The Regiments for the assault were selected from Howe’s, Newton’s and Gibbon’s commands. The following comprised all, or nearly all, the number: 31st, 33d, 36th, 43d, 49th, 59th, 61st and 77th New York; 23d, 61st, 82d, 93d, 98th, 122d, 127th and 139th Pennsylvania; 7th, 19th and 20th Massachusetts; 5th Wisconsin, 6th and 7th Maine, 21st New Jersey and 1st Long Island.
To Gen. Neill’s Brigade was assigned the honor of leading the left one of the storming columns, and to the Thirty-third the honor of leading the Brigade. The reader will remember that the line of works to be taken was about one third of a mile in the rear of Fredericksburg, constructed on a natural bluff, extending above and below the city for some distance, and known as “Marye’s Heights.” Beneath ran the famous stone-wall, forming the western boundary of the plain over which the charging columns must pass. Along the lower edge of this plateau, close by the reservoir, which separates it from the city, the troops were massed, lying on the ground to avoid the enemy’s fire. The diagram on the opposite page represents the scene of action, with the relative positions occupied by the advance Regiments of the assaulting columns.
Heavy artillery firing was kept up during the morning, between the rebel batteries and our own, planted along the edge of the river. The siege guns posted on Stafford Heights fired repeatedly on the enemy’s works, doing good execution. One of the shells exploded a rebel caisson at the redoubt near the stone-wall, and killed ten horses. After blowing up the caisson it struck two directly behind, and hurled eight others down the steep precipice in the rear into the yawning chasm beneath. They presented a hideous spectacle as they lay at the bottom, dead and dying.
Diagram Showing Position of the Storming Column.
At length, as the City Hall clock struck eleven, came the order for the charge, and the lion-hearted men rose to their feet. The hundreds of spectators in the rear held their breath in terrible suspense, expecting to see them the next moment prostrate in the dust. “Forward!” cries Gen. Sedgwick, and they echelon up the open plain, regardless of the frowning batteries which vomit grape and cannister upon them. Col. Spear drops dead from his horse, and the Sixty-first Penn., at the right of the Chancellorsville road, momentarily recoils; but the Forty-third New York comes rapidly to the rescue, and the columns again press forward, delivering the battle cheer, which is heard above the roar of artillery and fierce roll of musketry. Three hundred yards are passed, one hundred more will bring them to the stone-wall. All the guns along the crest now concentrate their fire on the plain. Col. Johns falls, Col. Newman falls, Major Wheeler falls; Captains Gray, Ballinger, Irwin, Burke and Knickerbocker are dead; the ground comprised within the focus is strewn with the bodies of the slain. But there is no wavering, and in a moment more the “Slaughter-Pen” is ours. The Sixth Maine and Thirty-first New York scale the wall, bayonet the defenders, dash up the crest, and amid long continued shouts and cheers, turn their own guns upon the fleeing enemy. “What men are these,” inquires a terrified gunner, as our brave boys appear upon the ramparts. “We are Yankees, ——; do you think we will fight now?” is the response.
Neill’s Brigade, further to the left, has likewise swarmed over the wall, and now unfurls its banners on the Heights.