Of these the left
wing, commanded by Franklin, and composed of 55,000 men and 116 guns,
were moving against the Second Corps; 30,000, under Sumner, were
forming for attack on Longstreet, and from the heights of Stafford,
where the reserves were posted in dense masses, a great storm of shot
and shell burst upon the Confederate lines. "For once," says Dabney,
"war unmasked its terrible proportions with a distinctness hitherto
unknown in the forest-clad landscapes of America, and the plain of
Fredericksburg presented a panorama that was dreadful in its
grandeur." It was then that Longstreet, to whose sturdy heart the
approach of battle seemed always welcome, said to Jackson, "General,
do not all those multitudes of Federals frighten you?" "We shall very
soon see whether I shall not frighten them;" and with this grim reply
the commander of the Second Corps rode back to meet Franklin's onset.
9 A.M.
The Federals were already advancing. From Deep Run southward, for
more than a mile and a half, three great lines of battle, accompanied
by numerous batteries, moved steadily forward, powerful enough, to
all appearance, to bear down all opposition by sheer weight of
numbers.
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