BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.
The army had been re-organized. It was not altogether the same army
which had fought the battles of the Peninsula. The First corps, under
the command of General Hooker, contained Doubleday's, Meade's, and
Ricketts's divisions. Doubleday's troops were formerly under McDowell.
They had been under fire at Cedar Mountain, and held the left at
Groveton.
Meade commanded the Pennsylvania Reserves. McCall, their first
commander, was a prisoner. Reynolds, who succeeded to the command, was
in Pennsylvania organizing the militia. The Reserves had been in many
of the battles,--Dranesville, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mills, Glendale,
Malvern, Groveton, and South Mountain.
Ricketts's troops were of McDowell's corps, formerly King's division.
They too had been in the hottest of the fight at Groveton.
The Second corps was still in the hands of the veteran Sumner.
Sedgwick, Richardson, and French were his division commanders.
Sedgwick and Richardson had been through the Peninsular campaign. They
came up at Fair Oaks in a critical moment, and decided the day in that
hard-fought battle. They had stood motionless through the long summer
day at Savage Station,--a wall of adamant against Stonewall Jackson
and Magruder. Richardson held the bridge at White-Oak Swamp, while
Sedgwick with Hooker repulsed A. P. Hill at Glendale. French's troops
had been under General Wool at Fortress Monroe and Norfolk. They
had seen skirmishes, but had never been engaged in a great battle.
French had one brigade of new troops, fresh from the home barracks,
inexperienced in drill and discipline, and unacquainted with the
indescribable realities of a great battle. It was a powerful corps.
The Sixth corps was commanded by Franklin, and was composed of Smith's
and Slocum's divisions, old soldiers of the Peninsula. A portion of
them were engaged in the battle of Williamsburg. Smith's division was
in the fight at Fair Oaks; and Slocum crossed to the north bank of the
Chickahominy, in season to save Fitz-John Porter from annihilation in
the battle of Gaines's Mills. They held the rear at White-Oak Swamp,
and had borne their share in the battle of Malvern.
The Fifth corps was commanded by Porter, and was composed of Sykes's
division of Regulars and Morell's division; the same which had fought
gloriously at Gaines's Mills, and Malvern, and reluctantly at Groveton.
The Ninth corps was commanded by Burnside. He had four
divisions,--Wilcox's, Sturgis's, Rodman's, and Cox's.
Sturgis's and Rodman's troops were Burnside's own, which had a good
record at Roanoke and Newbern. Wilcox's were of Sherman's army from
Port Royal, and had seen some of the hardships of campaigning. They
had been hurried up from the South, when it was discovered that Lee
contemplated an invasion of the North. The Thirty-fifth Massachusetts
in this corps had been but a few days in the service. How well they
fought, we shall see hereafter.
The troops commanded by General Cox were of the Kanawha
division,--Western Virginia and Ohio soldiers, who had seen service
among the mountains.
The Twelfth corps, which had fought at Winchester and Cedar Mountain
under Banks, was now commanded by General Mansfield. It contained but
two divisions, Williams's and Greene's.
Couch commanded an independent division, the troops which had stemmed
the tide at Seven Pines.
These corps composed the Army of the Potomac, which was organized into
three grand divisions.
Burnside commanded the right wing, having his own,--the Ninth and First
corps. General Cox commanded the Ninth after the death of Reno at South
Mountain, and the appointment of Burnside to the command of the grand
division.
The center was under the command of Sumner, and was composed of the
Second and Twelfth corps,--his own and Mansfield's.
The left wing was commanded by Franklin, and was composed of the Fifth
and Sixth corps.
General Lee's army was composed of the commands of Jackson, Longstreet,
D. H. Hill, McLaw, and Walker.
An estimate of his forces in the battle of Antietam, obtained from
prisoners, deserters, and spies, is ninety-seven thousand.
"It was fought for half a day with forty-five thousand men on the
Confederate side, and for the remaining half with no more than an
aggregate of seventy thousand,"[59] writes a Southern historian, who
estimates McClellan's force at a hundred and thirty thousand.
[Footnote 59: Pollard, Vol. II. p. 137.]
The ground which General Lee selected for a decisive trial of the
strength of the two armies is near the village of Sharpsburg, between
the Antietam and Potomac Rivers. It is a quiet little village at
the junction of the Hagerstown turnpike, with the pike leading from
Boonsboro' to Shepardstown. Hagerstown is twelve miles distant, due
north; Shepardstown, three and a half miles, a little south of west, on
the Potomac.
In former years, it was a lively place. There were always country teams
and market wagons rumbling through the town, but now the innkeepers
have few travelers to eat their bacon and eggs. The villagers meet
at nightfall at the hotel, smoke their pipes, drink a glass of the
landlord's ale, and tell the story of the great battle.
The Antietam is a rapid, crooked mill-stream. It rises north of
Hagerstown, on the borders of Pennsylvania, runs toward the south, and
empties into the Potomac, three miles south of Sharpsburg. Its banks
are steep. In some places there are limestone ledges cropping out. At
low water, it is fordable in many places, but when the clouds hang low
upon the mountains and give out their showers, it roars, foams, tumbles
like a cataract.
Three miles northwest of the town, the Potomac makes a great bend to
the east, comes within a half mile of the Hagerstown pike, then bears
south toward Shepardstown.
Across the Antietam, three miles from Sharpsburg, to the southeast, is
the northern end of Elk Ridge,--a mountain running south to Harper's
Ferry, forming the west wall of Pleasant Valley.
The Antietam, below the Boonesboro' road, runs along the western
base of the ridge. It is not more than four miles from the Antietam,
opposite the head of the ridge, to the great bend in the Potomac,
northwest of Sharpsburg. General Lee selected this narrow gate for his
line of battle. It had many advantages. It was a short line. It could
not be flanked. It was on commanding ground. General McClellan must
attack in front. He must cross the Antietam, ascend the steep bank,
over ground swept by hundreds of guns, and face a direct as well as a
flanking fire. McClellan could not turn the right flank of the Rebels,
because there the Antietam runs close to the base of Elk Ridge, then
turns due west, and empties into the Potomac. He could not turn the
left flank, for there the Rebel army leaned upon the Potomac.
[Illustration: The Battle Field of Antietam.
POSITIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES.
The diagram represents the general positions of the divisions as
they came upon the field.
1 Hooker's corps.
2 Mansfield's corps.
3 Sedgwick's division, Sumner's corps.
4 French's " " "
5 Richardson's " " "
6 Franklin's corps.
7 Porter's corps.
8 Burnside's corps.
9 McClellan's head-quarters.
A Jackson.
B D. H. Hill.
C Longstreet.
D A. P. Hill.
E Lee's head-quarters.
The dotted line passing through Jackson's position is a narrow
farm road, along which Jackson erected his defensive works.]
Besides these protections to the flank, the line itself was very
strong. There were hills, hollows, ravines, groves, ledges, fences,
cornfields, orchards, stone-walls,--all of which are important in a
great battle. Besides all of those natural defenses, General Lee threw
up breastworks and rifle-pits to make his line as strong as possible.
His line was on the ridge, between the Antietam and the Potomac.
There are three stone bridges across the Antietam near where the battle
was fought. One of them will be known in history as the Burnside
Bridge, for there the troops commanded by General Burnside forced back
the Rebel right wing, and crossed the stream. It is on the road which
leads from Sharpsburg to the little village of Roherville in Pleasant
Valley.
A mile north, there is another at the crossing of the Boonesboro' and
Sharpsburg turnpike. A half mile above, on the eastern bank, there is a
large brick farm-house, where General McClellan had his head-quarters
during the battle. Following the windings of the stream, we reach
the upper bridge, on the road from Keedysville to Hagerstown. On the
western bank are the farms of John Hoffman and D. Miller. There is a
little cluster of houses called Smoketown.
Traveling directly west from Hoffman's one mile across the fields, we
reach the Sharpsburg and Hagerstown pike, near the residence of Mr.
Middlekauff. A quarter of a mile farther would carry us to the great
bend of the Potomac. But turning south, and traveling the turnpike, we
reach the farm-house of Mr. John Poffenberger,[60] a wooden building
standing with its gable towards the turnpike. There are peach-trees in
front, and a workshop, and a bee-bench.
[Footnote 60: Upon the map accompanying General McClellan's Report
there are several residences marked Poffenberger; also several marked
D. Miller. But the residence here described was the one around which
the severest fighting occurred on the right,--Joseph Poffenberger's.]
There is a high ridge behind the house, crowned by Poffenberger's barn.
Standing upon the ridge and looking west, we behold the turnpike at our
feet, a mown field beyond, and fifty or sixty rods distant a cornfield,
and a grove of oaks. That cornfield and those oaks is the ground
occupied by Jackson's left wing.
A few rods south of Poffenberger's is the toll-gate. There a narrow
lane runs west towards the Potomac. Another leads southwest, past an
old house and barn, winding through the woods, and over the uneven
ground where Jackson established his center. There is a grove of
oaks between the toll-gate and the farm-house of Mr. J. Miller, a
few rods further south. Mr. Miller had a large field in corn on the
hillside east of his house at the time of the battle. Standing there
upon the crest and looking east, we have a full view of the farm of
John Hoffman. Here and on the ridge behind Poffenberger's, Jackson
established his advanced line one half of a mile from his main line,
west of the turnpike.
The cornfield was bordered on the east by a narrow strip of woodland,
on the south by a newly mown field extending to the turnpike.
Walking across the smooth field to the turnpike again, we behold a
small one-story brick building on the west side of the road, with an
oak grove behind it. It has no tower or spire, but it is known as the
Dunker Church. A road joins the turnpike in front of the church, coming
in from the northeast from Hoffman's farm and the upper bridge across
the Antietam.
This building is on elevated ground. It was the pivot on which the
fortunes of the day swung to and fro, where hinged the destiny of the
nation. There Jackson's right wing joined D. H. Hill's division. There,
around the church, fifty thousand men met in deadly strife.
