Pontoon Bridge

“The Pontoon bridge ‘On The March’- the pontoon wagons on their way from Aquia Creek to the Rappahannock. Our correspondent wrote, under date of December 6th, 1862: ‘Affairs in Virginia are assuming a portentous significance. General Burnside’s army is concentrated on the north bank of the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and the railway connecting his camps with his base of supplies at Aquia Creek, on the Potomac, is completed. A number of gunboats have ascended the Rappahannock to within fifteen miles of Fredericksburg, and will probably ascend the river quite to that point. Pontoon bridges and other appliances for crossing the river have also reached the Federal army, and the conditions for a speedy advance are nearly complete. Meanwhile, and in consequence of the delay of the Federal forces, itself the result of a rapid change of base without adequate advance provision, the Confederates have succeeded in concentrating their army in front of General Burnside, where they have been and still are busy in erecting fortifications to oppose his passage of the river.’"— Frank Leslie, 1896

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