[December 11th]
At two o’clock the morning of the 11th, we fell in, marched on the river road to the Lacy house, in the rear of which we halted, stacked arms, and lay down. The reserve artillery of the army occupied most of the immense level field, and every available point commanding the town and batteries on the enemy’s side was occupied by our big siege pieces, together with scores of field guns; the river bank was lined with skirmishers, and everywhere troops were massed in solid columns, awaiting events. There was a heavy fog over the river, which seemed at first to be greatly in our favor, but as soon as the men began to lay the bridge and ply their axes and hammers, the enemy opened a sharp musketry fire, aiming in the direction of the sound. Our men returned the fire, but with little effect, as they could see nothing, and simply fired at random. In less than two hours we lost eight officers killed, Lieutenant-Colonel Bull, commanding the Sixth-sixth, being among the number, and over sixty officers and men wounded, including Lieutenant-Colonel Chapman of the Fifty-seventh. In consequence of these severe losses, the engineers were called off, and operations suspended till the fog cleared. In the mean time nearly one hundred guns opened fire simultaneously upon the town, commencing about seven o’clock, to which the enemy made no reply. It was a magnificent sight to see the bombardment of the sleepy old town, and we expected to see it quickly reduced to ashes, but the effect was ridiculously out of proportion to the noise and weight of metal thrown into the place, and we were all greatly disappointed. The engineers went to work as soon as the fog lifted, when the enemy were seen in force behind rifle pits, running along the river bank; our men not being able to dislodge them, and the artillery fire having no effect a detachment from Howard’s brigade paddled across the river in some of the pontoon boats, landed, and soon cleared the banks, holding their position until the bridge was completed, which did not take very long; then a brigade from the Second division marched rapidly across, with orders to occupy the town. As the brigade advanced on the other side, to the surprise of everybody, they were attacked by a force of infantry which must have remained hidden away throughout the whole bombardment. The attack was so desperate that in less than ten minutes, over a hundred of our men were killed and many more wounded, but the column pushed on, joined by the remainder of the division to which they belonged, and soon drove the rebels out of the place.
At the lower bridges Franklin met with no opposition, and crossed without difficulty, so that by night time a very large force had established itself under the very noses of the rebel army. Broom and I rode over before dark to see the effect of the bombardment, and were immensely surprised at the little damage done by so many guns, some of them at cannister range only.