The land slopes towards the east. Rivulets spring from the hillside,
and flow towards the Antietam. Seventy or eighty rods east of the
church is the residence of Mr. Muma. There is a graveyard north of
his dwelling, white headstones marking the burial-place. There is a
farm-road leading past his house to Mr. Rulet's beyond. It winds along
the hillside into the ravine by Mr. Rulet's. There are branch roads;
one leading to Sharpsburg, one down the hill to the middle bridge
across the Antietam. The farms of Mr. Muma, Mr. Rulet, and Dr. Piper
are broken lands, hills, ravines, corn and wheat fields, orchards,
pastures, and mowing-grounds. D. H. Hill occupied the high grounds on
Mr. Muma's farm; Longstreet held Rulet's, Dr. Piper's, Sharpsburg, and
the hills south of the town.
Standing by the church and looking north, we see Poffenberger's house,
three fourths of a mile distant; northeast we see Hoffman's farm,
a mile and a half distant. Looking directly east over the house of
Mr. Rulet, we behold the Antietam, one mile distant, with General
McClellan's head-quarters on the hill beyond.
Southeast, a mile and a quarter distant, is the middle bridge on the
Boonesboro' pike. Directly south, along the Hagerstown turnpike, is
Sharpsburg. Lee's head-quarters are in a field west of the town. Two
miles distant, at the base of Elk Ridge, is the lower bridge. There the
banks of the river are high, sharp, and steep. Behind the church are
limestone ledges; in the woods, strong natural defenses.
These are the main features of the field:--
Hoffman's farm.
Poffenberger's house, the ridge behind it, the woods, and cornfields
west of it.
Miller's house, the cornfield east, the mown field south, the turnpike
and the woods west.
The church, the field in front, the woods behind it.
Muma's farm, Rulet's house, the orchard around it, the farm-road, and
cornfield west of it.
The lower bridge, and the hills on both sides of the stream.
At daylight on Monday morning, after the battle at South Mountain,
General Richardson's division of the Second Corps moved down the
mountain side through Boonesboro' to Keedysville. It was found that
General Lee was massing his troops on the west bank of the Antietam,
and planting his batteries on the hills north of Sharpsburg. General
Richardson deployed his troops. Captain Tidball and Captain Pettit
ran their batteries up on the hills near Porterstown, and commenced a
cannonade which lasted till night.
General Hooker's, General Mansfield's, General Burnside's, General
Sumner's, and General Porter's troops arrived during the night.
On the morning of Tuesday, the 16th, General McClellan reconnoitered
the position which Lee had chosen. The forenoon passed before the corps
were in position to make an attack.
General McClellan's plan was to attack the enemy's left with Hooker's
and Mansfield's corps, supported by Sumner's; and, as soon as matters
looked favorably there, to move Burnside across the lower bridge, and
attack Lee's right, south of Sharpsburg. If either of these flank
movements were successful, then he would move upon the center with all
the forces at his disposal.
About two o'clock in the afternoon, Hooker crossed the Antietam by the
upper bridge and by the ford near Pray's Mill. The Rebel pickets were
in the cornfields on Mr. Hoffman's farm, and their first line in the
strip of woods east of Miller's cornfield. The Pennsylvania Reserves
were in advance. There was a sharp skirmish and a brisk cannonade which
lasted till dark. The Rebels were forced back. They retreated almost
to Poffenberger's house. General Hooker advanced, planted his guns on
the hill near Hoffman's, and threw out his pickets. His men lay down to
sleep in the fields and amid the rustling corn.
Mansfield crossed during the night. He went up from the stream but a
short distance, halting nearly a mile in rear of Hooker. Sumner's corps
remained east of the stream, near Pray's Mill. Porter was posted on the
east side near General McClellan's head-quarters, while Burnside passed
down through Porterstown and came into position on the farm of Mr.
Rohrbach at the base of Elk Ridge, near the lower bridge.
An auspicious hour had passed by never to return. Lee had only
Longstreet, D. H. Hill, and two divisions of Jackson's corps on the
ground on Tuesday, the 16th. Jackson arrived on the morning of the
16th, after a hard night-march from Harper's Ferry. His troops were
exhausted. They were not in condition to fight on Tuesday; but by the
delay of General McClellan they obtained rest and strength. McLaw's,
Anderson's, Walker's, and A. P. Hill's divisions had not arrived even
when the great contest began on the 17th.[61]
[Footnote 61: Pollard, Vol. II. p. 125.]
A portion of Lee's line on the morning of that day was weak and thin.
Longstreet held the right, opposite Burnside; D. H. Hill was on Rulet's
farm, Hood was at the Dunker Church, and Jackson northwest of it, in
front of Poffenberger's house. Hood's men were exhausted; they had
marched rapidly to reach the field, and had been sent to the front upon
their arrival, to keep Hooker in check, as he moved through Hoffman's
cornfields on the afternoon of the 16th. Lawton, commanding Ewell's old
division in Jackson's corps, relieved him during the night. At daybreak
the "Ragged Texans," as Hood's men were called by their comrades,
were cooking their cakes and frying their pork in the fields south of
the church. Lee's head-quarters were on a hill beyond Sharpsburg, so
high that he could overlook a large portion of the field. He saw that
McClellan intended to turn his left, and threw all his available troops
towards the Dunker Church.
On the morning of the 17th a breeze from the south swept up the valley,
rolling dark clouds upon the mountains. There was a light fog upon
the Antietam. Long before daylight the word, which roused the men
from sleep, passed along the lines of Hooker's divisions. Without a
drum-beat or bugle-call the soldiers rose, shook the dewdrops from
their locks, rolled their blankets, and ate their breakfast.
The pickets of the two armies were so near each other that each could
hear the rustle of the corn as they paced to and fro amid the rows.
Occasionally there was a shot. Once, in the night, there was a volley
beyond the woods towards Muma's. General Hooker was asleep in a barn
near Hoffman's. He sprang to his feet, stood by the door, and listened.
"We have no troops in that direction. They are shooting at nothing," he
said, and lay down once more.
HOOKER'S ATTACK.
Five o'clock. It is hardly daylight, as the pickets, straining their
sight, bringing their muskets to a level with their eyes, aim at the
dusky forms stirring amid the corn-leaves, and renew the contest. There
are bright flashes from the strip of woods, and from the ridge behind
Poffenberger's. The first Rebel shell bursts in the Sixth Wisconsin,
prostrating eight men. Hooker's guns, in the edge of the woods west of
Hoffman's, are quick to respond.
Meade's division, composed of Seymour's, Magilton's, and Anderson's
brigades, was in the center of Hooker's corps, and also in the
advance. Doubleday was on the right, and Ricketts behind Meade.
The order was given to Meade to move on, and to Ricketts and Doubleday
to keep within close supporting distance. The direction taken by Meade
brought him through the strip of woods northeast of Miller's house.
Lawton's division of Jackson's corps held the ground by Miller's house,
with Ripley, of D. H. Hill's division, joining on the narrow road north
of Muma's, a quarter of a mile in front of the church.
At this early hour, before any movement was made, Tuft, Langner, Von
Kleizer, Weaver, Weed, and Benjamin, with twenty-pounder Parrott guns,
planted on the hills east of the Antietam, between the center and
lower bridges, opened upon Lee's lines, throwing shells and solid shot
into Sharpsburg, and upon D. H. Hill on Rulet's farm. "It enfiladed my
line, and was a damaging fire,"[62] says Stonewall Jackson, who brought
up his batteries of heavy guns,--Prague's, Carpenter's, Raine's,
Brokenbrough's, Caskie's, and Wooding's batteries.
[Footnote 62: Jackson's Report, Southern History, Vol. II. p. 132.]
Meade's men went cheerily to the work. They began at long range to give
their volleys; they were in the hollow, northeast of Miller's. Lawton's
troops looked down upon them from their shelter beneath the trees and
behind the hills.
The Reserves began to drop beneath the galling fire. Hooker rode up to
them upon a powerful white horse. The bullets flew past him, cutting
down the corn, and bursting shells sprinkled him with earth; but he was
calm amid it all, directing the troops and holding them up to the work
by his mighty will.
Nearer to the woods now, shorter the range, more deadly the fire.
Ricketts came up on the left with Duryea's and Christian's brigades.
There were heavier volleys from the cornfield and open ground, fainter
replies from the woods. It was an indication that Lawton was growing
weaker.
"Forward!" It was an electric word. The Reserves, with Ricketts's two
brigades, went up with a cheer into the woods, through into the open
field, following the fleeing Rebels, who were streaming past Miller's,
over the field in front of the church, into the woods behind it. The
Reserves reached the middle of the field; but now from the woods into
which Lawton had fled there were quick volleys of musketry and rapid
cannon shots from Hayes's, and Trimble's, and Walker's, and Douglas's,
and Starke's brigades of Jackson's division.
The Reserves stopped in the middle of the field. They gave a few
volleys. The men dropped fast. Some of the wounded crawled, some
hobbled away; others lay where they fell, motionless forever. The
living turned and sought the shelter of the woods, from which they had
driven the enemy.
The aspect of affairs suddenly changed. Jackson moved forward his whole
line, not only across the field in front of the church, but extended
farther north, towards Poffenberger's. "Send me your best brigade," was
the message from Hooker to Ricketts. Hartsuff, of Ricketts's division,
had not been engaged. A portion only of Doubleday's troops had been
in. Hartsuff was on the hill behind Poffenberger. His troops, the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts, Ninth New York, and Eleventh
Pennsylvania, went down the hill upon the run, south towards Miller's,
past the retreating brigades, closing in like an iron gate between them
and the exultant enemy. They came into line upon the crest of the hill,
crowning it with their dark forms, and covering it with flame and smoke.
"I think they will hold it," said General Hooker, as he watched them
presenting an unbroken front. Jackson pushed on his brigades, but
they recoiled before the steady and destructive fire rolled out by
Hartsuff, also by Gibbons, and Patrick, who were holding the ridge by
Poffenberger's. Jackson's line melted away. "At this early hour," says
Jackson, in his report, "General Starke was killed; Colonel Douglas,
commanding Lawton's brigade, was killed; General Lawton, commanding
a division, and Colonel Walker, commanding a brigade, were severely
wounded. More than half of the brigades of Lawton and Hayes were killed
or wounded; and more than a third of Trimble's; and all the regimental
commanders in those brigades except two, were killed or wounded."[63]
[Footnote 63: Southern Hist., Vol. II. p. 132.]
