"It was like snow coming down and melting on warm
ground," said one of their leaders afterwards.
Never did men fling away their lives so bravely and so uselessly.
A battery was ordered forward.
"General," said an officer, "a battery cannot live there."
"Then it must die there," was the answer.
And the battery was led out as dashingly as if on parade, although
the men well knew that they were going to certain death.
At length the short winter's day drew to a close, and darkness
mercifully put an end to the slaughter.
Then followed a night of pain and horror. The frost was intense,
and out on that terrible hillside the wounded lay beside the dead,
untended and uncared for, many dying from cold ere help could
reach them. Still and white they lay beneath the starry sky while
the general who had sent them to a needless death wrung his hands
in cruel remorse. "Oh, those men, Oh, those men," he moaned, "those
men over there. I am thinking of them all the time."
Burnside knew that he had failed as a general, and in his grief and
despair he determined to wipe out his failure by another attempt
next day. But his officers well knew that this would only mean more
useless sacrifice of life. With difficulty they persuaded him to
give up the idea, and two days later the Federal army crossed the
Rappahannock, and returned to their camp near Falmouth.
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