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tridges. The troops were not discouraged. They had an ample supply of provisions, and could certainly, under a strong commander, have made a much more heroic and protracted resistance. The sequel showed of what immense importance it was to the Union cause that such defence should have been made. General McClellan would not then have been outnumbered at Antietam, and General Lee's army, weakened by the absence of thirty thousand men, detained at Harper's Ferry, could have been attacked in detail, with the Potomac in its rear.

The terms of capitulation provided that the Union officers should be suffered to depart on parole, with their side-arms and their private effects. The common soldiers were also paroled. Eleven thousand five hundred and eighty-three officers and men were thus surrendered to the rebels. The rebels also captured six 24-pounder howitzers, twelve 6-pounder Napoleons, six 3-inch James's rifled cannon, four 24-pounder rifled Parrotts, and six smooth-bore brass pieces. There were also left, spiked and useless, on Maryland Heights, two 9-inch Dahlgrens, one 50-pounder Parrott, six 12-pounder howitzers, and four common rough guns-a total of forty-seven pieces. The Unionists also lost seven thousand five hundred stand of arms, forty thousand rounds of cartridges, fifty rounds of canister-shot, and six days' rations for twelve thousand men. The National loss in killed and wounded was reported at about two hundred. The rebel loss was estimated by their own officers at fifteen hundred.

All the cavalry, numbering two thousand three hundred, escaped on Sunday night, cutting their way through the rebel lines by the Sharpsburg road. They captured, on their route, Longstreet's train of a hundred wagons, and nearly a hundred prisoners. The greatest praise is due to Colonel Davies, of the Eighth New York Cavalry, whose persistent demands upon Colonel Miles for permission to attempt to escape, united with his gallant leadership, saved to the Government this valuable corps, with whose horses and equipments, Jackson had hoped to refurnish his jaded and forlorn squadrons.

According to the careful judgment of the investigating committee appointed by Congress, Harper's Ferry was prematurely surrendered. It was proved that Colonel Miles had failed to fortify Maryland Heights, when ordered to do so one month previous to the surrender; that, in view of an attack, he had withheld from Colonel Ford reënforcements and the necessary means for throwing up barricades; that without sufficient cause he permitted these Heights, which he acknowledged to the officers as the only defensible position of the post, to be abandoned on the 13th; that he frequently paroled rebel officers and prisoners during the siege, sending them to the rebel head-quarters, where they could communicate the exact state of the garrison and of the fortifications; that he had, when their abandonment was announced, only expressed the fear that it was "too soon;" that he had alleged, in refusing to allow the infantry to escape with the cavalry, that he had no instructions to defend the Ferry to the last extremity; and that this refusal was speedily followed by the surrender of this large force, without any attempt to form a junction with General Franklin, who was so near to him.

Colonel Miles was a veteran officer in the service of his country. He had fallen mortally wounded. Still, the above recorded facts compelled the committee to the decision, which their sympathies rendered as mild as possible, that his conduct "exhibited an incapacity amounting almost to imbecility." The indignant voice of the public was, that it was an act of

treason.

Colonel Ford was also convicted of having shown, in his defence of Maryland Heights, such a lack of military capacity as to disqualify him, in the opinion of the commission, for a command in the service. In accordance with their report, Colonel Ford and other officers were dismissed from the service by the President. This punishment would have seemed almost too lenient for his commanding officer, had not the singular providence of his death summoned him before another tribunal to answer for his part in this humiliation of the National arms, and the grave consequences which followed.

Hardly were the terms of surrender signed, when the rebel force of twenty thousand exultant troops were hurrying away, in rapid march, to support General Lee at Antietam. The victory at South Mountain, brilliant as it was, scarcely atoned for the National reverse at Harper's Ferry, the result certainly of delay, stupidity, and cowardice, to which, perhaps, is to be added treason.

CHAPTER XII.

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.

From September 15th to September 23d, 1862.

FIRST POSITION OF THE REBELS.-PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE.-THE FIELD OF BATTLE..... FORCES ON EITHER SIDE.-OPENING OF THE BATTLE.-HEROISM OF HOOKER'S DIVISION.-IN. CIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.-GENERAL BURNSIDE'S CHARGE. THE INDECISIVE VICTORY.-THE · RETIREMENT OF THE FOE.-REMONSTRANCES OF OFFICERS. GREAT ERRORS,

IMMEDIATELY after the victory of South Mountain, the main body of the National army pressed on in pursuit of the retreating rebels. They had fallen back in the direction of the Potomac, and, with concentrated force, had selected a strong position near Sharspburg. Here they intrenched themselves; the memorable battle of Antietam soon ensued. In the pursuit, our cavalry advance engaged a body of the rebel cavalry at Boonesboro', and put them to flight, with a loss of two hundred and fifty prisoners and two guns.