Once more the Rebels retired to the woods behind the church. There was
a lull in the storm. The shattered brigades of Jackson went to the
rear, taking shelter behind the ledges. Hood, with his ragged Texans,
came to the front by the church. Stuart, who was out on Jackson's left,
towards the Potomac, came up with his artillery. Early's division also
came to the front, all forming on the uneven ground west and northwest
of the church in the woods; also Taliaferro's, Jones's, and Winder's
brigades.
Hooker was quick to plant his batteries. Those of Doubleday's division
galloped to the ridge northeast of Poffenberger's house. Gibbons's,
Cooper's, Easton's, Gerrish's, Durell's, and Monroe's, were wheeled
into position. Projectiles of every form cut the air. The oak-trees
of the grove by Miller's were splintered and torn, the branches were
wrenched from the trunks, and hurled to the earth.
Rebel shells tore through Poffenberger's house knocking out the gable,
ripping up the roof, tossing boards and shingles into the air. The
beehives in the yard were tumbled over, and the angry swarms went out,
stinging friend and foe.
Hooker had crossed the turnpike, and was a few hundred feet beyond
the toll-house. Hartsuff was wounded and carried from the field. The
Reserves, broken and exhausted, were in the rear, too much shattered to
be relied on in an emergency. Ricketts's brigades, which had met D. H.
Hill, had fallen back. Hartsuff's, Gibbons's, and Patrick's alone were
in front.
It was nearly eight o'clock, and Hooker's troops thus far had borne the
whole of the contest unaided. They had driven Jackson from his front
line, had assaulted his second, had received, like a stalwart knight of
the olden time, unflinchingly the heavy blow which the Rebel commander
had given.
Hooker rode forward and reconnoitered.
"That is the key to the position," he said, pointing toward the church.
"Tell Mansfield to send up a division," was the order sent to this
venerable officer, who was slowly advancing from Hoffman's farm.
Williams's division went up into the strip of woods east of the
cornfield, Crawford's brigade on the right, and Gordon's on the left.
"Tell Doubleday to hold them on the right. Don't let them turn our
flank," was the word sent up to Doubleday, who was quietly watching the
Rebels from the cornfield west of Poffenberger's.
There were signs of an advance of Jackson's line.
"Keep them well stirred up," was the message to the artillerymen. The
thirty-six guns planted on the ridge reopened.
"I cannot advance, but I can hold my ground," said Ricketts.
While Crawford and Gordon were forming, General Mansfield was mortally
wounded and borne to the rear, and the command of the corps devolved on
General Williams. Green's division came up and formed on the right of
Williams's, now commanded by Gordon, reaching south nearly to Muma's
house. King's, Cothran's and Hampton's batteries, belonging to the
Twelfth Corps, opened a rapid fire. The One Hundred and Twenty-third
Pennsylvania was pushed across the turnpike into the woods west of
Miller's, near the toll-gate.
While making these dispositions General Hooker dismounted and walked
to the extreme front. There was a constant fire of musketry from the
woods. He passed through it all, returned to his horse, and once
more was in the saddle. He was in range of the Rebels. There was a
heavy volley. A bullet entered his foot, inflicting a painful wound.
Three men fell near him on the instant. But he issued his orders with
coolness and deliberation. "Tell Crawford and Gordon to carry those
woods and hold them," he said to his aide as he rode slowly to the
rear. He tried to keep in the saddle, but fainted. "You must leave the
field and have your wound attended to," said the surgeon. It was with
great reluctance that he rode to the rear; but Sumner at that moment
was going up with his superb corps, the Second, which had never quailed
before the enemy.
Williams formed his line, his own division on the right, and Green's on
the left.
Patrick and Gibbons were moved down to the turnpike. The troops were
enthusiastic. They had driven the enemy, had captured battle-flags and
prisoners.
Gordon and Crawford advanced over the mown field, across the turnpike,
into the woods, and poured in their fire. Jackson replied. The woods
were all aflame. From every tree, and knoll, and ledge, and hillock,
there were volleys of musketry, and flashes of artillery.
It was a terrible fire. Gordon and Crawford were close upon the Rebel
lines, behind the ledges and the breastwork which they had thrown up.
They almost broke through. A little more power, the support of another
brigade, the pushing in of another division at this moment, and Jackson
would have been forced from his stronghold; and if driven from that
position he must fight in the smooth fields beyond, or be folded back
upon the center and right, with the door half opened for Hooker to
march upon Shepardstown and cut off the retreat.
It is nearly nine o'clock when Gordon and Crawford stand within three
hundred feet of the Rebel line, in the woods northwest of the church.
They face west. They fight Grigsby, Stafford, and Stuart of Jackson's
corps.
It is a critical moment with Jackson. The Yankees must be repulsed or
all is lost. Early's and Hood's divisions are behind the church.
Early moves north, sweeping past the church. He strikes Crawford's
flank and rear, and forces him back. Green hastens up to sustain
Crawford, and is also driven across the turnpike into the field nearly
to the strip of woods west of it.
SUMNER'S ATTACK.
Sedgwick's division of Sumner's corps has been coming into line in
Miller's cornfield. If it had been earlier on the ground it would
have been of infinite value. It is a noble division, led by an able
commander.
General Sumner himself is there, gray-haired, sober, vigilant,
watchful. He examines the ground and the positions of the enemy.
Sedgwick forms his division in three lines. Dana in front, Gorman
in the second, and Howard in the third line. They pass in front of
Mansfield's troops towards the church.
Jackson has been hurrying up reinforcements. The troops which have been
on the march from Harper's Ferry are brought in.
"By this time," says Jackson, "the expected reinforcements, consisting
of Semmes's, and Anderson's, and a part of Barksdale's, of McLaw's
division, arrived, and the whole, including Grigsby's command, now
united, charged upon the enemy, checking his advance, then driving him
back with great slaughter."[64]
[Footnote 64: Jackson's Report, Southern History, Vol. II. p. 133.]
Jackson's line unites with D. H. Hill's in the field between the church
and Muma's house. Muma's is east of the church. Sedgwick is northeast
of it. As Sedgwick approaches the church, Jackson swings up his right
wing from the field by Muma's. Sedgwick's second and third lines are
close upon the first. The solid shot which the Rebel batteries fire
cut through all the lines. The bullets which miss the men in Dana's
brigade take effect in Gorman's, and those which pass Gorman strike
down Howard's men.
Dana's brigade was close upon the enemy. The hot blasts from the
Rebel artillery, and the sheets of flame from the infantry, scorched
and withered the line. The volleys given in return were exceedingly
destructive. But Gorman's and Howard's men stood with ordered arms,
chafing under the terrible fire, without being able to give a reply.
They were so close upon Dana that they could do nothing. Fifteen
minutes has passed. Dana's brigade is lost from sight. By stooping, and
laying my eyes near the ground, I can see the dusky forms of the men
through the drifting cloud. They are holding their position.
But the troops which Jackson has been swinging up on his right, which
have been hidden from Sedgwick and Sumner, suddenly appear. They seem
to rise from the ground as they come over the ridge of land in the
field between the church and Muma's house. They move northeast to gain
Sedgwick's rear.
"Change front!" is the quick, imperative order from Sumner to Howard.
The third line under Howard has been facing southwest. The regiments
break rank, move out in files, and form once more, facing southeast.
There is confusion. Some men think it an order to retreat, and move
towards Miller's cornfield. The Rebel line advances in beautiful order.
Howard is beset by three times his number of men. Gorman is attacked on
his left. The Rebels pour a volley into the backs of his men. The whole
force is outflanked.
A retreat is ordered, and the regiments fall back through Miller's
cornfield to the woods.
The Rebels are strong and exultant. They cheer and scream and swing
their caps. They think that they have won a victory. They press on to
regain the woods from which they were driven in the morning.
"Form behind the batteries," shouts Sumner, riding along the lines. The
troops are not panic-stricken. They are cool and deliberate.
Tompkins, Kirby, Bartlett, and Owen are ready with their howitzers.
"Give them canister!" is the order.
The batteries are posted along the ridge, in the cornfield. The limbers
and caissons are a few rods down the slope. The horses nibble the corn,
they prick up their ears a little when a shot screams past, but are so
accustomed to the firing that they do not mind it much.
Gorman, Dana, and lastly Howard, who has stood like a protecting wall,
gain the rear of the batteries, and the field is open for them.
The Rebels advance. The batteries open. The discharges are rapid. No
troops can live under such a fire. In five minutes it is decided that
they cannot force the Union troops from the cornfield, nor from the
woods east of it. They retreat once more to the church and to the
ravine by Muma's.
Sedgwick has been engaged a half hour, but his loss has been great.
The Fifteenth Massachusetts was in Gorman's brigade,--the regiment
which fought so nobly at Poolesville.
Twenty-four officers and five hundred and eighty-two men marched
towards the church, but in twenty minutes three hundred and forty-three
were killed and wounded. Other regiments suffered as much.
Jackson's loss was as severe as Sedgwick's.
General Hood, in his official report, says: "Here I witnessed the most
terrible clash of arms by far that has occurred during the war."[65]
[Footnote 65: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, p. 89.]
"A little world of artillery was turned loose upon us," says the
chaplain of the Fourth Texas.[66]
[Footnote 66: Ibid, p. 90.]
[Illustration: SEDGWICK'S ATTACK.
The diagram gives the position of the troops on this part of the
field at the time of Sedgwick's attack.
1 Dana's Brigade.
2 Gorman's Brigade.
3 Howard's, after change of front.
4 Green's and Williams's Divisions.
5 Ricketts's Division.
6 Meade's Division.
7 Doubleday's Division.
8 Position reached by Green and Williams.
9 Union batteries in Miller's cornfield.
J Jackson's head-quarters.
L Ledges with breastworks.
M Miller's.
P Poffenberger's.
T Toll House.
R Rebels attacking Sedgwick's flank.
The road running north from the church in the Hagerstown
turnpike. That running northeast from the church leads to
Hoffman's farm. The narrow way in the woods where Jackson
established his head-quarters, is a farm-road.]
