the storm of shot and shell which burst upon them, and though some
of the devoted columns actually reached the foot of the Confederate
breastworks, they could do no more, and over 12,000 men fell victims
to the disastrous attack.

For once, Lee was at an utter loss to comprehend his adversary's
plan. He could not believe that this wanton butchery of men was
all there was to the contest. To his mind such an awful sacrifice
of human life would never have been made unless for the purpose of
paving the way for another enterprise absolutely certain of success.
But nothing more was attempted and the battle of Fredericksburg,
reflecting the conception of a disordered brain rather than the
trained intelligence of a graduate of West Point, was added to the
already long list of blunders which prolonged the war.

Burnside brought severe charges against several of his generals for
their failure to support his sorry tactics, and even went so far
as to demand their dismissal from the army. There was undoubtedly
some ground for his complaints, but such obviously incompetent
leadership was enough to demoralize any army, and not long after
his crippled battalions retreated behind the Rappahannock he was
relieved of his command, which was given to General Joseph Hooker,
one of the officers he most seriously accused.

Hooker was familiarly known to the country as "Fighting Joe,"
a name he had well earned on many a hard-fought field. He, like
his predecessors, was a graduate of West Point and his record, in
many respects worthy of the best traditions of that famous school,
inspired the army with the belief that it had, at last, found a
leader who would pilot it to victory.