did their best, but Burnside was on the opposite side of the river and
could neither give intelligent orders nor act promptly upon the
suggestions which were sent to him from the field. There was no chance
for maneuvering. It was from the first head-on, face-to-face fighting
with no hope of victory for the assailants. The Union losses were over
12,500 men killed, wounded and missing, of which 4,962 belonged to
Franklin's Grand Division, while Jackson's corps which confronted him
lost 5,364.

A full description of this mid-winter campaign would be out of place in
this sketch, and the same may be said of the abortive Mud Campaign six
weeks later, which had for its object the passage of the Rappahannock
by a movement above Fredericksburg. Both Franklin and Smith took part
in this ill planned and poorly executed undertaking. The weather and
the roads were against it, and it soon came to an end quite as pitiful,
though not so costly, as its predecessor.

Following these failures, Burnside, in futile desperation, prepared an
order relieving Franklin, Smith and several other officers of inferior
rank from duty, and dismissing Hooker, Brooks, Newton and Cochrane from
the service. He made no further charge against these officers than that
they had no confidence in himself, and this much was probably true, but
it would have been equally as true of any other generals serving at
that time in the Army of the Potomac. The President, instead of
approving the order, it should he noted, at once relieved Burnside and
assigned Hooker to the command. Sumner and Franklin both of whom
outranked Hooker were relieved from further service with that army,
while Smith was transferred to the command of the Ninth Corps, which he
held but a short time, owing to the failure of the Senate to confirm
him as a major general. This was doubtless brought about by