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<P>should take his cue from me. Butterfield also gave Humphreys orders to that effect. After a lull in the battle General Caldwell, a brigade commander under Hancock, sent word to the latter that the enemy were retreating from Marye's house. It was probably only a shifting of the enemy's troops for the relief of the front line. But, assuming that the report was true, I said, "General Humphreys, Hancock reports the enemy is falling back; now is the time for you to go in!" He was ready, and his troops around him were ready. The order had evidently been expected, and after an interval of more than twenty-five years I well recollect the grim determination which settled on the face of that gallant hero when he received the words, "Now is the time for you to go in!" Spurring to his work he led his two brigades, who charged over precisely the same ground, but who did not get quite so near to the stone-wall as some of French's and Hancock's men.##
<BR>The musketry fire was very heavy, and the artillery fire was simply terrible. I sent word several times to our artillery on the right of Falmouth that they were firing into us, and were tearing our own men to pieces. I thought they had made a mistake in the range. But I learned later that the fire came from the guns of the enemy on their extreme left.

<P>Soon after 4 o'clock, or about sunset, while Humphreys was at work, Getty's division of Wilcox's corps was ordered to the charge on our left by the unfinished railroad. I could see them being dreadfully cut up, although they had not advanced as far as our men. I determined to send a battery upon the plain to shell the line that was doing them so much harm; so I ordered an aide to tell Colonel Morgan to send a battery across the canal and plant it near the brick house. Morgan came to me and said: "General, a battery can't live there." I replied, "Then it must die therere!"
<BR>Hazard took his battery out in gallant style and opened fire on the enemy's lines to the left of the Marye House. Men never fought more gallantly, and he lost a great many men and horses. When Hooker came he ordered Frank's battery to join Hazard. But this last effort did not last long. In the midst of it I rode to the brick house, accompanied by Colonel Francis A. Walker, Lieutenant Cushing, and my orderly, Long. The smoke lay so thick that we could not see the enemy, and I think they could not see us, but we were aware

<P>-------------------------------
<BR>##Lieutenant-Colonel Carswell McClellan, Assistant Adjutant-General, serving on General Humphrey's staff at Fredericksburg, writes to the editors to correct a statement made in Walker's "History of the Second Army Corps" [p. 181], as well as by other writers, implying that the charge of Humphreys's division was supported by Sykes. Colonel McClellan says:

<P>"Sykes' division had not crossed the Rapphannock when General Humphreys's first assault was made, and the head of his column reached the bridge crossing the mill-race on the Telegaph road, only after the last charge made by General Humphreys had been repulsed. General Sykes's First and Second Brigades afterward relieved the troops upon the advanced line on the Telegraph road, and experienced one of the most trying tours of duty exacted from troops during the war. His Third Brigade remained massed in Fredericksburg during the night of December 13th-14th."

<P>Noticing, also, the denials of General Walker and others that General Humphrey's men approached "nearer to the wall than any other troops had reached," Colonel McClellan cites the fact that General Humphreys, who made this statement, was an eye-witness of the scene from his position in front of his division, while on the other hand the officers of the burial-parties sent out a week later (whose evidence has been relied on to support the opposite view) could hardly have identified the men of the different commands, because nearly all the bodies had in the meantime been stripped of their clothing.--EDITORS.
<BR>------------------------

<P>