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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1962)
10 B - MONDAY. DECEMBER 10. 1962 jf-f f.r.. MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON CIVIL WAR .V 1 i.r 'a n i -w 1K CHEAP VICTORY The Battle of Fred-, cricksburg, fought on Dec. 13, 1862, has been called a "slaughtorpen". It was that but more. It was a cheap Confederate vic tory In terms of casualties; the downfall of General Burnslde; a display of sheer cour age by Federal troops, and an indecisive m battle after which the Union forces retired to recuperate. Here, from the Library of Congress collection, Federal troops are shown putting down a pontoon bridge while under fire from Confederate sharp shooters during the fight. (UPI) Washington - lUPD - Space I scientists at Huntsvillc, Ala., operate a morgue and a clin ic and what amounts to a re ducing salon. They perform autopsies, re pair internal organs and think up new ways of eliminating unwanted poundage. Their goal is not healthier and handsomer people but more efficient and reliable rockets. Th hndics thev dissect are rocket parts that have died prematurely. T n e organs they reluroisn are me nun irH nf valves which are among the Saturn rocket's most vital organs. The nounds thev remove are part of the deadweight which cuts down the amount of Dayload a rocket can shove into space. Huntsville is the home ot the Marshall space flight cen ter of the National Aeronau tics and Space administration. It is the place wnere giani moon rockets are conceived. Work Described The work of the men who man the morgue, clinic and reducing salon was described recently by Don Lakey, an information official of the The Battle of Fredericksburg By MERTON T. AKERS UPI Correspondent The battle of Fredericks burg, fought on Dec. 13, 1802, has been called a "slaughter-pen." It was that but it also was much more. It was: A cheap Confederate vic tory in terms of casualties. -The downfall of MaJ. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, the fourth Union commander In the East to splinter his mili tary reputation against the Army of Northern Virginia. A display of sheer cour age by Union troops unsur passed in any Civil War bat tle. Another indecisive bat tle after which the Army of the Potomac retired to re cuperate and the Confeder ates remained on the defen sive the same situation which had occurred after the Peninsula, Second Manassas and Maryland campaigns. After that bloody 13th a Saturday the war picture remained the same except that 1,879 American would never fight again 1,284 Federals, B05 Confedcrales. The bodies of the Union dead were iro- VfFHj "'" " """" y':X PhMi 772-534 Jf " j zen into the two and one-half milns nf rpH flats below the heights on the west bank of the Rappahannock River at the devastated city of Fred ericksburg Va. Not DMdli.it Batll. Fredericksburg was not the deadliest one-day battle nf thn war Antietam (Sharpsburg) holds that bloody honor. But when the North learn ed the full story 9,600 Un ion soldiers wounded and 1, 7(19 missing in addition to ihnw vlllrri In action for a ormirf Infill nf 12.853 its morale took another plunge. Richmond's elation bound ed high with the victory. lis casually total of 5,309 was less than half the Union loss es. But the cold truth was that the North could replace its losses, as big as they were; the Confederates could not. The battle of Fredericks burg was Burnside's idea. When he succeeded MaJ. Gen. George B. McClcllan early in November of 'B2 he realized he was expected to fight and soon. He moved the Army of the Potomac from its posi tion just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains eastward to Fredericksburg. The movement was well screened, so well that Con federate Gen. Robert E. Lee, whose forces were divided, lost several days trying to fathom Burnside's maneuvers. But the pontoon bridges which Burnside had ordered to cross the Rappahannock were delayed. Why they were delayed is disputed yet. Like ly the reason was a mixup in orders with MaJ. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, commander of SOBBING SIMS SAYS: DISCOUNT PRICES on HOBBY KITS! BIG SAVINGS ON Numbered Oil Paint Sett Mosaic Tile Lionel Science Sets H-0 Train Sets 1962 AMTCar Kits Tasco Microscopes and Telescopes Many Others yHisM:M,',i,',nTnn di In The Christmas Stocking ONLY 98 On 16-01. hammer for him and ona 9-ot. hammer for har. Blu animated head with faca polithed. Daluxa fin ished 2 color lacquered handlat. Ideal gift. With This Ad (I;0:i):(li(l:0i0:0:l:0;0-0i0:0:0;9:0i0i(l SIMS Cycle & Hobby Shop 23 N. Fir 772-2472 ' iLMmiRia the Union armies, bearing a share. The error gave Lee time to move into defensive positions. On Dec. 11 the Union army began to lay the bridges across the river, about 400 feet wide at that point. On the Union left down river from Fredericksburg three bridges were flung across overnight without op position despite a half an inch of ice on the river. Different Story But in front of Fredericks burg the story was different. There Confederate sharp shooters of Barksdale's Mis sissippi brigade picked off the Union pontooniers as fast as they appeared. An artil lery barrage failed to dis lodge the' marksmen. Only when 200 volunteers from the Seventh Michigan and the 89th Now York paddled across the river in pontoons were the Mississippians clean ed out. Then the bridges were completed but by that time it was 4:30 p.m., too late for action that day. The next morning the 12th a friendly fog lay over the river and concealed the crossing of Burnside's army. Part of it pushed into Fredericksburg proper and occupied the town. By afternoon when the fog lifted, most of the Union army was in position; drawn up in battle order on the flats. If Burnside had been in a position to attack early that day, the story of Fredericks burg might have been differ ent for Lee still did not have all his forces In the line that curved bHck of Fredericks burg on the ridges. Two of his divisions D. H. Hill's and Jubal Early's still were on their way from downriver. But Burnside did not at tack that day. In fact he changed his or ders. Instead