times I tremble at the thought of assuming that I am able to exercise so large a command. Yet when I think that I have made no such assumption, that I have shunned the responsibility, and only accepted it when I was ordered to do it, and when it would have been disloyal aud unfriendly to our government not to do it, then I take courage, and I' approach our Heavenly Father with freedom and trustfulness, confident that if I can act honestly and industriously, constantly asking His protection and assistance, all will be well, no matter how dark everything now seems to me."

After conferring with some of his leading officers, General Burnside submitted his plans, which were: to make a rapid march to Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, to cross the Rappahannock on pontoon bridges to Fredericksburg, and make a forward movement from there to Richmond. On the 14th of November, General Halleck telegraphed him: "The President has just assented to your plan; he thinks that it will succeed if you move rapidly; otherwise not." Meanwhile the Army of the Potomac had been reorganized into three grand divisions, the right commanded by General Sumner, the centre by General Hooker, and the left by General Franklin, while General Sigel commanded a reserve.

The army started from Warrenton on the 15th of November, marched forty miles in three days, and changed its base from the Manassas railroad to Acquia Creek. The Blue Ridge faded in the distance, the valley of the Rappahannock was reached, and on the 19th of November General Burnside watered his horse in the Rappahannock River, before Fredericksburg, which he had evacuated a few months before. If the enemy's pickets, not a stone'sthrow from him on the opposite bank, had known who the large man in a slouch hat was, they might have shot at

him, but they probably never imagined that the Union. commander would put himself within the range of a smooth-bore musket.

Had General Burnside found the pontoon-train at Fredericksburg, as he had reason to expect, he would have thrown a heavy force across the river before the enemy could have concentrated a force to oppose the crossing. In that case the whole of the right wing, under General Sumner, could have crossed the Rappahannock with its wagon-trains, loaded with bread and commissary stores, and had beef cattle along for meat; then made a rapid movement in the direction of Richmond, meeting the enemy, if possible, and fighting a battle before General Jackson could join General Lee. But rapid as the movements of General Burnside had been from the mountains to the Rappahannock, the march of General Lee was equally expeditious. General Burnside had to halt at Falmouth, and when he awoke on the morning of the 22d of November, and looked across the Rappahannock, he saw the enemy's cannon frowning on his position, and the enemy's bayonets gleaming in the vicinity of the fords across the river. The highway which he had expected to take was barred at its commencement, and he wrote to General Cullum on the 23d of November, stating that the pontoontrain had not arrived, neither had the provision-trains been supplied. "I am not prepared," said he in conclusion, "to say that every effort has not been made to carry out the other parts of the plan, but I must in honesty and candor say that I cannot feel that the move indicated in my plan of operations will be successful after two very important parts of the plan have not been carried out no matter for what reason. The President said that the movement, in order to be successful, must be made quickly, and I think the same."

Mrs. Burnside went from Washington with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton to Acquia Creek, on the 26th of November, and returned with them on the 28th, accompanied by the general. During the two days that they were in camp there was a severe rain-storm, which rendered the roads almost impassable. General Burnside made energetic remonstrances to President Lincoln about the delay in the receipt of the pontoon-train, which had just begun to arrive, each boat being drawn on wheels by eight mules. Meanwhile, the Confederates had thrown up batteries commanding the spaces where bridges could be laid across the river, and their earth-works began to be visible on the crest of the ridges around the old town of Fredericksburg. It was very evident that General Lee was concentrating his forces, and preparing for a desperate resistance against any attempt to cross the Rappahannock, or to advance towards Richmond. The Confederate forces had been badly shattered by the unsuccessful invasion of Maryland, and their commander evidently wished to recuperate, protected by the earth-works around Fredericksburg, with a railroad running to Richmond as a base of supplies.

Returning to Washington with the President and Mrs. Burnside, the general discussed the situation with the administration and the leading bureau officers at the War Department. Prudence counseled his going into winter quarters, but the President and all others in authority urged an active, vigorous campaign against Richmond. General Burnside, like a true soldier, determined to carry out the wishes of the President, to advance southward steadily, slowly perhaps, but unflinchingly. His practical, tireless temperament inspired him, when he returned to his command, with a determination to fight his way southward.

He went everywhere through his camps with a bright, quiet, creative energy, "still achieving, still pursuing." New tents, winter clothing, and thick boots were supplied to all the men, and every preparation was made for crossing the river in the face of the enemy.

On the night of the 10th of December, the engineer corps was ordered to lay three pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock, upon which the army was to cross, occupy Fredericksburg, and carry the fortifications on the hills by assault. A dense fog filled the valley and hung over the river. The three lower bridges were laid by eleven o'clock in the morning, and General Franklin reported to General Burnside that he was ready to cross with his command. The three upper bridges could not, however, be laid, owing to the enemy's sharp-shooters, who poured in a merciless fire, and General Woodbury was compelled to report to the commanding general that the bridges could not be built. "They must be built," replied General Burnside, try again."

The engineers returned to their work, but it was impossible for them to finish it, and when the fog lifted at noon, the fire of the rebel sharp-shooters became more deadly. Going down to the river bank, General Burnside saw the situation, and called for volunteers to cross the river in pontoon boats, drive the riflemen from their entrenchments, and hold the town until the bridges should be laid. Soldiers from the Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts regiments sprang forward with alacrity, and they were rowed across the river by men of the Fiftieth New York. A desperate conflict took place as they landed, but they soon secured the surviving Confederate riflemen as prisoners of war, and the engineers were enabled to finish the bridges. It was four o'clock in the