cut up to be relied upon; and Sumner, who had also lost heavily, was unable to advance. A lull took place in the fight, for the Confederates on their side seemed unable to advance. But soon after Franklin's corps came upon the field, and the fresh troops dashed forward and drove the enemy from the fields and woods in gallant style. Franklin wished to push further, but Sumner thought the movement too dangerous. When night fell the Union troops held the ground they had won, but the Confederates were still in force in their front. Both sides were nearly worn out by the long and terrible struggle, and the ground which had been won and lost many times during the day was thickly strewn with the dreadful evidences of the fight.

While the battle had been raging so furiously on the right of the Union line, what had been doing on the left, where General Burnside was in command? General McClellan had ordered Burnside to hold himself in readiness to take the bridge (No. 3) in his front and to drive the enemy from the heights beyond. From early dawn both Porter, who was in the Union centre, and Burnside, on the left, had kept up a cannonade on the enemy's positions across the creek. The Confederates replied, and one of their first shots went through a house where Burnside had his headquarters, covering him and his staff officers with a shower of plaster.

About eight o'clock in the morning McClellan ordered Burnside to take the bridge, carry the hills in front, and advance toward Sharpsburg; but he attacked so cautiously, to save his men, that it was nearly one o'clock before he was able to cross. He then advanced slowly up the hills in front, and by four o'clock had driven the Confederates nearly to Sharpsburg. But the close of the battle on the Union right enabled Lee to send reinforcements from that part of the field, and Burnside was soon forced back nearly to the bridge, where the pursuit was stopped by the fire of the Union artillery on the east side of the Antietam. Darkness soon set in and ended the battle in this part of the field also. It is thought that if Burnside had succeeded in crossing earlier, while the fight was raging on the Union right, Lee, unable to spare any troops from that part of the field, would certainly have been captured with his army; for if Burnside had got to the rear of Sharpsburg, Lee would have been cut off from the ford of the Potomac.

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Both parties slept on their arms, ready to renew the fight in the morning. The Union troops slept where darkness found them, but the Confederates drew their lines during the night a little nearer to Sharpsburg. The Union loss during the day was about twelve thousand five hundred; that of the Confederates was probably nearly the same.

General McClellan concluded that his army was not in a condition to renew the battle on the 18th, so the day was spent in removing the wounded, burying the dead, collecting stragglers, and making preparations to open the fight again on Friday, the 19th; but when Friday came there was no enemy to attack; Lee had crossed the river during the night and was, with all that was left of his army, safe in Virginia. Part of General Porter's corps was sent in pursuit across the Potomac, but after advancing a short distance it was attacked by the rear guard of the Confederates under A. P. Hill and driven back across the river with great loss.

Thus ended the battle of Antietam, called by the Confederates the battle of Sharpsburg. It is generally looked upon as a victory for the Union, because it ended Lee's invasion of Maryland and forced him back into Virginia; but it was really a drawn battle, for neither side had gained anything on the night of the 17th. General Lee fought the battle with about forty thousand men, all of whom were engaged in the fight. McClellan had under his command more than twice as many, but only about fifty-five thousand took part in the battle. General McClellan, in his report, estimates the Confederate army at ninety-seven thousand, and his belief in Lee's superior numbers was probably one of the principal reasons which induced him. not to continue the battle on the morning of the 18th. His failure to do this has been severely criticised, and it is generally thought that Lee's army might have been captured or destroyed had he done so. But McClellan says that his troops were not in fit condition to fight again on the next day; that they were overcome by fatigue, that the supply trains were in the rear, that ammunition was nearly out, and that many of the men were suffering from hunger. Indeed, both armies were unfit for a further struggle, and while McClellan waited to recruit his men near the scene of the battle, Lee retired to Winchester for the same purpose. Lee's entire loss during the campaign

in Maryland was about twenty thousand men. He also lost thirteen cannon, fifteen thousand small-arms, and thirty-nine flags.

Among the incidents of the battle of Antietam is a story told of General Sumner. Having occasion to send an aid to one of the most exposed parts of the field during the thickest of the fight, he selected his son, then a captain on his staff, for the duty. Knowing the danger he would pass through, and feeling that he might never see him again, the old general embraced him and said, "Good-by, Sammy. "Good-by, father," was the answer, and Sammy, who was only twenty-one years old, rode away. He came back safe, and the fond father met him with a shake of the hand and, "How d'ye do, Sammy?" as if he had not seen him for weeks.

