A single
shell had done the work. Riderless horses galloped wildly over the
field, shying at the grim piles of dark blue bodies, sniffing the blood
and neighing pitifully.
Twelve hundred men in his regiment had charged up that hill. But two
hundred and fifty came down.
From the steeple of the Court House in Fredericksburg General Couch, in
command of the Second Corps, stood with his glasses on this frightful
scene. He whispered to Howard by his side:
"The whole plain is covered with our men fallen and falling--I've never
seen anything like it!"
He paused, his lips quivering as he gasped:
"O my God! see them falling--poor fellows, falling--falling!"
He signalled Burnside for reinforcements.
General Sumner's division on the Union right had charged into the
deadliest trap of all.
Down the road toward the foot of Marye's Heights his magnificent army
swept at double quick. The Confederate batteries had been specially
trained to rake this road from three directions, right, and left flank
and centre.
Steadily, stoically the men in blue pressed into this narrow way in
silence and met the flaming torrent from three directions. Rushing on
over the bodies of their fallen comrades the thinning ranks reached the
old stone wall at the foot of the hill. General Cobb lay concealed
behind it with three thousand infantry.
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