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pressure upon him to fight was great, and on Dec. 10 the orders were issued for a crossing that night.
The programme was as follows: —
Two bridges were to be thrown across the river at the upper end of the town, one bridge at the lower end, and two about a mile below the town.
Where the bridges were in pairs, one was for the use of artillery and one for infantry.
The pontoon trains were to arrive opposite the chosen sites at 3 A. M., and unload the boats and material.
By daylight this was to be finished and the boats placed in the river.
The bridges were then to be built in from two to three hours. In length they would be from 400 to 440 feet. The weather was unusually cold, the thermometer being 24 degrees above zero.
The ice in the river was about an inch thick.
The bridges would be concealed from Confederate fire by the town.
On the north bank, 179 Federal guns were put in position during the night, to cover the crossing, and it was believed that they could instantly silence any musketry fire from the opposite bank.
There had been ample time for the construction of formidable earthworks and abattis, had Lee originally intended to receive battle there.
Probably 30 pits had been made, each for a single gun, but in few places had any protection for infantry been provided, except upon the river bank in front of the town.
This portion of the line was under charge of McLaws, who had carefully located every sharp-shooter with reference to his protection and his communications.
Elsewhere there was little preparation of any sort.
There was, however, one natural feature which proved of great value.
The Confederate line occupied a range of low hills nearly parallel to the river and a few hundred yards back from the town.
The Telegraph road, sunken from three to five feet below the surface, skirted the bottom of these hills for about 800 yards, until it reached the valley of Hazel Run, into which it turned.
This sunken road was made part of the line of battle for McLaws's infantry.
It not only formed a parapet invisible to the enemy until its defenders rose to fire over it, but it afforded ample space for several ranks to load and fire, and still have room behind them for free communication along the line.
In
1907.
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