In Dana's line is the Nineteenth Massachusetts. It fought at Fair Oaks,
Savage Station, White-Oak Swamp, Glendale, and Malvern. Its ranks have
been sadly thinned. A great many brave men have fallen, but those who
survive emulate the deeds of their comrades. They remember one who fell
in front of Richmond,--a descendant of a glorious Revolutionary sire,
the patriot Putnam, relative of the young officer,--Lieutenant Putnam,
who fell mortally wounded at Ball's Bluff. He was born where the old
General played in his childhood, before he became a rifle-ranger
fighting the Indians in the dark forest bordering Lake Champlain. They
could not forget Robert Winthrop Putnam, the frail and feeble boy. He
was but sixteen years old when the flag was insulted at Sumter. His
whole soul was on fire. He resolved to enlist. The surgeons would not
accept him, he was so weak and slender. Again and again he tried to
become a soldier, but was as often rejected.
The fire of patriotism burned within his breast. He slept in the room
which his great ancestor had occupied in his youth. He sat by the
window through the moonlit nights, and carved a wooden sword, thus
feeding the consuming flame. On one side he cut this motto:--
"NOT TO BE DRAWN WITHOUT JUSTICE;
NOT TO BE SHEATHED WITHOUT HONOR."
Upon the other side, giving vent to his pent-up soul, were these
words:--
"DEATH TO TRAITORS!"
He brooded upon his disappointment by day and dreamed of it at night.
He made one more effort. No questions were asked; he was accepted, and
became a soldier. He was intelligent, manly, courageous, and temperate.
His drink was cold water. Calmly and deliberately he bade farewell to
his aged parents and his young sister and brother, turned from the
dear scenes of home and childhood, hallowed by ever fragrant memories,
buckled on his knapsack, and took his place in the ranks. When mortally
wounded he refused to leave the field, but cheered his comrades in the
fight. In his last letter, written to his sister, dated on the eve of
battle, he wrote:--
"I left home to help defend a Constitution that was second to none in
the world, a flag which every nation on earth respected; and if I am to
die, I shall be happy to die in the service of my country."
The boy-soldier was gone from the ranks, but his spirit was there, an
all-animating presence.
When the battle began in the morning, I was at Hagerstown. It was ten
miles to the field, but though so far, the cannonade seemed very near.
It rolled along the valley and rumbled among the mountains. The people
left their breakfasts, and climbed the hills and steeples to behold
the battle-cloud. The women were pale, and stood with tearful eyes,
forgetting their household cares.
A ride directly down the Sharpsburg pike would have taken me to the
rear of Lee's army. It would be a new and interesting experience to
witness the fight from that side. I started down the pike, my horse
upon the gallop. A mile out of town I met a farmer.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To see the battle."
"You will run right into the Rebels if you keep on."
"That is what I want to do. I want to see the battle from their side."
"Let me advise you not to go. I was in their clutches yesterday. They
threatened to take me to Richmond. They stole my horse and my money,
and I am glad enough to get clear. Let me advise you again not to go.
You had better go down to Boonesboro', and see the battle from our
side."
It was good advice, and I was soon upon the Boonesboro' road.
I came across a Rebel soldier lying at the foot of an oak-tree. He was
weak with sickness, worn down by long marches, and had dropped from the
ranks. He belonged to Longstreet's corps. He was too weak to speak. His
breathing was short and quick and faint. His cheeks were hollow, his
eyes sunken. Two kind-hearted farmers came and took him into a house.
"I am sorry I came up here to fight you," he whispered. He had lain
beneath the oak a day and a night, waiting death, expecting no help or
mercy from any one. The unexpected kindness filled his eyes with tears.
Striking off from the turnpike I galloped across the fields, through
woods, over hills and hollows, reached the Antietam, crossed it by a
ford, and ascended the hill to Hoffman's farm.
Sedgwick and Williams were fighting to hold their ground. It was
a terrific fire. There were heavy surges, like breakers upon the
sea-beaches, like angry thunder in the clouds,--ripples, rolls, waves,
crashes! It was not like the voice of many waters, for that is deep,
solemn, sweet, peaceful; the symbol of the song of the redeemed ones,
which will ascend forever before the throne of God, when all war shall
have ceased.
It was a fearful contest in front of Sumner. Miller's cornfield was all
aflame. The woods by the church smoked like a furnace. Hooker's cannon
were silent, cooling their brazen lips after the morning's fever; but
the men stood beside the guns, looking eagerly into the forest beyond
the turnpike, watching for the first sign of advance from the Rebels.
All the houses and barns near Hoffman's were taken for hospitals.
There were thousands of wounded. Long lines of ambulances were coming
down from the field. The surgeons were at work. It was not a pleasant
sight to see so many torn, mangled arms, legs, heads; men with their
eyes shot out, their arms off at the shoulders, their legs broken and
crushed by cannon shot. But they were patient, cheerful, and hopeful.
The nurses and attendants made them comfortable beds of straw upon the
ground. The agents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions gave them
coffee and crackers. Many a noble hero said, "I thank you! God bless
you!"
In the hollow between Poffenberger's and Hoffman's were the
Pennsylvania Reserves, what was left of them. Once they were fifteen
thousand; now, a remnant. They were sad, but not disheartened. "We have
had a terrible fight," said one. "Yes, and we thrashed the Rebels. Joe
Hooker knows how to do it," another said. "We are badly cut up, though.
We can't lose many more, because there ar'n't many more to lose," said
the first.
"I am sorry Hooker is wounded. We had licked the Rebels fairly when he
left the field. I guess they won't put us in again to-day; we have
done our share; but if they do, we are ready," said the others.
The shells and solid shot from the Rebel batteries in the woods north
of the church were dropping around us.
"See there! see it tear the ground!" one shouted, and pointed towards
the spot where a solid shot was throwing up the earth. "The man who
owns that land is getting his plowing done for nothing," said another.
"Ha! ha! ha!"
Another shot struck near a soldier, and covered him with earth. "Fire
away! you can't do that again, I'll bet," he said, as he brushed the
dirt from his clothes.
"Stand by the guns!" was the quick, imperative order. The men sprang to
their feet. Those who were at the spring, in the hollow of the field,
filling their canteens, came to the lines upon the run.
"What's up?" asked an officer. "The Rebels are massing in front, and it
looks as though they were going to attack."
"Gibbons's brigade is across the turnpike; he will hold them, I
reckon," said another officer.
I rode up on the hill in rear of Poffenberger's. Captain Gibbons was in
front of his battery, looking across the turnpike into the woods.
"It is a little risky for you to be on horseback. Do you see that fence
over there?"
"Yes."
"Well, the Rebel skirmishers are there, and we are in easy range. If
you want to get a sight of them, you had better dismount, tie your
horse, and creep down under the shelter of this fence."
The cannon balls were thick upon the ground, and there were pools of
blood where the artillery horses had fallen.
"This was a warm place an hour ago, and may be again; for I see that
the Rebels are up to something over there."
I look as he directs, and see a column of troops moving through the
woods. They are in sight but a moment. I walk along the line, past
Gibbons's, Cooper's, Easton's, Durrell's, Muma's, and Gerrish's
batteries, to Poffenberger's barn. Gerrish's battery is very near
the building. The gunners are tired with their morning's work, and
are sound asleep under the wheat-stacks, undisturbed by the roar a
half-mile distant, where Sedgwick is at it, or by the shot and shells
which scream past them.
Dead and wounded men are lying in Poffenberger's door-yard. The ground
is stained with blood. Two noble white horses are there, one with his
head smashed, the other with his neck torn,--both killed by the same
shot. There are dead men in the turnpike. Gibbons's brigade is behind
the stone wall. The toll-house is riddled with bullets. There are
flattened pieces of lead among the stones. The trees are scarred. There
are fragments of shells. The ground is strown with knapsacks, guns,
belts, canteens, and articles dropped in the fight.
"I guess you are about near enough. This is the front line," says a
soldier.
I think so, too, for the bullets are singing over our heads and past
us. I go up through the woods, south of Poffenberger's, to Miller's
cornfield. The contest has lost some of its fury. The Rebels have been
repulsed, and both sides are taking breath.
Mansfield's corps is in the woods, east of Miller's. Sedgwick's
division is in the cornfield, behind the batteries of Cothran,
Woodruff, Mathews, and Thompson. The batteries are pouring a constant
stream of shells into the woods beyond the church.
The Union loss has been very heavy,--Hooker, Sedgwick, Dana, Hartsuff,
wounded, and Mansfield killed. Meade commands Hooker's corps, and
Howard, with his one arm, commands Sedgwick's division. He lost his
right arm at Fair Oaks, but he is in the saddle again. The Rebel dead
are thick around the church, and in the field in front of it, and along
the turnpike, mingled with those who had fallen from the Union ranks.
Five times the tide of battle has swept over the ground during the
morning. The officers point out the exact spot where they stood. They
tell what happened.
"We stood out there, in the center of the field," says an officer of
the Tenth Maine. "We came up just as Ricketts was giving way. The
Rebels were outflanking him, and his troops were streaming through
the cornfield. The Rebels were pushing north towards Miller's. Our
line of march was towards the west, which brought us partly in rear
of their line. Those dead men which you see out there belonged to the
Twentieth Georgia. They were on the right of the Rebel line. We gave
them a volley right into their backs. They didn't know what to make of
it at first. They looked round, saw that we were in their rear, then
they cut for the woods. It forced back the whole Rebel line. Just then
Corporal Viele, of company K, of our regiment, and a corporal of the
Second Massachusetts, dashed after them, and captured the Colonel of
the Twentieth Georgia, and a lieutenant."
"And Lieutenant-Colonel Dwight, of the Second Massachusetts, captured a
battle-flag," says a soldier of that regiment, his eyes sparkling with
enthusiasm. "He brought it in under a shower of bullets, waving it over
his head. He got clear back to the lines, and then was wounded, they
say mortally."
THE CENTER.
There was a lull in the battle after the terrible fight around the
church.
General French's division, of Sumner's corps, followed Sedgwick across
the Antietam. The division, after crossing the stream, turned to the
left, marching through the fields towards the house of Mr. Muma.
Richardson, as soon as he crossed the bridge, filed to the left, moved
along the bank of the river, crossed a little brook which springs from
the hillside near Rulet's, encountered Hill's skirmishers, drove them
up the ravine, and formed his line under cover of a hill.
French is in the ravine. Half of his division is north of the brook,
the other half south. He has Weber's, Kimball's, and Morris's brigades.
He forms his brigades, as Sedgwick did his, in three lines,--Weber in
front, Morris in the second, and Kimball in the third line.
