History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

_862 BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 851
ericksburg. The Reserves, under General Meade, were attached to Reynolds'
Corps of Franklin's Grand Division. Having previously moved out to a point
three miles below Fredericksburg, and in rear of the Stafford Hills, the division was ordered to be in readiness to march at midnight of the 10th of December. At the appointed hour the command moved, passing camp after camp
of the army wrapt in quiet slumber, and soon met. the pontoon train, which revealed the object of the midnight march. The task had been assigned the division to force a crossing of the Rappahannock, and to cover the laying of the
pontoons. Before daylight the river was reached, and the Bucktails and the
Tenth Reserves were deployed as skirmishers along the bank of the stream.
The enemy was soon driven from the opposite shore by the unerring aim of our
riflemen, and the bridge successfally laid. The division crossed on the following
morning and took position near the Bernard House, where it remained until
the 13th, when early in the day it was marched across an extended plain to a
position near the railroad, and in front of the enemy's line of earth works. The
Eleventh was posted in rear of the batteries, when a severe artillery duel ensued, in which many of the regiment were killed and terribly wounded. As
soon as the cannonading ceased the order was given for the infantry to advance,
and the line moved rapMly forward towards the enemy's works under a steady
musketry fire from his entrenchments. The ground over which the Eleventh
passed was nearly level and offered no protection, yet it rushed forward unchecked, until it reached a ditch running parallel to the line of battle then to
the railroad, where a momentary halt was made, then forward again to within
a hundred paces of a stone fence, behind which the enemy awaited its approach,
when he opened a murderous fire which brought the regiment to a halt. Colonel Jackson immediately saw that to attempt to scale the hill in his immediate front, and to carry the works by direct assault, would cause the utter annihilation of his command. With coolness-and good judgment at this juncture
of imminent peril, he at once ordered a movement by the right flank, and at double quick passed through a piece of woods to the right. By this movement the
enemy was flanked and his breastwork soon reached, where many of his men
were captured. The regiment then moved forward, driving the retreating foe
several hundred yards; but perceiving that the line was not supported, it was
not deemed prudent to advance further. Soon the second line of the enemy
was seen moving forward on a double quick, when the command fell back to
the line of earth works. Still no supports coming, it was again compelled to
fall back, men falling at every step.* "Never," says Captain Coder, in his ac*About one P. M., the main attack on the right began by a furious cannonade, under cover
of which three compact lines of infantry advanced against Hill's front. They were received
as before by our batteries, by whose fire they were momentarily checked, but soon recovering
they pressed forward until coming within range of our infantry, the contest became fierce and
bloody. Archer and Lane repulsed those portions of the line immediately in their front, but
before the interval between these commends could be closed, the enemy pressed through in
overwhelming numbers and turned the left of Archer and the right of Lane. Attacked in
front and flank, two regiments of the former and the brigade of the latter, after a brave and
obstinate-resistance, gave way. Archer held his line with the First Tennessee and the Fifth
Alabama battalion, assisted by the Forty-second Virginia regiment and the Twenty-second
Virginia battalion, until the arrival of reinforcements. Thomas came gallantly to the relief
of Lane, and joined by the Seventh and part of the Eighteenth North Carolina regiments of
that brigade, repulsed the column that had broken Lane and drove it back to the railroad. In
the meantime a large force had penetrated the wood as far as Hill's reserve, md encountered
Gregg's brigade. The attack was so sudden and unexpected that Orr's rifles, mistaking the
enemy for our own troops retiring, were thrown into confusion.- General Lee's Official Report.