his instructions, attacked with one division only, which a little later he supported by two more (I. corps, Major-General J. F. Reynolds) out of eight or nine available. His left flank was harassed by the Confederate horse artillery under the young and brilliant Captain John Pelham, and after breaking the first line of Stonewall Jackson’s corps the assailants were in the end driven back with heavy losses. On the other flank, where part of Longstreet’s corps held the low ridge opposite Fredericksburg called Marye’s Heights, Burnside ordered in the II. corps under Major-General D. N. Couch about 11 a.m., and thenceforward division after division, on a front of little more than 800 yds., was sent forward to assault with the bayonet. The “Stone Wall” along the foot of Marye’s was lined with every rifle of Longstreet’s corps that could find room to fire, and above them the Confederate guns fired heavily on the assailants, whose artillery, on the height beyond the river, was too far off to assist them. Not a man of the Federals reached the wall, though the bravest were killed a few paces from it, and Sumner’s and most of Hooker’s brigades were broken one after the other as often as they tried to assault. At night the wrecks of the right wing were withdrawn. Burnside proposed next day to lead the IX. corps, which he had formerly commanded, in one mass to the assault of the Stone Wall, but his subordinates dissuaded him, and on the night of the 15th the Army of the Potomac withdrew to its camps about Falmouth. The losses of the Federals were 12,650 men, those of the Confederates 4200, little more than a third of which fell on Longstreet’s corps.
See F. W. Palfrey, Antietam and Fredericksburg (New York, 1881); G. W. Redway, Fredericksburg (London, 1906); and G. F. R. Henderson, Fredericksburg (London, 1889).
FREDERICTON, a city and port of entry of New Brunswick,
Canada, capital of the province, situated on the St John river,
84 m. from its mouth, and on the Canadian Pacific railway.
It stands on a plain bounded on one side by the river, which is
here 3/4 m. broad, and on the other by a range of hills which almost
encircle the town. It is regularly built with long and straight
streets, and contains the parliament buildings, government
house, the Anglican cathedral, the provincial university and
several other educational establishments. Fredericton is the
chief commercial centre in the interior of the province, and has
also a large trade in lumber. Its industries include canneries,
tanneries and wooden ware factories. The river is navigable
for large steamers up to the city, and above it by vessels of lighter
draught. Two bridges, passenger and railway, unite the city
with the towns of St Marye’s and Gibson on the east side of the
river, at its junction with the Nashwaak. The city was founded
in 1785 by Sir Guy Carleton, and made the capital of the province,
in spite of the jealousy of St John, on account of its superior
strategical position. Pop. (1901) 7117.
FREDONIA, a village of Chautauqua county, New York,
U.S.A., about 45 m. S.W. of Buffalo, and 3 m. from Lake Erie.
Pop. (1900) 4127; (1905, state census) 5148; (1910 census) 5285.
Fredonia is served by the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburg
railway, which connects at Dunkirk, 3 m. to the N., with the Erie,
the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the New York, Chicago &
St Louis, and the Pennsylvania railways; and by electric
railway to Erie, Buffalo and Dunkirk. It is the seat of a State
Normal School. The Darwin R. Barker public library contained
9700 volumes in 1908. Fredonia is situated in the grape-growing
region of western New York, is an important shipping point for
grapes, and has large grape-vine and general nurseries. The
making of wine and of unfermented grape-juice are important
industries of the village. Among other manufactures are canned
goods, coal dealers’ supplies, and patent medicines. The first
settlement here was made in 1804, and the place was called
Canandaway until 1817, when the present name was adopted.
The village was incorporated in 1829. Fredonia was one of the
first places in the United States, if not the first, to make use of
natural gas for public purposes. Within the village limits, near
a creek, whose waters showed the presence of gas, a well was sunk
in 1821, and the supply of gas thus tapped was sufficient to light
the streets of the village. Another well was sunk within the
village limits in 1858. About 1905 natural gas was again obtained
by deep drilling near Fredonia and came into general use for
heat, light and power. In the Fredonia Baptist church on the
14th of December 1873 a Woman’s Temperance Union was
organized, and from this is sometimes dated the beginning of the
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union movement.