Morris's men have never been under fire. They are new troops. They
have heard the roar of battle through the morning, and now, as they
advance across the fields, the Rebel batteries on the hills all around
Rulet's house open upon them, gun after gun, battery after battery. The
hillside grows white. A silver cloud floats down the ravine. They are
so near that it infolds them. There are flashes, jets of smoke, iron
bolts in the air above, also tearing up the ground or cutting through
the ranks; they feel the breath of the shot, the puff of air in their
faces, and hear the terrifying shriek. A comrade leaps into the air,
spins round, or falls like a log to the ground. They behold a torn and
mangled body. They saw not the shot which wounded him. It is a terrible
experience, yet they bear the trial firmly. They drop upon the ground
while the lines are forming, and the shells do them little damage.
Hill has his front line in the ravine by Muma's. The Rebel soldiers
have an excellent opportunity to fill their canteens from the cool
water bubbling up from his spring-house. The sharpshooters are in
Muma's chambers, firing from the windows at French's troops as they
advance over the field east of the house. There is a graveyard east of
the house, and the skirmishers lie behind the graves, their muskets
resting upon the white headstones.
French's division joins Sedgwick's; it faces southwest, while
Richardson's faces west. French arrives while Sedgwick is having the
great struggle in front of the church. Kirby's, Bartlett's, and Owen's
batteries of Sedgwick's division are on the hillside east of Miller's
field, raking the Rebel lines.
[Illustration: FRENCH'S AND RICHARDSON'S ATTACK.
The diagram shows the positions occupied by French and Richardson,
also by Franklin's and Porter's corps.
1 French's Division in brigades.
2 Richardson's " " "
3 Richardson's batteries, with Sykes, of Porter's corps, in support.
4 Taft's and Weber's heavy batteries, and Porter's corps.
5 Slocum's and Smith's Divisions, Franklin's corps.
6 Sedgwick's.
B Boonesboro' Bridge.
H D. H. Hill.
Hd Hood in reserve.
L Longstreet.
M Muma's house, and burial-ground.
P Dr. Piper's.
R Rulet's.
Smith relieved French in the afternoon.
The roads are narrow carriage-ways leading to the farm-houses.]
The Rebels occupying Muma's house and barn annoy Sumner's artillerymen,
who in turn aim their guns at the buildings. A shell bursts in the
barn and sets it on fire. A black cloud rises. The flames burst forth.
The Rebels, finding the place too hot for them, apply the torch to the
house, and retreat to Rulet's orchard. The dark pillar of cloud, the
bright flames beneath, the constant flashing of the artillery, and the
hillsides alive with thousands of troops, their banners waving, their
bayonets gleaming, is a scene of terrible grandeur.
Weber's brigade advances steadily, throwing down the fences, scaling
the stone-walls, preserving a regular line. Not so with Morris's, which
is thrown into confusion. The time has come to strike a great blow.
"Tell General Kimball to move to the front, and come in on the left of
Weber," was French's order to General Kimball.
The brigade swings towards the south, past Morris's brigade, enters the
ravine, and pushes on towards Rulet's.
It is a magnificent movement. Richardson at the moment is crowning the
hill south of the brook, while Tidball's battery is throwing shells up
the ravine into the orchard beyond Rulet's.
The hills are covered with troops. Far up the hillside in Rulet's,
Muma's, and Dr. Piper's cornfields are Longstreet's and D. H. Hill's
troops. On the hills south of Sharpsburg is A. P. Hill, just arriving
from Harper's Ferry. The Rebel infantry is behind the stone walls and
rail fences. All of the hills are smoking with artillery. Jackson's
batteries by the church are still thundering at Howard, who, now that
Sedgwick has been carried from the field, commands that division of
Sumner's corps. Burnside's batteries by the bridge are all in operation.
Mr. Rulet and Mr. Muma live about half a mile from the Hagerstown
pike. A narrow path leads along the hillside to the pike. Just beyond
Mr. Muma's, the road is sunk below the surface of the ground. It has
been used many years, and has been washed by rains, forming a natural
rifle-pit, in which D. H. Hill posts his first line. Between this
pathway and the pike is a cornfield, in which he stations his second
line. His artillery is planted on the knoll, higher up, near the
turnpike.
It is but a few rods from Muma's to the road. "Bloody Lane," the
inhabitants call it now. The distance from Rulet's is less. There is an
apple-orchard west of Rulet's house. Beyond that the ground rises sharp
and steep. It is a rounded knoll, sloping towards the west into the
sunken path.
The line of advance taken by Weber carries him directly towards the
smoking ruins of Muma's buildings, while Kimball passes between Muma's
and Rulet's.
It is a gallant advance which they make. Weber's troops move over the
mown field, past the burial-ground, leaping the fences. Some of the men
pause a moment, rest their rifles on the rails and the tombstones, and
take a long shot at the dark line in the cornfield. They cannot see the
nearer line of Hill's division, lying close in the hidden road.
Kimball, a little farther south, joining his right to Weber's left,
sweeps on in splendid order past Muma's spring-house, his left wing
touching the apple-trees around Rulet's. The Rebel cannon on the hills
are sending down a steady stream of shells. The Union batteries east of
the Antietam--the twenty-pounder Parrotts--are throwing rifled shot
in reply. Richardson's batteries on the hillock beyond the ravine are
firing from the southeast, while Kirby, Owen, Thompson, and Bartlett,
are raining all kinds of shot from the north. It is a tumultuous roar.
Under cover of this tremendous fire, French moves up the hill. His men
reach the crest, and stand within ten rods of the sunken road. There is
a rail fence between them and the road. Suddenly, thousands of men seem
to grow out of the ground. The long line rises. The Rebels thrust the
muzzles of their muskets between the rails. The work of death begins.
French's men, instead of fleeing from this unexpected foe, intrenched
in so strong a position, rush with a loud hurrah towards the fence.
Hundreds fall while running, but those who survive pour their fire
into the road. The combatants are not ten paces apart. Hill's line in
the road is consumed like a straw in a candle's flame. It melts like
lead in a crucible. Officers and men go down, falling in heaps. The
few who are left after the tremendous volleys flee into the cornfield,
towards the turnpike. French's men are wild with the enthusiasm which
comes with success. They tear away the rails, leap over the fence,
plunge into the road, trampling down the dying and dead, over the
second fence, into the cornfield, and rush upon the second line with
uncontrollable fury, scattering it, breaking it, like a bundle of
brittle fagots. It is a terrible struggle. There are hand to hand
fights in the corn-rows; Union and Rebel fall together, literally in
heaps, like sticks of wood tossed together by choppers!
"See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder,
Hark! the guns, peal and peal, how they boom in the thunder!
From host to host with kindling sound,
The shouting circle signals round;
Ay, shout it forth to life or death,--
Freer already breathes the breath!
The war is waging, slaughter raging,
And heavy through the reeking pall
The iron death-dice fall!
Nearer they close--foes upon foes;
'Ready!' from square to square it goes.
"They kneel as one man from flank to flank,
And the sharp fire comes from the foremost rank.
Many a soldier to earth is sent,
Many a gap by the ball is rent;
O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man,
That the line may not fail to the fearless van.
To the right, to the left, and around and around,
Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground.
God's sunlight is quenched in the fiery fight,
Over the host falls a brooding night!
_Brothers, God grant, when this life is o'er,
In the life to come that we meet once more!_"
RICHARDSON'S ATTACK.
While French was thus dealing with General D. H. Hill, Richardson was
engaging Longstreet. Richardson crossed the Antietam about ten o'clock.
He marched down the western bank, across the farm of Mr. Newkirch,
crossing the little stream coming down from Rulet's.
He moved to gain the high knolls between Rulet's and the Boonesboro'
road. Having crossed the brook, he faced west, drove in the Rebel
pickets, and ascended the nearest knoll.
All of Longstreet's batteries opened upon him, but his men moved round
the hillock, through the hollows, and marched well up to the Rebel
lines with little loss. General Meagher, with his Irish brigade, was
on the right, the tip of its wing touching Rulet's garden. Caldwell's
brigade was on the left, reaching down nearly to the Boonesboro'
turnpike. Brooks's brigade was in reserve.
Longstreet's batteries were on the hills around Dr. Piper's, and his
troops a part of them in the pathway, the upper end of which was held
by D. H. Hill. His line was so formed, and such was the ground, that
Caldwell, instead of swinging round upon Sharpsburg, was obliged to
fall in rear of Meagher, and become a second line, instead of a part of
the first.
It was eleven o'clock when Richardson moved forward. French was
pouring in his volleys north of Rulet's, and now Meagher, climbing
the knolls, and rushing up the ravines, came upon the Rebels in the
road. It was a repetition, or rather a continuation, of the terrible
scene then enacting a few rods further north,--hundreds falling at
every discharge. The courage of the Irish brigade did not flag for an
instant. They fought till their ammunition was exhausted. They drove
the Rebels from the road and held it. Again and again Longstreet
endeavored to recover it, but could not succeed.
General Richardson was wounded and carried from the field. General
Meagher was bruised by the falling of his horse. His men worn,
exhausted, half their number killed and wounded, were withdrawn. He
retired by breaking ranks and filing to the rear, Caldwell's troops
filing to the front at the same moment and taking their places. It was
done as deliberately as a dress parade.
The ground towards the Boonesboro' pike is very much broken. There are
numerous hillocks and ravines, cornfields, stone walls, and fences.
Under shelter of these, Longstreet stealthily moved a division to
attack Caldwell's right flank in the cornfield west of the sunken road.
It was a part of the force attacking French. Brooks's brigade went upon
the run up the ravine, and filled the gap between Caldwell and Kimball,
and held it against all the assaults of the enemy.
On Caldwell's left, the sunken road winds among the hills. The Rebels
still held that section. Colonel Barlow reconnoitered the ground. He
commanded the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth New York regiments. He
ordered them to march by the left flank. They pushed out into the
fields towards Sharpsburg, gained the rear of the Rebels still holding
the road, and forced three hundred to surrender. He also captured their
stand of colors.
There is once more a lull in the battle. Longstreet is making
preparations to regain his lost ground. Having failed on French's
right, by Rulet's, he renews the attack on the left. But Colonel Cross
of the Fifth New Hampshire, who has watched with eagle eye the Indians
of the western plains, who has tracked the grizzly bears of the Rocky
Mountains, who is brave as well as vigilant, discovers the movement.
