, who was all ardor. He then rode back slowly,
passed along his line of battle, greeted wherever he was seen with
cheers, and took his position on the eminence in his centre, near the
Telegraph road, the same commanding point from which he had witnessed
the bombardment of Fredericksburg.

The battle did not commence until ten o'clock, owing to the dense fog,
through which the light of the sun could scarcely pierce. At that hour
the mist lifted and rolled away, and the Confederates posted on the
ridge saw a heavy column of infantry advancing to attack their right,
near the Hamilton House. This force was Meade's division, supported
by Gibbon's, with a third in reserve, General Franklin having put in
action as many troops as his orders ("a division at least") permitted.
General Meade was arrested for some time by a minute but most annoying
obstacle. Stuart had placed a single piece of artillery, under Major
John Pelham, near the point where the old Richmond and River roads
meet--that is, directly on the flank of the advancing column--and this
gun now opened a rapid and determined fire upon General Meade. Major
Pelham--almost a boy in years--continued to hold his exposed position
with great gallantry, although the enemy opened fire upon him with
several batteries, killing a number of his gunners. General Lee
witnessed this duel from the hill on which he had taken his stand, and
is said to have exclaimed, "It is glorious to see such courage in one
so young!" [Footnote: General Lee's opinion of Major Pelham appears
from his report, in which he styles the young officer "the gallant
Pelham," and says: "Four batteries immediately turned upon him, but
he sustained their heavy fire with the unflinching courage that ever
distinguished him." Pelham fell at Kelly's Ford in March, 1863.]

Pelham continued the cannonade for about two hours, only retiring when
he received a peremptory order from Jackson to do so; and it would
seem that this one gun caused a considerable delay in the attack.
"Meade advanced across the plain, but had not proceeded far," says Mr.
Swinton, "before he was compelled to stop and silence a battery that
Stuart had posted on the Port Royal road." Having brushed away this
annoying obstacle, General Meade, with a force which he states to have
amounted to ten thousand men, advanced rapidly to attack the hill upon
which the Confederates awaited him. He was suffered to approach within
a few hundred yards, when Jackso