of attacking the Confederate right on Dec. 13 where Lt. Gen. Thomas J (Stonewall) Jackson command ed, with two full corps, he used only a part of his forces With bands playing and banners snapping in the wind, Mj. Gen. George G. Meade's division of 5.000 men, sup ported by two other divisions, attacked Jackson's segment of the line under cover of i fog after an hour and a half barrage from the Federal ar j tillcry, posted across the riv er on Stafford Heights. ! Meade s attack found a j hole in Jackson's line Thrat Laytri Daop i The blnecoats rushed through and it appeared the Confederate line was being ! rolled back. But at this point the line was three layers deep In Rebel troops. Meade, with little help from the support ing division, held on for 20 minutes but pulled back in the face of counter attacks. The big show was at Marye's Heights in the cen ter of the line directly in the rear ot Fredericksburg. Here Longstreet command ed the Confederates. He post ed a brigade of Georgians un der Brig Gen. T. R. R. Cobb behind a stone wall which rimmed a sunken road. The wall was about four feet high, i ideal breastworks for stand ing off assaults. Cobb had about 2.400 men, all seasoned soldiers. Cobb was a lawyer rather than a military man but his fight ing record was good. He v;is a brother of Howell Cobb. Secretary of TreaMiry under President Buchanan, and was one of those instrumental in taking Georgia out of the Union. He died behid that stone wall from a leg wound. But before he died his men gave a good account of themselves. Beginning at 11 a m. and lasting until winter twilight, Scientists Hold Post-Mortems To Aid Space Work Christmas Lighting Contest Planned Central Point - The Christ mas lighting contest, spon sored by the Central Point Junior Chamber of Commerce and Pacific Power and Light company, will be a different project this year in regards to the competition. Every home is eligible with no entry blanks required. Every home in the radius of three miles is automatically entered, Jaycce officials noted. Judging will be done on all electrical displays on basis of originality and ingenuity. Homes will be judged Dec. 21 and 22. Residents wishing to compete are to leave the lights on their display from 5:30 to 10 p.m. A grand prize and several second prizes will be awarded. Marshall center. i Rockets are complex and j their parts are subjected to many stresses. Sometimes un der ground test conditions a piece of metal will fail. In the morgue, engineer-detec tives who operate like path ologists subject a faulty part to close study. They photograph it, x-ray it, dissect it. They determine what made it fail. Then they figure out how to keep the specific failure from happening again. The fact that the Saturn C-l booster has made three perfect flight tests suggests that the morgue crew, head-, ed by "Doc" Rollin Wagner, has done a pretty good job of diagnosis and prevention.! The so - called clinic actual ly looks like one in some re spect. It is "a super-clean area where even the dust tracked in by foot could se riously contaminate rocket components." The air is filtered and care fully conditioned. Germs arc forbidden to enter because "enough of them could clog a valve pore and cancel a multi-million dollar space probe." The valves reconditioned in the clinic range in length from less than two inches to 17 inches. One six-incher has 203 parts but weighs less than a pound and a half. The Saturn has more than 400 such valves. Weight Trimm.d The reducing specialists spend their time trimming weight from the rocket to make more weight available for payloads, robot or human. For every five pounds taken off the advanced Saturn, it is estimated, it will be pos sible to add one pound to the payload. "Trying to push Saturn away from the fuel table is not necessarily the answer," according to Lakey. The ex perts are always searchin;, for example, for low-weight metal structures which will still be strong enough to sup port the rocket. As space missions become more ambitious, rockets tend to grow apace. One rocket envisaged for future lunar and planetary flights would stand almost as high on its pad as a 40-story building. "Unless constant studies are made on weight control," La key says, "a rocket could reach ridiculous dimensions." "OIL TO BURN" Mobilhear S & H Green Stamps MEDFORD FUEL CO. 772-2111 Burnside threw seven divi sions of infantry at Marye's Heights, brigade by brigade. As one brigade was shattered by Confederate musket and cannon fire from behind the stone wall about a half mile long another charged through, over and around the dead and wounded only to meet the same fate. The Union infantry made 14 attacks, each rolled back with the few survivors duck ing Into a small depression or behind the few houses in the area. There they rolled the bodies of their comrades into ricks and fought from behind the barricade of hu man flesh which slowly froze as night came on. Bodies Propped Up Some of the Federals hung on the fringes of ftlarye s Heights all night in the bit ter cold. As the wounded died their bodies were piled on the barricades or propped fro zen stiff as dumb sentries. Such was the "slaughter penn" or "valley of death" called the battle of Fredcrcks burg. The defeat crushed Burn side. That night he proposed to put himself at the head of his old Ninth Corps and charge the heights again, per haps hoping he would die at ils head in one last fling at victory. His corps command ers talked him out of it. All day the 14th and all day the 15th the armies lay in their tracks. On the nidit of the 15th-lt)th Burnside withdrew his army across the Rappahannock without Lec knowing about it until the sun rose and burned away the fog. POWERFUL PtUNGER CLEARS CLOGGED TOILETS in o jiffy f NIVn AOAIN that sick fetin whin your toll! irtrflowi TOILAFLEX- Toilet uvfcHftvi Plunger I'nlikf ordinary plunder. Tht!iA lW not permit fompmmJ Bit ot mrtty water to iplaih b'k or etvip. With ThiUrirt trie full prrnurt plows through th clogging man and iwuhet it down. Can t mm PfSlONtO TO flit t nt ftNtur IICUMO HM till III 4 VTI CINIfll ITMir. 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