It is the same which has been successful against Sedgwick. The left
of Caldwell is far advanced towards Dr. Piper's, when Colonel Cross
discovers the Rebel force making a rapid movement to gain a hill in his
rear. He changes front, and moves his regiment to gain the hill. The
two lines are within close musket range. They make a parallel movement,
firing as they run. It is an exciting race. Colonel Cross cheers his
men, and inspires them with his own untamable enthusiasm. He gains
the hill, faces his troops towards the enemy, and delivers a volley.
It checks their advance a moment, but, rallied by the officers, they
rush on, charging up the hill. Cross, reinforced by the Eighty-first
Pennsylvania, which has followed him, gives the word.
"At them, boys!" He leads the counter charge. His troops rush down the
hill. The Rebels do not wait their coming, but break in confusion.
Another stand of colors, those of the Fourth North Carolina, and more
prisoners, are the trophies.
Again Longstreet tries to drive back the center, and regain the road;
and again Barlow repulses him, charging up through the cornfield,
almost up to the Hagerstown turnpike, and gaining Dr. Piper's house.
Vincent's and Graham's batteries gallop to the hills south of Rulet's,
wheel into position, and reply to the batteries on the hills along
the turnpike, north of Piper's. But the Rebel batteries by the church
enfilade the ground west of the sunken road. Hancock, who now commands
Richardson's division, can hold his ground, but he cannot advance.
Thus by one o'clock, Lee has been pushed from his advanced lines on
the right and on the center. He still holds the rocky ledges in
the woods behind the church; he maintains his position along the
turnpike, and holds the lower bridge, where Burnside is endeavoring
to force a crossing. All the while, there is a continuous cannonade
by Poffenberger's, by Miller's, and in front of the church. There
are occasional volleys of musketry, and a rattling fire from the
skirmishers.
GENERAL FRANKLIN'S ARRIVAL.
It was past noon when General Franklin's corps arrived upon the
field. The troops had marched all the morning from Crampton's Pass.
General Smith's division was in advance, followed by Slocum's. The
corps crossed the Antietam, following the line over which Sedgwick had
marched.
The Rebels were, at that hour, moving down from Sharpsburg to turn
Caldwell's left flank. Hancock had just taken command of the division.
He sent to Franklin for help. He was short of artillery. Franklin sent
him Hexamer's battery, and two regiments. One of them was the Seventh
Maine, commanded by Major Hyde. They were of Hancock's own brigade.
He had tried them at Williamsburg, at White-Oak Swamp, and Malvern.
General Hancock assigned them a perilous duty. "The Rebel skirmishers
behind the hill are picking off our gunners. I want them driven from
that position," he said. The regiment started towards the hill. The
Rebels saw the movement and commenced a rapid fire. Major Hyde halted,
gave a volley and marched on, the men loading their muskets as they
advanced.
It was a brave movement. Unsupported by other troops, the small body,
numbering only one hundred and sixty-five men, and fifteen officers,
struck out boldly towards the enemy. The batteries on the hills beyond
Dr. Piper's played on them. The guns on the hill towards the church
sent down their shells. The cannon on the knolls north of Sharpsburg
sent solid shot across the ravine, diagonally through the line. The
infantry in front of them gave rapid volleys. Shells from the Union
batteries north of Muma's, mistaking them for Rebels, fired upon them.
Yet not a man faltered.[67]
[Footnote 67: Major Hyde's Report.]
Once more beneath the terrible storm from foe and friend, Major Hyde
halts his men, delivers a volley, and then with a cheer dashes upon the
Rebel skirmishers, who are behind a wall, driving them back to the main
line. Then marching by the left flank, seeking the shelter of a hill,
he keeps up a steady fire. Officers and men fight with great bravery.
Among the officers is Lieutenant Brown. He left the classic halls of
Bowdoin College when his country called for the services of patriots.
His captain falls. The company show signs of faltering. He springs to
the front. He is their commander now.
"_Rally, boys! Rally!_" he shouts. But while the words are on his lips,
he falls, shot through the brain.[68]
[Footnote 68: Maine Adjutant General's Report, 1862.]
The Rebels came down in great force, and Major Hyde is obliged to fall
back. Hexamer has used up his ammunition. He has been of great service.
Woodruff takes his place. Pleasanton, commanding the artillery, brings
sixteen guns to bear upon the advancing troops. The fire is so steady
and effective that the Rebel line retires without making an attack.
While this is taking place on the left, or south of Rulet's, the
contest is still raging by Muma's. Hill is making desperate efforts to
recover his lost ground in the cornfield and the sunken road.
French has been compelled to fall back into the shelter of the ravine
by Muma's. His men are out of ammunition, and unless reinforced must
yield.
It is at this moment that Franklin's two divisions move over the field
northeast of Muma's. The men are weary with their long marching. They
have heard the battle echoing along Pleasant Valley all the morning,
and have hastened on to aid their comrades. They cross the fields
with their standards waving. Irwin's brigade is in advance. It pushes
through the corner of the woods, east of Miller's cornfield, passes
Thomas's battery, and reaches the open field north of Muma's. Hill has
a brigade lying upon the ground, behind a ledge. Irwin charges them.
There is a short contest at the ledge. The Rebels yield and retreat
across the turnpike, followed by Irwin.
The ground slopes gently from the church to the east. Jackson's
batteries are where they have been all the morning, in the woods behind
the church. They have full sweep of the field. They open upon Irwin,
whose right flank is near the church, on the ground which Howard
occupied in the forenoon. It is an enfilading fire. It is impossible
for Irwin to advance. He cannot remain. He retires a short distance,
and his men drop upon the ground, sheltered by the ridge from the
enemy's batteries, holding their position through the remainder of the
day.
The Vermont brigade relieves General French. The Rebels have come down
into the cornfield west of Muma's, from which they have been driven,
and are rifling the pockets of the dead and wounded. General Smith
gives the word. The Vermont brigade charges over the ground once more,
driving the Rebels to the hills along the turnpike.
Slocum's division relieves Sedgwick's in the woods east of Miller's.
General Franklin, as soon as he comes into position, orders an
assault. Slocum forms his men to make the advance across the field
where Mansfield and Sedgwick have fought. General Sumner is Franklin's
superior officer, and he does not think it advisable to attack. He
is not always free from despondent moods. His own corps has suffered
severely. Sedgwick has been driven. French and Richardson are
exhausted. There is a consultation among the officers commanding the
corps and divisions and brigades, in the woods, in rear of Slocum's
line. Sumner, Franklin, Smith, Slocum, Newton are there; also General
Hunt, commanding the artillery.
Franklin wishes to attack with all his force. Smith, Slocum, and Newton
second his wishes. Sumner alone is opposed. "My plan is," said General
Franklin, "to bring up fifty pieces of the reserve artillery, plant
them here, rain shells upon the enemy for a half hour, and then charge
with my two divisions, and break their line."
Gen. McClellan visits the field, and directs the commanders to hold
their positions, but to make no attack.[69]
[Footnote 69: McClellan's Report, p. 208.]
Some of the subordinate commanders retire gloomily to their commands.
They disagree in opinion with their commander. They believe that the
hour has come when the decisive blow can be given. As good soldiers,
it is their duty to obey; but they sit down by the fence in the edge
of the woods, dissatisfied with the decision of General McClellan. The
reserve artillery is in the field northeast, a few rods distant,--a
hundred guns. They believe that the time has come to use it. They
do not like the plan of fighting in detachments--Hooker in the
morning--then Mansfield--then Sedgwick's division--then French, and
Richardson, and Burnside--who is separated from the main army, and has
a hard task assigned him.
During the afternoon, the Rebels made a demonstration on the right by
Poffenberger's. It was done to cover up their real intentions. I was
talking with General Howard when an officer dashed up.
"The Rebels are advancing to attack us," said he.
"Let them have the heaviest fire possible from the batteries," was the
reply.
As I rode towards the batteries on the ridge by Poffenberger's, thirty
guns opened their brazen lips, each piece speaking three times a
minute. The dark gray masses, dimly discerned through the woods and
among the tasseled corn, wavered, staggered, reeled, swayed to and fro,
advanced a few steps, then disappeared.
GENERAL BURNSIDE'S ATTACK.
General Burnside's task was the hardest of all. The banks of the river
by the lower bridge are steep and high, and the land on both sides is
broken. The road leading to the bridge winds down a narrow ravine. The
bridge is of stone, with three arches. It is twelve feet wide, and one
hundred and fifty feet long.
The western bank is so steep that one can hardly climb it.
Oak-trees shade it. Half-way up the hill there is a limestone
quarry,--excavations affording shelter to sharpshooters. At the top
there is a stone wall, a hundred feet above the water of the winding
stream, and yet so near that a stone may be thrown by a strong-armed
man across the stream.
A brigade of Rebels, with four pieces of artillery, guarded the
bridge. There were sharpshooters beneath the willows, and in the thick
underbrush along the bank of the stream. There were riflemen in the
excavations on the hillside and behind the trees. The four cannon
were behind the wall, with the great body of infantry in support.
The bridge, the hills and hollows on the eastern bank, are raked and
searched in every part by the infantry.
South of Sharpsburg there are numerous batteries ready to throw solid
shot and shells over the heads of the brigade by the bridge. If
Burnside carries the bridge, there are the heights beyond, the ground
in front all open, swept and enfiladed by batteries arranged in a
semicircle, supported by A. P. Hill's and a portion of Longstreet's
troops. A. P. Hill was not on the ground in the morning, but arrived
while the battle was in progress on the right and center.
General Burnside formed his troops on the farm of Mr. Rohrbach, with
Sturgis's division on the right, Wilcox in the center, Rodman on the
left, and Cox's division, commanded by Crook, in reserve. Benjamin's
battery of twenty-pounder Parrotts, Simmons's, McMullen's, Durrell's,
Clark's, Muhlenburgh's, and Cook's batteries were stationed on the
hills and knolls of Rohrbach's estate during the night of the 16th. The
troops lay on their arms, prepared to move whenever General McClellan
issued the order.
