Six field-pieces were placed
near the Marye house. Several full batteries were on Lee's hill,
and near Howison's. And, so soon as Fredericksburg was occupied by our
forces, Early sent Hays to re-enforce Barksdale; one regiment of his
brigade remaining on Barksdale's right, and the balance proceeding
to Stansbury's.
For, at daylight on Sunday, Early had received word from Barksdale,
whose lines at Fredericksburg were nearly two miles in length, that the
Union forces had thrown a bridge across the river opposite the Lacy
house; and immediately despatched his most available brigade to sustain
him.
Early's line, however, was thin. Our own was quite two and a half miles
in length, with some twenty-two thousand men; and Early's eighty-five
hundred overlapped both our flanks. But his position sufficiently
counterbalanced this inequality. Moreover his artillery was well
protected, while the Union batteries were quite without cover, and in
Gibbon's attempted advance, his guns suffered considerable damage.
Brooks's division was still on the left of the Federal line, near the
bridge-heads. Howe occupied the centre, opposite the forces on the
heights, to our left of Hazel Run.
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