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bear the gnawing of his stomach till eight o'clock for my sake. Colonel Waller, after a score of loud hem's to clear his throat, broke his fast along with us. When this necessary affair was dispatched, Col. (Henry) Willis walked me about his town of Fredericksburg. Though this be a commodious and beautiful situation for a town, with the advantages of a navigable river, and wholesome air, yet the inhabitants are very few. Besides Colonel Willis, who is the top man of the place, there are only one merchant, a tailor, and an Ordinary Keeper; though I must not forget Mrs. Levistone, who acts here in the double capacity of doctress and coffee woman; and were this a populous City, she is qualified to exercise two other callings. It is said the Courthouse and the Church are going to be built here, and then both religion and justice will help to enlighten the place." Colonel Byrd's prediction has been happily verified.

The town lies along the south bank of the Rappahannock, its head (northern extremity) resting on the hillside and smiling at the village of Falmouth, just across the river; stretching south a mile and a half, it laves its foot in the Hazel behind the elegant homestead Hazel Hill.

The streets intersect each other at right angles. Caroline (commonly called Main) street is the principal thoroughfare, along which are the merchants' shops; it runs north and south from end to end of the town. Princess Anne is the next parallel street west of Caroline, then come Charles, Prince Edward, etc. The intersecting streets requiring mention here are William (better known as Commerce) street, which commences at the head of the bridge which crosses the Rappahannock to the Lacy House, and runs west to the boundary of the town, where it merges into the Orange Plank road leading to Chancellorsville. George, Hanover, Charlotte,

Wolfe, and Prussia are the successive parallel streets, the last named passing the depot of the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad and out toward Willis Hill.

THE FIELD OF BATTLE

IN prolongation of William (Commerce) street the Orange Plank road extends westward, dipping gradually to the mill sluice, and then running straight three-fourths of a mile, to the first range of hills, which it climbs by an easy grade. If we pause here on top of the hill and face to the right (north) we see Stansbury's house, a mile away; half a mile beyond it is Dr. Taylor's, where the ridge ends-lifting its brow fifty feet above the Rappahannock. The river flowing from northwest curves around the bluff on which Dr. Taylor's house stands conspicuous, looking over Beck's Island at Falmouth, a mile distant, and, in a military sense, commands the Heights and Valley, as far

as a cannon-shot would reach. Banks' Ford is two miles up the river from Dr. Taylor's.

Now if we face about and look south we see the stately Marye mansion, three hundred yards away. The ridge in that direction is cut, a hundred yards beyond the house, by a weatherworn rift dividing Marye's from Willis Hill-named after the original owner and first occupant, Col. Henry Willis, whose remains lie buried in the little walled graveyard situated about midway of the hill. Three hundred yards south of the graveyard the ridge stops, the shoulder of the hill looming boldly above the valley of the Hazel.

Two hundred and forty yards south of William (Commerce) street, and running parallel with it, is Hanover street. Where it leaves the town it is called the Telegraph road, and leads direct to Marye's Heights, where, turning south, it cuts its way through the foot of the ridge for half a mile, acquiring the nom de guerre "Sunken

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