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attempted by their Sybarite opponents.
Again and again they have stormed batteries formidably defended, at the point of the bayonet; nothing of the kind has ever been attempted by the Federals.
The repulse at
Fredericksburg was a staggering blow to the
North.
Their leading journals bewailed it as a great calamity.
The New York
World spoke of it as “the most terrible defeat of the war,” and placed the loss of the
Federal army at more than fifteen thousand men.
Meagher's brigade of Irishmen went into the fight twelve hundred strong, and but two hundred and fifty could be found next morning.
The
World said editorially:
Heaven help us — there seems to be no help in man. The cause is perishing.
Hope after hope has vanished, and now the only prospect is the very blackness of despair.
Here we are, reeling back from the third campaign upon Richmond, fifteen thousand of the Grand Army sacrificed at one sweep, and the rest escaping only by a hair's breadth.
The Louisville
Journal said of this battle: “It is painful and absolutely sickening to read of the horrible slaughter of our troops at
Fredericksburg.
The war cannot be carried on much longer as it has been.
Gen. French went into battle with seven thousand men, and two days after the battle only twelve hundred reported to him. The total loss in his brigade alone was thirteen hundred and fifty-five.”
Concerning this disastrous battle
General Burnside sent to
Washington city this delicate dispatch:
The army was withdrawn to this side of the river because I felt the position in front could not be carried.
It was a military necessity, either to retreat or attack.
A repulse would have been disastrous to us. The army was withdrawn at night without the knowledge of the enemy, and without loss either of property or men.
This victory was not gained without a vast sacrifice
