at we were about to leave I had the honor to be the
object to which a brief utterance was directed by Gen. Hancock. I was
then a sergeant, and had been ordered to brigade headquarters with a
squad of men for guard duty. On the day in question, Gen. Sumner
reviewed his Grand Division. After the guard had got to its place, one
of Caldwell's staff came to me and said, "When the general comes along
you will fall in your guard and present arms." I had some eight or ten
men with me, and told those not on duty to be on hand to fall in when so
ordered. Presently I heard a horse coming down the road on a sharp
gallop, and soon saw that it was Gen. Hancock with a single orderly.
Evidently he was not on the lookout for a little guard to salute him,
but I fell in the men as briskly as possible. The general noticed what I
was doing, and had to wait a moment for the guard to present arms, which
it did all right. Hancock returned the compliment, and then said to me,
"If you want to salute, sir! you must be a 'damned sight quicker' than
this!" If I had dared to, I would have answered, "Don't you worry
yourself, Winfield Scotty, I don't want to salute you, and wouldn't now,
if I had not been ordered to."

Of course I kept my mouth shut. It would have been bad policy to have
expressed my sentiments.

As I have stated, shortly after 6 a. m. our column started. We made a
roundabout march of a few miles and finally halted, under cover of high
ground, nearly opposite the city of Fredericksburg. All this day a
furious cannonade was maintained by our side, and from big guns mounted
on the crest back of the river. The effort was to clean the enemy out
from the neighborhood of the river bank, so that we could lay our
pontoon bridges. This was not successful, and in the attempt to do this
work our men were picked off, so that it was found to be impracticable.
At length the Seventh Mich. and the 89th N. Y. were rushed into the
pontoon boats and rowed and poled over. Once on the other shore they
drove away the sharpshooters, and the bridge at our front was then laid.
We remained that night on the Falmouth side of the river. The next
forenoon the Second corps crossed the river. Our division was marched
along the side of the river, to the lower end of the city, and then we
stacked arms.

Some of our men inspected the near by houses on their own motion, and
from one they brought out a jar of fresh tried lard. I had a chance at
it and spread it on m