a series of blunders than an intelligent plan,
10,208 Federal soldiers were known to be lying killed or wounded, while
2145 more were "missing." Such was the awful price which the brave
Northern army had paid, and by which it had bought--nothing! Nothing,
save the knowledge that General Burnside's estimate of his capacity for
such high command was correct. Even the mere brutal comparison of
"killed and wounded" showed that among the Confederates the number of
men who had been hit was not quite half that of the Federal loss. The
familiar principle, that in war a general should so contrive as to do
the maximum of injury to his adversary with a minimum of injury to
himself, had been directly reversed; the unfortunate commander had done
the maximum of injury to himself with the minimum of injury to his foe.
Pages:
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150