Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/426

 420 ■ Southern Historical Society Papers.

wounded, among whom was that noble soldier and gentleman, Lieu- tenant Martin A. Martin, of Sunflower county, who was never able atierward to join his company. The Eighteenth regiment and the artillery, repulsed with great slaughter that and two other charges made in rapid succession, with small loss to our side. In the mean- time Colonel Walton, of New Orleans, had placed one section of the first company of Washington Artillery (two guns) under Captain Squiers, in the same redoubts occupied by them on the ever-memo- rable 13th of December, 1862. One gun of the third company, Captain Miller, was placed in the position near the plank road, and two guns belonging to the fourth company, under Lieutenant Nor- cum, were placed in position near the extreme left of the Twenty-first regiment between the plank road and Taylor's Hill. The second company, under Captain Richardson, was posted near the railroad on our right ; Frazier battery and Carlton battery in rear of Howi- son House on Lee's Hill. One gun of Parker's battery was posted on the point known as Willis's Hill, under the command of Lieu- tenant Brown.

Between 7 and 8 o'clock the fog lifted so as to reveal the heavy masses of the enemy that had crossed at the various pontoon bridges laid down during the night. His troops could be seen in every portion of the city, and his lines stretching down the turnpike for a mile below the Bernard House. The position of the enemy seemed to justify the suspicions of General Early, that the real attack would be at Hamil- ton station, and that the attack at Marye's Hill was only a feint and a feeler. Soon, however the enemy's line could be seen moving up toward the city. At the same time a column was discovered moving from the city up the river towards Taylor's hill. I sent a courier to General Barksdale, then on Lee's Hill, and he to General Early, then at Hamilton station, informing him of these movements of the enemy. To my mind it was now clear that Marye's Hill was to be the point attacked by the whole force of the enemy. From my observations of the topography of the country around Fredericksburg, I had long before regarded Marye's Hill as the weakest and most vulnerable position along the whole line occupied by General Lee on the 13th of December, 1862, for the simple rcas-n that it is not a salient, but it is the only point on that whole line that a line of infantry can be massed within one thousand yards of the hills. At that point a line of infantry can be massed and masked in the valley between the city and the hill within four hundred and fifty yards, and at the railroad cut and embankment within six hundred yards