Another story is told of a Union soldier, a private of the First Maryland regiment. A gentleman visiting one of the hospitals at Alexandria, where the wounded were sent, found him sitting by a window with a bandage over his eyes and singing at the top of his voice, "I'm a bold sojer boy."

"What's your name, my good fellow?" said the gentleman. "Joe Parsons, sir."

"What is the matter with you?"

"Blind, sir, blind as a bat; shot at Antietam; both eyes at one clip."

Poor Joe, who was only twenty years old, had been in the front, and had been shot by a ball directly through both eyes, destroying his sight forever; yet he seemed to be as happy as a lark.

"It might ha' been worse," he said. "I'm thankful I'm alive, sir."

At the gentleman's request, he told his story.

"I was hit, yer see, and it knocked me down. I lay there all night, and in the morning the fight began again. I could stand the pain, but the balls were flyin' all round, and I wanted to get away. At last I heard a feller groanin' beyond me. 'Hello!' says I.

"Hello yourself,' says he.

"Who be yer?' says I, 'a Reb?'

"You're a Yank,' says he.

"So I am,' says I. 'What's the matter with you?'

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JEB STUART'S RIDE.

289

"My leg's smashed,' says he.

"Can yer see?'

"Yes.'

"Well,' says I, 'you're a Reb, but will you do me a little favor?'

"I will,' says he, 'if I kin.'

"Well, old Butternut, I can't see nothin'. My eyes is shot out, but I kin walk. Come over yere and let's git out o' this. You pint the way and I'll tote yer off on my back.'

"So we managed to git together, and shook hands on it. I took a wink outer his canteen and he got on to my back. I did the walkin' for both, and he did the navigatin'. An' if he didn't pilot me straight to a Reb colonel's tent, a mile away, I'm a liar. But the colonel knew I couldn't do any more shootin', and didn't care to keep me; so, after three days, I came down here with the wounded boys, where I'm doing pretty well."

"But you will never see the light again, my poor fellow," said the gentleman.

"That's so; but can't help it, yer notice. That's my misfortin', not my fault, as the ole man said of his blind hoss- I'm a bold sojer boy,'" and the gentleman left poor blind Joe singing away as merrily as if nothing had happened.

While McClellan still remained in Maryland, General Jeb Stuart, with fifteen hundred cavalry, recrossed the Potomac at Williamsport and rode entirely around the Army of the Potomac again, as he had done before in the Peninsula. He went as far as Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, where he destroyed a large quantity of military stores, including five thousand muskets, burned the railroad buildings and machine-shops and several trains of loaded cars, and recrossed safely into Virginia.

McClellan took possession of Harper's Ferry after Lee had gone down the Shenandoah Valley. By the 2d of November the whole army had crossed into Virginia and begun its march. southward, passing down east of the Blue Ridge, while the Confederates marched west of it. McClellan had then more than a hundred thousand men, while Lee's force amounted to about eighty thousand. On the 7th of November the Union army was near Warrenton. Late that night, during a heavy

snow-storm, General McClellan was sitting in his tent talking with General Burnside, when a messenger arrived from Washington with a despatch, which he handed to General McClellan. McClellan opened and read it, and, without any change of countenance or of voice, handed the paper to General Burnside, saying calmly: "Well, Burnside, you are to command the army. It was an order from the Secretary of War, by direction of the President of the United States, that General McClellan be relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac and that General Burnside should take his place.

General Burnside was loth to take the command. Twice before the position had been offered him, but he had declined it because he did not feel that he was competent to manage so large

AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.

an army. Besides, he had confidence in McClellan, who was his friend, and he expressed the opinion that "he could command the Army of the Potomac better than any other general in it." But the orders of the government obliged him to obey, and he reluctantly took the command (November 10). McClellan wrote a farewell address, which was read to the soldiers. In it he said:

"In parting from you, I cannot express the love and gratitude I bear you. As an army you have grown up under my care. In you I have never found doubt or coldness. The battles you have fought under my command will proudly live in our nation's history. *** We shall ever be comrades in supporting the constitution of our country and the nationality of its people."

The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac loved "Little Mac" better than any commander they ever had, and rousing cheers were given for him when he took his departure. The old regiments who had served under him longest were especially attached to him, and even the new ones, who had lately come