General Gibbon, December 22, 1862
December 22, 1862.
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report as to the part borne by the Second Brigade in the action of December 13, near Fredericksburg, Va. : ‘
At daylight on the morning of the 13th instant, the brigade was under arms, in obedience to orders from General Gibbon. At 8 o’clock [ formed line parallel with the road running south from Fredericksburg, in the rear of the Third Brigade, commanded by General Taylor. At 9 o’clock I advanced across the road, breaking by the right of companies to the front into column, passing over about one-third of the field toward the enemy, who were in the wood in front, where I halted and formed line about 100 yards in rear of the Third Brigade, when I ordered the men to lie down, my line being parallel with the road, that of General Taylor’s being oblique, his left thrown a little forward. We remained in this position between three and four hours, under a fire from the enemy’s batteries upon our right and front of shell, shot, and grape, the shot generally falling short or going over the brigade. We sustained a loss of 15 or 16 men here, 2 of my orderlies having their horses shot under them.
by order of General Gibbon, the brigade moved forward,
the wood, under a most galling fire from the enemy, and remained in
that position some twenty-five or thirty minutes, when Lieutenant-Colonel Leech, of the Ninetieth Pennsylvania, and Major Wetmore, of the
Twenty-sixth New York Volunteers, reported to me that they had ex.
First Brigade, Colonel Root, coming to our relief, telling the Ninetieth
and Twenty-sixth to lie down when the First Brigade came up, so that
they could pass over them. At the same time the Twelfth Massachusetts and One hundred and thirty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers advanced with the First Brigade into the wood. I then ordered the Ninetieth and Twenty-sixth to retire to a ditch about 100 yards to the left