FREDRIKSHALD (Frederikshald, Friedrichshall), a
seaport and garrison town of Norway, in Smaalenene amt
(county), 85 m. by rail S. by E. of Christiania. Pop. (1900)
11,948. It is picturesquely situated on both banks of the Tistedal
river at its outflow to the Ide fjord, surrounded by several
rocky eminences. The chief of these is occupied by the famous
fortress Fredriksten, protected on three sides by precipices,
founded by Frederick III. (1661), and mainly showing, in its
present form, the works of Frederick V. (1766) and Christian
VII. (1808). Between it and the smaller Gyldenlöve fort a
monument marks the spot where Charles XII. was shot in the
trenches while besieging the town (1718). The siege, which was
then raised, is further commemorated by a monument to the
brave defence of the brothers Peter and Hans Kolbjörnsen.
Fredrikshald is close to the Swedish frontier, and had previously
(1660) withstood invasion, after which its name was changed
from Halden to the present form in 1665 in honour of Frederick
III. The town was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1759
and 1826. The castle surrendered to the Swedish crown prince
Bernadotte in 1814, and its capture was speedily followed by the
conquest of the kingdom and its union with Sweden. Fredrikshald is one of the principal ports of the kingdom for the export
of timber. Marble of very fine quality and grain is extensively
quarried and exported for architectural ornamentation and for
furniture-making. Wood-pulp is also exported. The industries
embrace granite quarries, wood-pulp factories, and factories for
sugar, tobacco, curtains, travelling-bags, boots, &c. There
are railway communications with Gothenburg and all parts of
Sweden and regular coastal and steamer services.
FREDRIKSTAD (Frederikstad), a seaport and manufacturing town of Norway in Smaalenene amt (county), 58 m. S. by E.
of Christiania by the Christiania-Gothenburg railway. Pop.
(1900) 14,553. It lies at the mouth and on the eastern shore of
Christiania fjord, occupying both banks of the great river
Glommen, which, descending from the richly-wooded district of
Österdal, floats down vast quantities of timber. The new town
on the right bank is therefore a centre of the timber export trade,
this place being the principal port in Norway for the export of
pit-props, planed boards, and other varieties of timber. There
is also a great industry in the making of red bricks, owing to the
expansion of Christiania, Gothenburg and other towns. Granite
is quarried and exported. Besides the large number of saw and
planing mills, there are shipbuilding yards, engine and boiler
works, cotton and woollen mills, and factories for acetic acid and
naphtha. The harbour, which can be entered by vessels drawing
14 ft., is kept open in winter by an ice-breaker. In the vicinity
is the island Hankö, the most fashionable Norwegian seaside
resort. The old town on the left bank was founded by Frederick
II. in 1567. It was for a long time strongly fortified, and in
1716 Charles XII. of Sweden made a vain attempt to capture it.
FREE BAPTISTS, formerly called (but no longer officially) Freewill Baptists, an American denomination holding anti-paedobaptist and anti-Calvinistic doctrines, and practically
identical in creed with the General Baptists of Great Britain.
Many of the early Baptist churches in Rhode Island and throughout
the South were believers in “general redemption” (hence
called “general” Baptists); and there was a largely attended
conference of this Arminian branch of the church at Newport in
1729. But the denomination known as “Free-willers” had its
rise in 1779–1780, when anti-Calvinists in Loudon, Barrington
and Canterbury, New Hampshire, seceded and were organized
by Benjamin Randall (1749–1808), a native of New Hampshire.
Randall was an itinerant missionary, who had been preaching
for two years before his ordination in 1780; in the same year
he was censured for “heterodox” teaching. The work of the
church suffered a relapse after his death, and a movement to join