At daybreak the Rebel batteries on the Sharpsburg hills began a rapid
fire. The shells fell among the troops. Here and there a man was struck
down, but they maintained their ground with great endurance. It was a
severe test to the new regiments, which never had been under fire. It
requires strong nerves to lie passive, hour after hour, exposed to a
cannonade. But the men soon learned to be indifferent to the screaming
of the something unseen in the air. They ate their hard tack, and
watched the distant flashes from the white cloud upon the Sharpsburg
hills. They talked of the guns, and learned to distinguish them by the
sound.
"That is a rifle shot."
"There comes a shell."
"I wonder where that will strike."
With such remarks they whiled away the moments.
The Rebel brigade holding the bridge was commanded by General Toombs.
Before the arrival of A. P. Hill, the force of the enemy on this part
of the field was about six thousand.
So vigorous was Burnside's attack, that nothing but the arrival of Hill
prevented an irretrievable defeat.[70]
[Footnote 70: Charleston Courier's account of the battle.]
Burnside received his orders at ten o'clock.[71] Hooker had been at it
all the morning. Standing by his head-quarters, Burnside could see the
dark lines moving to and fro on Miller's field. Mansfield was going up
the slope. Sumner was crossing the Antietam. The batteries all along
the line were thundering.
[Footnote 71: Burnside's Testimony.]
"You are to carry the bridge, gain the heights beyond, and advance
along their crest to Sharpsburg, and reach the rear of the enemy," was
the order from General McClellan to General Burnside. Easily ordered;
not so easily accomplished. Burnside has less than fourteen thousand
men to accomplish a task harder than that assigned to any other
commander. He must carry the bridge, gain the ridge, then move over an
open field to attack the heights beyond, which are steeper and more
easily defended than the ledges by the church, or the hills west of the
sunken road. It is by nature the strongest part of the line.
Burnside's batteries opened with renewed vigor. Cox, commanding the
corps (Burnside commanding the left wing), detailed Colonel Kingsbury
with the Eleventh Connecticut to act as skirmishers, and drive the
Rebel sharpshooters from the head of the bridge.
A short distance--a third of a mile--below the bridge there is a ford.
Rodman's division was ordered to cross at that point, while Crook and
Sturgis were ordered to carry the bridge.
The Eleventh Connecticut advanced, winding among the hills, deploying
in the fields, firing from the fences, the trees, and stone walls. But
from the woods, the quarry, the wall upon the crest of the hill, the
road upon the western bank, they received a murderous fire. Crook's
column, which had been sheltered by a ridge, marched down the road. The
cannon upon the opposite bank threw shells with short fuses. The column
halted and opened fire. Sturgis's division passed in their rear, and
reached the bridge, under cover of the hot fire kept up by Crook.
The Second Maryland and Sixth New Hampshire charged upon the bridge.
Instantly the hillside blazed anew with musketry. There were broad
sheets of flame from the wall upon the crest, where the cannon,
double-shotted, poured streams of canister upon the narrow passage. The
head of the column melted in an instant. Vain the effort. The troops
fell back under cover of the ridge sheltering the road leading to
Rohrbach's.
General McClellan sent an aide to General Burnside with the message:--
"Assault the bridge and carry it at all hazards."
It was nearly one o'clock before the dispositions were all made for
another attempt. Ferrero's brigade, consisting of the Fifty-first
New York, Fifty-first Pennsylvania, Thirty-fifth and Twenty-first
Massachusetts, was selected to make the decisive attack.
In Napoleon's campaigns, the bridge of Lodi and the causeway at
Arcola, swept by artillery and infantry, were carried by the bravery
and daring and enthusiasm of his troops; but the task assigned to
Ferrero's brigade was not a whit easier than those historic efforts.
The Thirty-fifth Massachusetts had been in the service less than a
month. They were hardy mechanics and farmers; Napoleon's soldiers
were such by profession, who had endured the trials, hardships, and
discipline of successive campaigns; but these men, gathering in solid
column at noon behind the ridge, on this September day, had left their
plows and anvils and benches, not because they loved military life,
or the excitement of battle, or the routine of camp life, but because
they loved their country. The Twenty-first Massachusetts had been with
Burnside in North Carolina. Their commander, Colonel Clark, at home,
was a teacher of youth, accustomed to the lecture-room of Amherst; but
he had left his crucibles and retorts, and the shaded walks of the
college he loved, and the pleasant society of the beautiful town, to
serve his country. He was wounded at South Mountain, and Major King
commanded them now.
The men from New York left their wheat-fields and mills, and the
men from Pennsylvania their coal-mines and foundries, to be citizen
soldiers. They have not learned the art of war.
The troops upon the opposite bank were also citizen soldiers, serving
the so-called Confederacy with bravery and valor. They were sheltered
by woods, by excavations, by walls and fences, ravines and hills. They
had great advantage in position, and confidently expected to hold the
ground. Their commander could look down from his head-quarters on the
Sharpsburg hills, and behold their gallantry.
To carry that bridge would be an achievement which would have forever a
place in the history of the nation. Men, when preparing to do a great
duty, where life and honor are at stake, sometimes, with clear vision,
look down the path of ages. The mind asks itself, How will those who
come after me look upon the work of to-day? The soul feels the weight
of the hour, the responsibility of the moment, the duty of the instant.
With the truly brave there can be no faltering then, in the face of
danger. They can die if need be, but they cannot turn from their duty.
Once more the effort. Simmons plants two of his guns to sweep the
hillside across the stream. The brave and noble Colonel Kingsbury leads
out his regiment once more. The assaulting column prepare for the
decisive movement. They fix their bayonets firmly, throw aside their
knapsacks and all that encumbers them.
All is ready. The signal is given. The Eleventh Connecticut spring to
their work. They dash down to the river, firing rapidly. Their Colonel
falls, mortally wounded, but his men fight on. Enraged now at their
loss, they fight to avenge him. The long, dark column is in motion. It
emerges from the shelter of the ridge. Again the hillside and the wall
above become a sheet of flame. Up to the bridge, upon it, dash the men
in blue, their eyes glaring, their muscles iron, their nerves steel.
The front rank goes down. Men pitch headlong from the parapet into the
water. Stones fly from the arches. Shells, shrapnel, canister, tear
the ranks asunder, but on, to the center of the bridge and across it,
with a yell louder than the battle, up the steep hillside, creeping,
climbing, holding their breath, summoning all the heroism of life, all
energy, into one effort, charging with the gleaming bayonet, they drive
the Rebels from the bushes, the trees, the quarries, the wall!
The work is accomplished. The ground is theirs, won from General
Toombs, who, before the war began, boasted that the time would come
when he would call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill.
The Rebels flee in confusion across the field to gain the heights
nearer the town. Ferrero's men lie down behind the wall and on the
hillside, under shelter at last. They bathe their fevered brows, and
satisfy their thirst in the stream, while the other divisions of the
corps move down from their positions of the morning. It was gloriously
done, and the place will be known, forever, in history, as the Burnside
Bridge.
General Burnside was now separated from the main army. Longstreet held
the hills east of the town, and from his batteries there, could partly
enfilade Richardson on the one hand, and Burnside on the other. His
cannon swept the bridge on the Boonesboro' pike. None of McClellan's
troops had crossed there. It was nearly two miles from Richardson to
Burnside. General McClellan was fearful that Lee would cross the middle
bridge to the east side of the Antietam and cut off Burnside; therefore
General Porter's corps was held in reserve east of the river by the
heavy guns.[72] But Lee would have found it a difficult task, for
Porter's heavy guns commanded the approach to the bridge from the west.
If McClellan could not cross the bridge because Longstreet's guns swept
it, neither could Lee have crossed under the fire of Taft, Langner, Von
Kleizer, Weaver, Weed, and Benjamin.
[Footnote 72: McClellan's Report, p. 207.]
The Antietam, a half-mile below Burnside's bridge, makes a sudden
curve toward the west. It is crossed by one other bridge, at Antietam
Iron-works, and then joins the Potomac. By throwing General Burnside
across the Antietam, General McClellan designed not to turn the right
of Lee and gain possession of his only line of retreat to Shepardstown,
but to carry the heights, then pass along the crest towards the
right.[73] But this movement isolated General Burnside from the army.
He must hold the bridge or be cut off. He would be in a _cul de sac_, a
bag with only one place of escape, at the Antietam Iron-works.
[Footnote 73: McClellan's Report, p. 201.]
When General Lee saw the preparations of Burnside to advance, after
having carried the bridge, he weakened his left to strengthen his
right. Hood, who was lying in reserve behind Jackson, was sent down.
Longstreet moved some of his brigades. Jackson made a demonstration at
Poffenberger's, already noticed, to make McClellan fear an attack at
that point.
General Lee intended to do more than merely hold his line against
Burnside.[74] By massing his troops at Sharpsburg, when Burnside was
far enough advanced, Lee intended to seize the bridge and cut off
Burnside's retreat.
[Footnote 74: Statement of a Rebel officer after the battle,--a
prisoner.]
Burnside's divisions crossed the stream at the bridge and at the ford,
and formed for an advance upon the heights near the town. Wilcox was on
the right, supported by Rodman in the center, Scammon's brigade on the
left, and Sturgis in rear of Rodman.
While the troops were crossing and forming, Longstreet's and A. P.
Hill's batteries kept up a constant fire of shells. Clark's, Durrell's,
Cook's, and Simmons's batteries went across the bridge, gained the
crest of the hill beyond, came into position, and opened fire in reply.
General Wilcox was on the road leading from the bridge to Sharpsburg,
which passes up a ravine. A brook which has its rise beyond the town,
gurgles by the roadside. Rebel batteries on the hills in front of the
town enfiladed the ravine, sweeping it from the town to the river.
There was no shelter for the troops while advancing. They must take the
storm in their faces.
Neither was there any cover for Rodman, Sturgis, and Scammon. The
ground, from the stone wall on the top of the river bank to the hills
occupied by Hill and Longstreet, was all tillage land,--wheat-fields,
and pastures, and patches of corn. There were fences to throw down,
hills to climb, all to be done under fire from cannon arranged in
crescent form, pouring down a concentrated fire from the heights.
The signal officer, upon Elk Ridge, five hundred feet above the
battle-field, beholds all the operations of the Rebel army. From his
lookout, with his telescope, he can sweep the entire field. His
assistant waves a flag, and an officer, with his eye at the telescope
by McClellan's head-quarters, reads a message of this import,
transmitted by the little flag.
