r division, which consisted of the Third corps,
General Stoneman, and the Fifth, General Butterfield. The Left grand
division consisted of the Sixth corps, under General Smith, and the
First corps, under General Reynolds; General Franklin was assigned to
the command.

The command of the Second division, Sixth corps, was given to
Brigadier-General A. P. Howe.

At length, we resumed our march, reaching Brooks' Station the first
night; then, after a day's delay, we started again. The weather was
intensely cold, and the mud almost unfathomable. The troops, with much
difficulty, moved about six miles, reaching the rear of Falmouth
Station, opposite Fredericksburgh; but the trains, at midnight, had only
proceeded two miles. In the ambulances, the sick suffered beyond
description. Six soldiers from the Third brigade, Second division, died
in the ambulances that night. Even the well men in camp could hardly
manage to keep warm. Few persons in that vast army slept, and the ring
of hundreds of axes and the falling of trees, which were to be piled on
the fires, were heard all night.

The Right and Center grand divisions, had arrived in the vicinity of
Falmouth several days before; and it had been the design of General
Burnside to cross his army over the Rappahannock, seize the heights of
Fredericksburgh, and push on toward Richmond, before the enemy could
throw a sufficiently strong force in his front, to offer serious
resistance. In this, doubtless, he would have been successful, but "some
one had blundered," and the Commander-in-Chief suffered the
mortification of seeing his plans foiled, and his series of forced
marches a failure, because the pontoons which were to meet him on his
arrival before Fredericksburgh were still at Washington; and this
through the criminal neglect of some one. This campaign, which promised
more than any previous campaign of the Army of the Potomac, was now
destined to prove a failure.

From the time that the first troops appeared in front of
Fredericksburgh, nearly three weeks were spent in waiting for pontoons;
while General Lee had abundant time to bring together all his forces and
post them in such positions, as to dispute our passage at any point, for
twenty miles up and down the river. In guarding this extensive front,
General Lee had stretched out his army to such an extent, that Burnside
hoped, by throwing his whole army across at one point, to pierce the
weak line before his enemy could c