nds and partisans of the latter. Again, Burnside, his
successor, was alleged to be junior in actual rank to Franklin. Whether
either of these facts supplied the motives for the jealousy which lost
that battle, if such was true, the judgment day alone will reveal. It is
devoutly to be hoped that the light of that day will relieve the
terrible disaster of Fredericksburg of this awful shadow, and that
nothing worse than a "misunderstanding of orders" was responsible for
it.

That Order No. 8 was disapproved at Washington, and General Burnside
promptly tendered his resignation of the command of the Army of the
Potomac. He felt that he had not received and was not likely to receive
the cordial and hearty support of all his subordinate officers, and
under those circumstances he did not want the responsibility of command.
He expressed himself as anxious to serve his country and willing to work
anywhere it might please the President to place him. He was not
relieved, however, until a month or so later. In writing the foregoing I
know that many brave men will take exception. I would say, however, that
I have made a somewhat careful study of the subject from an absolutely
unprejudiced stand-point, and such are the conclusions I reached, and
they were shared by many of my fellow-officers who were in that
campaign. The losses in this battle amount to nearly one-third the
troops actually engaged, a most remarkable fact, and which stamps this
engagement as one of the bloodiest in all history. Burnside reports his
loss as twelve hundred and eighty-four killed and nine thousand six
hundred wounded, making a total loss, including the missing, of twelve
thousand six hundred and fifty-three. Of this loss the right grand
division (the Second and Ninth Corps) lost five thousand three hundred
and eleven. The left grand division, Franklin's (First and Sixth Corps,
which numbered considerably more than the right grand division), lost
three thousand four hundred and sixty-two, and most of this was
sustained in the second attack in the afternoon. These facts sustain
the belief above referred to in the army, that the main attack in the
morning on the left was not what it should have been, and was the cause
of the disaster.

A remarkable fact connected with this loss is the great number of
wounded as compared with the killed. Usually the former exceeds the
latter in the proportion of three and four to one, but at Fredericksburg
it was nearly nin