"The Rebels are weakening their left, and concentrating their troops
upon their right."
The officer writes it in his message book, tears out the leaf, and
hands it to General McClellan. He thus knows Lee's movements, the
disposition of his forces, as well as if he himself had looked from the
mountain summit upon the moving column.
He can make a counter movement, if he chooses, by weakening his own
right to help Burnside, or he can throw in Porter's corps of twelve
thousand strong, to help Burnside, by a dash upon the center, or leave
Burnside to struggle against the superior force in front of him, move
Porter upon the double quick to the right, unite him with Franklin,
order up fifty or eighty guns from his reserve artillery, gather the
brigades of Hooker's, Williams's, and Sumner's corps to hold the
line, while Franklin and Porter, twenty thousand strong, fall like a
thunderbolt upon Jackson, and break him in pieces. He can adopt one
other plan,--hold what has already been gained. He adopts the last, and
makes no movement.
It was three o'clock before Burnside's troops were in position for the
advance. The entire line moved, Wilcox and Crook up the ravine and on
both sides of it, Rodman across the fields south of the highway, and
Scammon along the river bank.
A. P. Hill, from his position, enfiladed Rodman, who was obliged to
change his line of march. He severed his right from Wilcox, and
wheeled towards the southwest.
He was obliged to make this maneuver, to meet Hill face to face, but it
brought upon his line an enfilading fire from the cannon and infantry
nearer the town, and it opened a wide gap in the line, which Burnside
was obliged to fill by pushing in Sturgis,--his only reserve.
The troops move quickly to the attack. Wilcox and Crook sweep all
before them. The Rebel batteries which have had possession of the hills
east of the town through the day are compelled to fall back from knoll
to knoll.
There is a mill by the roadside, a half-mile east of the town. The
hills opposite the mill on the right hand are sharp and steep. It is
about half a mile across the fields to the Boonesboro' pike, where
Richardson's left has been struggling to gain a foothold.
The Rebel batteries, which have been thundering all day from these
hillocks between the Boonesboro' road and the highway to Burnside's
bridge, have enfiladed Richardson. They have answered Taft, and Weber
and Porter's batteries upon the east bank of the river; they have
thrown solid shot almost to the head-quarters of General McClellan; but
now, under the resolute advance of Wilcox and Crook, they are forced to
withdraw.
Rodman meanwhile is wheeling in the open field, under a fire from
front, right and left, pouring hot upon him like the concentrating rays
of a lens.
Hill had his own division, consisting of Branch's, Gregg's, Field's,
Pender's and Archer's brigades, also Jenkins and Toombs. Hood was sent
down from the church, and held in reserve.[75]
[Footnote 75: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, and Charleston
Courier.]
[Illustration: BURNSIDE'S SECOND ATTACK.
1 Wilcox's Division.
2 Sturgis's "
3 Rodman's "
4 Scammon's brigade.
5 Union batteries on ground from which the Rebels had been driven.
6 Batteries of heavy guns.
H A. P. Hill.
L Part of Longstreet's command.
Hd Hood.
T Toombs's brigade.
S Sharpsburg.
M Mill.
R Rohrbach's house.]
Rodman and Fairchild's and Harland's brigades; Scammon had his own and
Ewing's. They drove Hill's first line back upon the second. Fairchild
ordered a charge. His troops went across the field, through the waving
corn with a huzzah. They faced a destructive fire. One shell killed
eight men of the Ninth New York. The color-bearers were shot. The
guards fell. Captain Leboir seized one, Captain Lehay the other, and
led the regiment up the hill to the road leading south from Sharpsburg.
They found shelter under the wall, and halted.
The other regiments of the brigade joined them. Harland found greater
opposition. His troops were cut down by a volley from a brigade of
Rebels lying in a cornfield. They fought a while, became confused,
crowded together, and were forced back.
General McClellan, from his head-quarters, can see all that is going
on, for there is an unobstructed view of the field. He is with
Fitz-John Porter on the high hill east of the Antietam.
An officer rides up swiftly. He is Burnside's aide. His horse pants.
"I must have more troops and guns. If you do not send them I cannot
hold my position half an hour."
That is the message. Fitz-John Porter has twelve thousand troops. They
have been spectators of the battle through the day. They have had
breakfast and dinner, and nearly two days of rest since their arrival
upon the ground. They might be a thunderbolt at this moment. Couch's
and Humphrey's divisions will be up during the night.
But they are the only reserves present. Slocum has taken Sedgwick's
place. He has not been engaged, and his men stand with ordered arms.
Shall Porter be put in? McClellan consults Porter and Sykes, and then
replies:--
"Tell General Burnside that I will send him Miller's battery. I have
no infantry to spare. He must hold his ground till dark. Tell him if
he cannot hold his ground, he may fall back to the bridge; but he must
hold that, or all is lost."
Porter's corps and Slocum's division of Franklin's, eighteen thousand
men in all, have taken no part in the battle. Smith is holding an
important position. He has made one gallant charge, but his troops
are ready to fight. There are twenty thousand men which can take the
offensive, and nearly a hundred guns of the artillery.[76]
[Footnote 76: See McClellan's statement of the number of troops
present, p. 214, Report.]
The right flank of the Rebels is all but turned. Wilcox is close upon
the town. Rodman has driven Hill, and is holding his ground. Such is
the condition of affairs as the sun goes down.
It is useless for Burnside to struggle without supports. He fights till
the coming on of twilight, and then recalls his troops.
The regiments of Fairchild's brigade, far up on the hillside, upon
ground won from the enemy by their valor, go back reluctantly.
"The men," says Lieutenant-Colonel Kimball, of the Ninth New York,
"retired in good order, at a slow step, and with tears in their eyes,
at the necessity which compelled them to leave the field they had so
dearly won."[77]
[Footnote 77: Lieutenant-Colonel Kimball's Report.]
It was a necessity. Without reinforcements he could not hold his
ground, and Lee could cut him off if he remained so far from the bridge.
The daylight is dying out. Through the hours from early morning the
roar of battle has been unceasing. Four hundred cannon have shaken
the earth, and nearly two hundred thousand men have struggled for
the mastery. At times the storm has lulled a little, like the wind
at night, then rising again to the fierceness of a tornado. In the
intervals of the cannonade, low moans come up from the hollows, like
the wail of the night-wind on a lonely shore.
On the right, through the morning, the fiery surges ebbed and flowed,
and dashed to and fro, now against the ledges in the woods, and now
against the ridge by Poffenberger's. They have left crimson stains
upon the threshold of the church. The sunken road has drunk the blood
of thousands. The cornfields, changing from the green of Summer to the
russet of Autumn are sprinkled with magenta dyes. The battle is at this
hour indecisive, but the artillery of both armies put on new vigor as
the sun goes down, as if each was saying to the other, "We are not
beaten."
Once more the firing is renewed. Standing on the high hill east of the
Antietam, occupied by Porter, I can see almost up to Poffenberger's.
The batteries upon the hill in rear of his house are thundering. I
can see the glimmer of the flashes, and the great white cloud rising
above the trees, by Miller's. And there in the cornfield, Porter's,
Williston's, and Walcott's batteries are pounding the ledges behind
the church, and sweeping the hillside. The woods which shade the
church where Jackson stands, are smoking like a furnace. Richardson's
batteries, in front of Lee, are throwing shells into the cornfield
beyond Rulet's.
The twenty-pounder Parrotts on the hill by my side open once more their
iron lips. The hills all around Sharpsburg are flaming with Rebel guns.
The sharpshooters all along the line keep up a rattling fire. Near the
town, hay-stacks, barns, and houses are in flames. At my left hand,
Burnside's heavy guns, east of the river, are at work. His lighter
batteries are beyond the bridge. His men are along the hillside, a dark
line, dimly seen, covered by a bank of cloud, illuminating it with
constant flashes. All the country is flaming, smoking, and burning, as
if the last great day, the judgment day of the Lord, had come.
Gradually the thunder dies away. The flashes are fewer. The musketry
ceases, and silence comes on, broken only by an occasional volley, and
single shots, like the last drops after a shower.
Thirty thousand men, who in the morning were full of life, are bleeding
at this hour. The sky is bright with lurid flames of burning buildings,
and they need no torches who go out upon the bloody field to gather up
the wounded. Thousands of bivouac fires gleam along the hillsides, as
if a great city had lighted its lamps. Cannon rumble along the roads.
Supply wagons come up. Long trains of ambulances go by. Thousands of
slightly wounded work their way to the rear, dropping by the roadside,
or finding a bed of straw by wheat-stacks and in stables. There is the
clatter of hoofs,--the cavalry dashing by, and the tramp, tramp, tramp
of Couch's and Humphrey's divisions, marching to the field.
There are low wails of men in distress, and sharp shrieks from those
who are under the surgeon's hands.
While obtaining hay for my horse at a barn, I heard the soldiers
singing. They were wounded, but happy; for they had done their duty.
They had been supplied with rations,--hard tack and coffee,--and were
lying on their beds of straw. I listened to their song. It was about
the dear old flag.
"Our flag is there! Our flag is there!
We'll hail it with three loud huzzahs!
Our flag is there! Our flag is there!
Behold the glorious stripes and stars!
Stout hearts have fought for that bright flag,
Strong hands sustained it mast-head high,
And oh! to see how proud it waves
Brings tears of joy to every eye.
"That flag has stood the battle's roar,
With foeman stout and foeman brave;
Strong hands have sought that flag to lower,
And found a traitor's speedy grave.
That flag is known on every shore,
The standard of a gallant band,
Alike unstained in peace or war,
It floats o'er Freedom's happy land."
Then there came thoughts of home, of loved ones, of past scenes, and
pleasant memories, and the songs become plaintive. They sung the old
song:--
"Do they miss me at home--do they miss me
At morning, at noon, or at night?
And lingers a gloomy shade round them,
That only my presence can light?
Are joys less invitingly welcome,
And pleasures less bright than before,
Because one is missed from the circle,--
Because I am with them no more?"
There was sadness, but not discouragement. It was the welling up of
affection, the return of sweet recollections, which neither hardship,
suffering, privation, or long absence could efface. They loved home,
but they loved the old flag better. Missed at home? Ah! how sadly!