divisions on Marye's Heights; the artillery was placed along the crest of the ridge by lieutenant colonel E. Porter Alexander. When Burnside's army started bridging the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg in the early morning of December 11, their crossing was contested by William Barksdale's brigade, which was scattered along the city's riverfront. The Confederates started firing at the Union pontooners shortly after 5 a.m., forcing them to abandon their work; Union artillery fire from Strafford Heights on the eastern side of the river was unable to drive Barksdale's brigade from their positions, despite several hours of bombardment. About 3 p.m., small groups of Union soldiers were ferried across the river by the engineers and drove the Confederates through the city. Barksdale withdrew to the main Confederate positions shortly after 7 p.m. In January 1863, Ransom's division was transferred to North Carolina. 1863 Suffolk operations and Chancellorsville Longstreet and part of the First Corps (Hood's and Pickett's divisions) were detached from the Army of Northern Virginia on February 26 and sent to Suffolk, Virginia, to contend with the Federal pressure there from the Union IX Corps, as well as allow supplies in the region to be collected by Confederate authorities. During the next several months, Longstreet would serve as head of the Department of Southern Virginia and North Carolina. Starting on April 11, Longstreet used his two divisions to lay siege to Suffolk, in order to better collect supplies in the area near the city. After three weeks he was ordered to abandon the siege and return to Lee's main army but the Battle of Chancellorsville ended before Longstreet arrived. Gettysburg Note: see Gettysburg order of battle for the command structure of the Army of Northern Virginia at this time. Following the death of Jackson in May, the Army of Northern Virginia was reorganized into three corps. Longstreet retained McLaws', Hood's, and Pickett's divisions, while Richard Anderson's division was transferred to the new Third Corps commanded by A.P. Hill. Two of Pickett's brigades were detached to help the Confederate forces in North Carolina and near Richmond, leaving only three brigades in his division. Nearing the end of June 1863 the Army of Northern Virginia had passed up the Shenandoah Valley, crossed through Maryland and entered Pennsylvania, using the Blue Ridge Mountains to hide their movements from Union cavalry patrols. The First Corps started crossing the Potomac River into Maryland on June 25,