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road"; curving around the salient of Willis Hill, it crosses Hazel Run and climbs, wearily, Lee's* Hill, then pursues its course southwestward, passing five hundred yards in rear of Howison's house, which nestles against the southern slope of the ridge

-a mile from Fredericksburg (as the crow flies). A mile farther down the road we come to Cox's house, thence away four miles south is Hamilton's Crossing.

Returning, if we halt and face to the front on Lee's Hill, as the eye scans the prospect, to the left we see half of Fredericksburg, whose southern limit is defined by the Hazel, which, in wearing its way through the hummock to unite with the Rappahannock, gives the vertex its name-Hazel Hill. In a straight line to the right, nine hundred yards from Hazel Hill, is Ferneyhough's, fronting on the Bowling Green road. Another half-mile in the same direction is the gorge called Deep

*Where General Lee stood in the battle, Dec. 13, 1862.

Bottom on Bernard's Farm, adjoining which is Mansfield (where General Franklin's headquarters were in the battle of December 13, 1862), and where were the bridge-heads of the pontoons over which General Sedgwick's forces crossed to the attack.

A mile southwest of Deep Bottom the Bowling Green road forks, its left branch coursing toward Richmond; its right, called the Mine road, bearing west, intersects the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad at a point four miles from Fredericksburg called "Hamilton's Crossing," where the extreme right of General Early's line rested.

The plateau between the Bowling Green road and the foot of the ridge, on which is Lee's Hill, is open and for the most part level, cut in half by the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad, and gashed in places by shallow streams and fissures.

Returning now to the Orange Plank road at the point whence we started

for our excursion on the Telegraph road, and facing northwest, we follow the road through open fields, dipping a mile onward to cross a tributary of the Hazel, which, welling on Stansbury's farm, disgorges into the Hazel behind Marye's Hill.

Mounting the next slope, an extended plateau opens to view, clear on the left, but fringed on its right for more than a mile by thick woods, which extend back (north) to Stansbury's and Dr. Taylor's. We see Guest's house— two miles from Fredericksburg-on the left, standing midway between the road and the brow of the hill, overlooking the valley of the Hazel. Half a mile beyond Guest's, northwest, is Downman's, isolated by a narrow but deep valley, through which another tributary of the Hazel flows from near the Toll Gate. (N. B.-General Howe and his staff lodged in the Downman house the night of May 3, 1863.)

It is a mile from Guest's house to the Toll Gate, and a mile farther to Sa

lem Heights. The intervening country is open and undulating, but croached upon by ravines, some of which cross the Orange Plank road.

FREDERICKSBURG TO SALEM

CHURCH

THE Army of Northern Virginia had lain all winter upon the bleak hills of Spottsylvania, in rear of Fredericksburg. Scantily clad were these men and poorly sheltered, yet warmed by the inextinguishable fire that glowed in their breasts, they patiently endured the many snows and rains that fell upon them.

"Headquarters,

"Army of Northern Virginia,

"March 27, 1863.

"To the Honorable James A. Seddon, Secretary of War:

"The troops of my army have for some time been confined to reduced rations.

"Each regiment is directed to send a daily detail to gather sassafras buds,

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