All the guns and many prisoners were
captured. This was a mettlesome assault, and as successful as it was
brief and determined.
Howe's columns, in whose front the Confederate skirmishers occupied the
railroad-cutting and embankment, while Hays and two regiments of
Barksdale were on Lee's and adjacent hills, as soon as the firing on his
right was heard, moved to the assault with the bayonet; Neill and Grant
pressing straight for Cemetery hill, which, though warmly received,
they carried without any check. They then faced to the right, and,
with Seaver sustaining their left, carried the works on Marye's heights,
capturing guns and prisoners wholesale.
A stand was subsequently attempted by the Confederates on several
successive crests, but without avail.
The loss of the Sixth Corps in the assault on the Fredericksburg heights
was not far from a thousand men, including Cols. Spear and Johns,
commanding two of the storming columns.
The assault of Howe falls in no wise behind the one made by Newton.
The speedy success of both stands out in curious contrast to the deadly
work of Dec. 13. "So rapid had been the final movement on Marye's hill,
that Hays and Wilcox, to whom application had been made for succor,
had not time to march troops from Taylor's and Stansbury's to
Barksdale's aid.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223