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ing everything forward to endeavor to press their retreat to the utmost." The President telegraphed to the General: "God bless you and all with you. Destroy the rebel army if possible."

Lee was presently found to have disposed the troops with him on the high ground along the farther bank of Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg. McClellan's entire army was available at a seasonable hour on the 15th, had he chosen to attack. Every hour's delay would bring Jackson, McLaws, and the rest of the Harper's Ferry victors nearer, though now too far away to be of any help to Lee. The old Napoleon would have used the opportunity with crushing effect. Was not the young Napoleon capable of a like exploit? The President indulged such a hope, and the General's dispatches seemed to warrant the expectation. Nevertheless, McClellan waited a whole day within striking distance and delayed the blow.

The battle of Antietam was one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the war. The stream from which it is named runs nearly due south between Hagerstown and the Potomac, into which it empties about three miles from Sharpsburg and nearly opposite Shepherds

Lee's forces were extended northward from the rear of Sharpsburg near the Hagerstown road, partly. sheltered by woods, his left resting on the Potomac at a point from which it sweeps around in a semi-circle to the mouth of the Antietam. McClellan's line, on the opposite heights, fronting Lee, with the Antietam and its narrow valley between them, was about four miles. long the three corps of Hooker, Sumner, and Mansfield on the right, near the upper bridge of the three

that crossed the creek; Porter in rear of the middle one; and Burnside on the left, near the lower one. Heavy batteries were placed at several effective points along the heights. Franklin's corps and Couch's division, on the morning of the 16th, were a few miles away, near Brownsville.

McClellan's plan of battle involved the complete cutting off of Lee's lines of retreat, towards Hagerstown on the one hand, and Shepherdstown on the other, while the Potomac shut him in on the rear. He sent the larger share of his force to turn the enemy's leftHooker and Mansfield taking the lead, sustained by Sumner, and, if needed, by Franklin. Burnside was ordered to cross the lower bridge, turning the right of the enemy when he became engaged on his left. Porter was held in reserve, ready to attack in his front when the fit opportunity should come. Hooker crossed the Antietam on the evening of the 16th, made a wide circuit to the front of the enemy's advance position, on the Hagerstown road, and camped there for the night. Mansfield followed, bivouacking a mile in the rear of Hooker. Advancing at daylight (on the 17th), Hooker soon found heavy masses confronting him. In fact, Jackson, with a large part of Lee's army, had been sent to turn the Union right — a flanking movement such as he usually executed with brilliant success. The fighting here became desperate and destructive, with varying results for hours. The Twelfth Corps (under Mansfield, soon mortally wounded) came promptly into line on Hooker's left; the three divisions of Sumner (Sedgwick, French, and Richardson) joined in the fray two

hours later. At this time Hooker received a disabling wound and retired, Meade succeeding to the command of the First Corps, and Sumner assuming the chief direction on the right. Sedgwick, severely wounded, was temporarily succeeded by Howard; Richardson, whose division had gained decided advantages, was killed, and Hancock succeeded him in command.

At 1 o'clock all the ground gained from the enemy had been lost, and Hooker's men had fallen back to the ground where they camped the night before. One of the main struggles had been for the possession of a cornfield and of the woods beyond (near the Dunker church), alternately gained and lost, until the open grounds were covered with dead and wounded of intermingled blue and gray. The three corps - Hooker, Mansfield, Sumner - had been engaged along a semicircular line a mile and a half in arc. Without fresh help the day might well have seemed lost at I o'clock; but just then Franklin arrived on the ground; Smith, with a bold dash, led his division quite across the fatal cornfield and into the woods beyond. Slocum's division came up directly after, and the important ground regained was firmly held to the last.

Burnside on the left had not crossed the bridge before him until after noon; and he was then two or three hours in gaining the heights from which his guns were to be made available and his infantry advance to the attack. These purposes had not been accomplished when he was heavily assailed by new forces, and driven back for a distance down the slope. A. P. Hill's division had arrived from Harper's Ferry, and the action in

this quarter, ending without glory to Burnside, kept open a line of retreat for the Confederates. Porter's reserve was given no part in the main affairs of the day. Darkness arrested what seemed like an unfinished battle. McClellan reported his own losses in killed as 2,010, the wounded and missing bringing up the total to 12,467. The Confederates lost, according to War Records, 1,512 killed, and 7,816 wounded. Lee had a clearer sense of defeat than McClellan had of victory. The next day was given by the latter to burying the dead and caring for the wounded. More Union troops were meanwhile arriving. McClellan had ordered an attack at daylight on the 19th, but the enemy was found to have departed, securely crossing the Potomac near Shepherdstown.

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Returning by steamboat from his visit to the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Landing, the President had many hours for undisturbed meditation. The campaign against Richmond had ended in bitter disappointment. The war was assuming a magnitude quite beyond his earlier anticipations, and another large levy of soldiers had become necessary. The time was evidently at hand when he must use every means permissible to the Commander-in-chief in making war. He saw the possible advantages to be gained by radical and summary dealing with the vulnerable system at the base of the Southern Confederacy as clearly as any of his supporters, without losing sight, as some of them seemed to do, of the difficulties and entanglements in which such a policy might involve him. He abhorred slavery, and would gladly have ended it at once had that depended on his personal feeling or his sense of justice. But official obligation was paramount to individual inclination. It was a question of statesmanship he was now considering. Would a decree of emancipation, as a war expedient, make the Government stronger or weaker? Abolitionists and radical men were among his most earnest friends; they were formidable in numbers and

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