1 business-like air with which McClellan made his examination under fire."1 He had certainly purposed to give battle on the 16th. At 7 A. M. he telegraphed to Halleck, "will attack as soon as situation of enemy is developed."2 Our general was a busy man that day, scheming, reconnoitring, changing the position of his troops. But in his desire to have everything in perfect readiness he was letting slip an advantage which fortune and his own ability had secured. He experienced apparently no trepidation at the thought of meeting face to face the antagonist who had out-manœuvred and defeated him on the Peninsula and had driven Pope from the plains of Manassas; but he had not Lee's faculty of grasping a situation, nor would he ever combine his many perceptions in a single judgment that would gain for him the end desired. In the afternoon of the 16th McClellan commenced operations on his right by sending Hooker, who now commanded a corps, across Antietam creek. A skirmish resulted which lasted until dark, and that night Hooker's men lay so close to the Confederate left wing that the opposing pickets could hear each other's tread. This advance of the Union troops had shown Lee where the battle would begin on the morrow. At daylight, September 17, Hooker made a vigorous onset. He encountered stern resistance, and there was stiff wrestling and awful carnage in that historic cornfield. Knowing that he was hard pressed, Joseph K. F. Mansfield's corps, who had crossed the creek the night before, on orders to support him, was hastening to his assistance. Mansfield soon met his death, and Hooker was wounded and borne from the field. "Had you not been wounded when you were," wrote McClellan to him three days afterwards, "I believe the result of the battle would have been the entire destruction of the rebel army, for I know that, with you at its head, your corps would have kept on 1 Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 631. CH. XVIII.] BATTLE OF ANTIETAM 151 until it gained the main road."1 Hooker's corps, badly cut up, slowly retreated from the cornfield. Mansfield's corps pressed on, drove the Confederates before them, and part of one division effected a lodgment in the woods north of the Dunker church, which was situated on the high ground that was the key to the position of the enemy's left wing; but the greater part of the corps was finally brought to a stand. These corps had fought separate battles which by nine o'clock were practically over. Now Sumner came forward. With "ill-regulated ardor he put in the division of Sedgwick, who advanced "in column with his flank absolutely unprotected." But Jackson, who had the advantage of numbers, hurled Early and Walker together with McLaws, who had just arrived from Harper's Ferry, upon Sedgwick. "My God," exclaims Sumner, "we must get out of this."4 He attempts to avert the disaster, is unsuccessful, and gives the word to retreat. It is now perhaps ten o'clock. Hooker's and Mansfield's corps and Sedgwick's division have been hurt, and are unable to resume the offensive, but reinforced by part of Franklin's corps, which has just arrived from Crampton's pass, are still strong for defence. Sedgwick himself has been wounded. These successful blows have cost the Confederates dear. After Sedgwick had been repulsed, French's division, afterwards assisted by Richardson's division, both of Sumner's corps, made an attack on Lee's line to the right of his extreme left where the previous fighting had been done. This was a desperate encounter, especially the struggle in the sunken road which has since been known as Bloody Lane. Richardson fell, mortally wounded; but the enemy was driven before them and would have suffered a still greater defeat but for the opportune arrival from Harper's Ferry of R. H. Anderson's division. The fighting on this part of the field ended at about one. 1 O. R., vol. xix. part i. p. 219. 2 Francis A. Walker, Second Army Corps, p. 106. • Walker, Second Army Corps, p. 106. Burnside commanded the left of McClellan's line, which was formed by his old corps, the Ninth, under Cox, the successor of Reno, who had been killed at the battle of South Mountain. At about At about ten o'clock Burnside received the order to carry the bridge across the Antietam, thereafter known as Burnside's bridge. Cox took charge of the operation, which was a difficult one in that he must fight his way across the creek. The creek ran in a deep and narrow valley, and the slope on the Confederate side, which was steep, was commanded by the enemy from rifle-pits and "breastworks made of rails and stones."2 Rodman's division and Scammon's brigade were ordered to cross by a ford one third of a mile below the bridge. Cox at the bridge met with a stubborn resistance, but his work was stiff and persistent, for the Union right had fared badly, and orders came constantly from McClellan to push the assault. Finally, the troops made a last successful charge, carried the bridge, and at one o'clock planted the banner on the opposite bank. Rodman had crossed at the ford, and at the same time had approached the rear of the enemy's position. The heights had been won and were held. Ammunition and fresh troops were now needed, and it was three o'clock before all was again made ready. Then Cox advanced and drove the Confederates before him.3 Sharpsburg, the centre of Lee's position, was almost in his grasp, when up came A. P. Hill's division, which had marched that day from Harper's Ferry. These men were dressed in the blue uniforms which were part of their captured spoil, and until they began to fire, Cox's soldiers thought they were a Union force. If only Couch's division, which had been left at Maryland Heights to watch Jackson, had arrived at the 1 McClellan's report of Oct. 15, 1862, and Burnside's of Sept. 30. This was a controverted point until cleared up by the publication of a supplemental volume of O. R. The order is dated 9.10 A. M. It then had to be transmitted two miles as the crow flies. -Amer. Hist. Rev., April, 1898, p. 575: O. R., vol. li. part i. p. 844; see Ropes's Civil War, part ii. p. 372, n. 2. 2 Cox's report of Sept. 23. |