and
re-formed in line of battle about a hundred yards distant from the wall.
The moon had now risen, and in its misty light the upturned faces of the
dead lost nothing of ghastliness. Horrible, too, beyond
description--ringing in the ears of listeners for a lifetime--were the
shrieks and groans of the wounded,--principally Rebel,--from a strip of
neutral ground lying between the pickets of the two armies. Whatever the
object of reforming line of battle may have been, it appears to have
been abandoned, as after a short stay we were returned to the town and
assigned quarters in the street in front of the Planters' House.

Fredericksburg was a town of hospitals. All the churches and public
buildings, very many private residences, and even the pavements in their
respective fronts, were crowded with wounded. In one of the principal
churches on a lower street, throned in a pulpit which served as a
dispensary, and surrounded by surgical implements and appliances,
flourished our little Dutch Doctor, never more completely in his
element. Very nice operations, as he termed them, were abundant.

"How long can I live?" inquired a fine-looking, florid-faced young man
of two-and-twenty, with a shattered thigh, who had just been brought in
and had learned from the Doctor that amputation could not save his life.

"Shust fifteen minutes," was the reply, as the Doctor opened and closed
his watch in a cold, business way.

"Can I see a Chaplain?"

"Shaplain! Shaplain! eh? Shust one tried to cross, and he fell tead on
bridge. Not any follow him, I shure you. Too goot a chance to die, for
Shaplains. What for you want him? Bray, eh?"

The dying man, folding his hands upon his breast, nodded assent.

"Ver well, I bray," and at the side of the stretcher the Doctor kneeled,
and with fervid utterance, and in the solemn gutturals of the German,
repeated the Lord's prayer. When he arose to resume his labor, the
soldier was beyond the reach of earthly supplication; but a smile was
upon his countenance.

The Sabbath, with the main body of our troops, was a day of rest. Chance
shots from Rebel sharpshooters, who had crept to within long range of
the cross streets, were from time to time heard, and shell occasionally
screamed over the town. To ears accustomed to the uproar of the
preceding days, however, they were not in the least annoying. Over
one-half of the army were comfortably housed, bringing into requisition
for their convenience the