Nearly all day on the 14th of September there was a hot contest for the possession of these mountain passes, the rebels in their superior position holding back the Union army, who largely outnumbered them. At night the rebels fell back beyond the mountain, and when the next day dawned, McClellan marched through unimpeded, except by the dead and dying bodies which Lee had left in his retreat. When the Union army reached the valley on the morning of September 15th, the cessation of the cannon firing in the direction of Harper's Ferry warned McClellan that the place had been surrendered. In a few hours Jackson would be on the way to Lee's army. The struggle was near at hand.

Both armies were in the lovely valley, stretching to the banks of the Potomac, made greenly fertile by Antietam Creek, which flowed into the Potomac a few miles south of the place where Lee halted.

The rebel commander had crossed this creek, and with that stream in front, and the Potomac behind him, he waited for Jackson to to come to his aid, and McClellan to give him battle. One end of his line, was in the town of Sharpsburg, his centre ran through a rough field where ledges of lime rock made convenient lurking places for sharp shooters; lines of timber in the rear of his army

furnished good cover for batteries, stationed there to sweep his approaching foes.

Harper's Ferry had surrendered to Stonewall Jackson on that very morning. Without a moment's delay this energetic commander left a small force to take charge of the town, and all the wealth of cannon and other valuables of war that had been captured there, and pushed on at once to Antietam Creek.

Three bridges spanned this creek in front of Lee's army. The upper bridge had been left unguarded and open. Across this the corps of "fighting Joe Hooker" was sent on the 16th, prepared to strike a heavy blow on the left of the rebel lines. On the night of the 16th the two armies lay down to sleep with the knowledge that the inevitable battle must begin next morning. I wonder if those who slumbered there in their last earthly slumber felt the shadow of the approaching conflict more deeply than those who were to escape the bullet or cannon ball next day.

Morning dawned upon the battle-field of Antietam, and the first streakings of light in the east were hailed by the roar of the guns. From dawn till dusk the two armies fought in bloody and uncertain fight. For an advantage gained on one side of the field by the

national soldiers, Lee could show an equal advantage in another quarter. When the sun set, neither side could claim the victory, and the night saw both armies standing at bay, like two wild beasts who have tasted the blood from their own wounds, and are all the more eager to pursue the fight. But night cooled the ardor of both generals. Lee was not ready to give battle, and McClellan, who from excess of caution could rarely follow up an advantage with rapidity, waited for more troops. The 18th passed without a fight, and on the night of that day Lee made good his escape over the Potomac. His army was broken up; his plans of campaign spoiled. He concluded not to go to Pennsylvania. From this time the hopes of those who longed to see Washington under the feet of the rebels, New York city drenched in blood, and Boston clothed in sackcloth, were forever dampened. However costly in human lives had been the battle-field of Antietam, it had gained for the North a sense of security it had not felt since the campaign in Virginia had begun.

Lee remained in the Shenandoah Valley. To revenge himself for his disappointment in not reaching Pennsylvania, he sent General Stuart with a troop of horsemen 12,000 or 15,000 strong to ravage the borders of Pennsylvania. Stuart did this with great alacity, going as far into the State as Chambersburg, burning national works, tearing up railroads, and laying waste the country.

For several weeks McClellan remained near Harper's Ferry — which was at once retaken and occupied by our troops — calling for wagons, horses, clothing, shoes, and other goods for his army. In return General-in-chief Halleck and President Lincoln were con

stantly ordering him to march against the enemy. He was so long in obeying these orders that his superiors got impatient, and on the 7th of November an order reached his camp giving over his command to General Ambrose Burnside, who already commanded a corps in his army. It was the same general who had led the troops into North Carolina and taken Newbern the previous March. The order reached McClellan as the two generals were sitting together in camp. McClellan read it without any perceptible emotion, and handing it over to Burnside said calmly, “Well, general, you are to try your hand at managing the Army of the Potomac !" So passed into obscurity one of the most notable generals of the war, a man better capable of drilling and setting an army in the field, than almost any other commander among the Union generals,

but so hampered by an excess of caution, often resembling timidity, that his well drilled and disciplined armies wasted in inaction. He lost more men by disease than by battle, and the months on the Peninsula were deadlier than all his defeats on the field.

force.

Burnside, a modest, unassuming, brave soldier, took the command with a great deal of distrust in his ability to manage so large a Lee was now encamped on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia, prepared to contest any attempt of our army to go on to Richmond. Burnside prepared to go on and occupy Fredericksburg, and make the town his winter head-quarters. But before he could reach it, it was so fortified by Lee that a fight for the place was inevitable. Our soldiers did wonders of work in preparing bridges of boats to cross the river, and building railway

bridges over which loaded trains could pass. At length, on the 11th of December, the attack on Fredericksburg began. It raged hotly till the night of the 13th. When it was over the streets of the town were filled with smoking ruins; walls of houses tottering to their fall, and black destruction everywhere. But Lee still held the place, and Burnside, driven up the river, waited another opportunity. His generals had lost confidence in him, however, and he did not attempt another battle. The last of December he led his army back to the old camps which it had occupied before the battle of Fredericksburg. There the men built mud huts and sat down to

spend the winter. The Union army was dispirited and despondent. The rebels were exultant and self-confident. The poorest judge of military matters saw that the campaign in Virginia was a dark one to the Union cause. With the exception of Lee's repulse from Maryland, and the spoiling of his plans about the Pennsylvania invasion, we had no success there during the year 1862.

CHAPTER XLIV.

AFFAIRS IN THE WEST.

Generals Bragg, Polk, and Hardee. The Queen City threatened. - Southern Rhetoric. — Armor of the Southern Soldiers. — Rebel Spoils in Kentucky. - Battle of Corinth. - Christmas Jollity at Murfreesboro'. - Rosecrans marches on the Revelers. "We fight, or die here." Victory for Unionists.

In the mean time the armies of the West were not altogether idle. We left the rebels down in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Beauregard had marched them when he gave up Corinth. General Bragg was in Beauregard's place at the head of the rebel army. Bragg was now a grizzled old man, stooped shouldered, and angular. A pair of sharp eyes under a thick brush of black eyebrows, were all that denoted the fiery soldier to whom Taylor had shouted at Buena Vista, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg."

Bragg first moved his army to Chattanooga in Georgia, which the Union army showed signs of occupying. Then, when he saw Buell's men all at work repairing railroads, and intent on marching slowly towards Georgia, he cut round behind them, and made a swift march into Kentucky. His army was in three parts; one commanded by Bishop Polk, who was a good fighter, whatever he may have been as a clergyman. He owned seven hundred slaves, it is said, which was an excellent reason for taking up his sword in aid of the rebellion. Another part of Bragg's army was under General Hardee, who had written some good military works. He had been educated at West Point at the expense of his country, which was not a good reason for deserting her and taking up arms with her enemies. Bragg's third division, under Kirby Smith, another West Point graduate, was sent ahead to northern Tennessee, while Bragg began operations in Kentucky. It was in early September, the same month of Lee's invasion into Maryland, when Bragg ravaged Kentucky. For about six weeks he had it pretty much all to himself