Lee's army was still down the Rappahannock, Burnside thought to turn Lee's right, secure the highway to Richmond, and defeat him by a flank and rear attack. A large and heavy forest concealed the Confederate right, and the Federal commander was quite surprised, when he began the execution of his flanking movement with Franklin's corps, to find Jackson in position at Hamilton's crossing, with A. P. Hill's 10,000 veterans drawn up in a double line, more than a mile in length, on the high ground just within the northern edge of the forest, with fourteen field pieces on his right and thirty-three on his left; while Early's and Taliaferro's divisions were in order of battle in A. P. Hill's rear, and D. H. Hill's division was in reserve, just to the rear of the right, ready to move against any attempt to turn that flank of Lee's army.
Stuart's cavalry hovered on the plain in advance of Jackson's right, across the Massaponax, whence his long range guns played enfilading havoc on the Federal lines as they advanced, and even paid their respects to Burnside's headquarters, at the Phillips house, nearly five miles away, on the Stafford heights. Jackson's line extended, in an east and west direction, from Hamilton's crossing to Deep run, along the front of a wooded upland promontory. At Deep run it was joined by Longstreet's line, which extended northeast, along the face of another upland promontory, to Hazel run, whence it deflected to the west of north, along Marye's heights, immediately west of Fredericksburg to the bluffy bank of the Rappahannock above Falmouth.
General Lee's point of observation was on "Lee's hill," where the old Telegraph road, leading from Fredericksburg to Richmond, mounts to the summit of the promontory south of Hazel run. The divisions of Hood and Pickett, of the First corps, were placed along the front between Deep and Hazel runs. Marye's heights were crowned with batteries, while under them, in front, protected by a thick stone fence on the east side of a highway, were the divisions of Ransom and McLaws. R. H. Anderson's division occupied the left, from the Marye's heights to the Rappahannock. Marye's hill was like a bastioned fortress overlooking Fredericksburg and commanding the valley of Deep run, toward its mouth, where the corps of Sumner had crossed the river. The general features of the position were somewhat like those at the