All the corps of the National Army were, on Monday, September 15th, marching upon Sharpsburg, except Franklin's, which was left to hold the enemy in check at Brownsville. The subordinate generals had received instructions from their Commander-in-Chief, that if the enemy were met in force, and well posted, the troops were to be placed in position for attack, and then to await his arrival. Richardson's Division was in advance, and found the enemy deployed a few miles beyond Keedysville, on ground fronting the position they really intended to hold, and where their lines were then forming. When General McClellan reached the front, on the afternoon of the 15th, he found the divisions of Richardson in position, and the remainder of the column halted on the main road.

He deemed it too late to make an attack, and the remainder of the day and night was spent in preparation for battle on the morrow. The patriot force was massed on each side of the Sharpsburg road. The whole night was spent in moving the troops to their appointed stations. The morning light revealed the forces of Lee, formed behind the sheltering crests of the mountain, and in the woods which covered the broken ground, where they were determined to make a desperate stand.

Along the western banks of the Antietam River, there runs, with a gradual rise of undulating ground, a crescent-shaped ridge, presenting its concave side to the river. The top of this ridge spreads out into a broad table-ground of forests and ravines. A series of timber-covered hills surrounded this ridge; some of the adjacent hills had been cleared of the forest, and were covered with orchards and cornfields, enclosed with fences

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of rails or stone; behind this ridge runs the road from Hagerstown to Sharpsburg and Shepherdstown. Sharpsburg is just in the rear of the ridge.

Along these hills the rebel lines were posted, four miles in extent. Their position was exceedingly strong, protected by ravines and forests. Every commanding crest was crowned with guns, and the forests were planted thick with a sudden growth of bristling bayonets. The rebel lines of retreat, should retreat be found necessary, were unobstructed by the roads in their rear. The extreme right of the rebel lines was within three-fourths of a mile of the Potomac; in front, and along their left flank, was the Antietam, winding through a wooded ravine, with banks too high and with waters too deep to permit a crossing, except at two fords, at some distance from each other. Between these distant fords there were three bridges: on the right, the centre, and the left of the rebel lines. These bridges were all strongly guarded.

To the Union troops, the nature of the ground held by the rebels was very deceptive; the waving corn, the smoothly-ploughed fields, the trees, of stunted growth, and the deeper forests, which covered the gradual slopes, concealed the crags, the precipices, the gullies, and the tangled jungles, through which the patriots must force their way, under a withering fire of artillery and musketry, before they could reach the rebel lines. General Lee had well chosen his position; and he had not a doubt that he could defend it.

The patriot troops were on the east side of the Antietam, behind a low range of hills lying at the base of the Blue Ridge. These eminences wère generally commanded by the heights held by the rebels. Here our lines were extended and our batteries massed. During most of the day of Tuesday, September 16th, General McClellan was employed reconnoitring the ground, posting his troops, and forming his plan of attack. The two combined armies, amounting to one hundred and seventy thousand men, gazed quietly at each other, awaiting with impatience and anxiety the terrible shock of battle which was impending. There were, perhaps needful, but certainly very deplorable delays, which enabled the foe to bring up powerful reënforcements, and greatly to strengthen their position. When our troops arrived on the east of the Antietam, they were ninety thousand in number; and the rebels but fifty thousand. Twenty-four precious hours were spent in preparing for the battle, during which time many of the positions of the enemy were rendered almost impregnable, and "Stonewall" Jackson joined Lee with his powerful troops; and other reënforcements were also enabled to arrive during the battle.*

At four o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, the 16th, General Hooker's Corps was ordered to cross the Antietam, by the upper bridge, on the

"My plan for the impending general engagement was, to attack the enemy's left with the corps of Hooker and Mansfield, supported by Sumner's, and, if necessary, by Franklin's; and, as soon as matters looked favorable there, to move the corps of Burnside against the enemy's extreme right, upon the ridge running to the south and rear of Sharpsburg; and, having carried their position, to press along the crest towards our right; and, whenever either of these flank movements should be successful, to advance our centre with all the forces then disposable. General McClellan's Report.

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