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General Crook's brigade crossed immediately after General Sturgis's division and took position in its rear in support. General Rodman at the same time threw his division across the ford below, after a sharp fight in which the enemy was worsted. He formed his command upon the left of General Sturgis. Colonel Scammon's brigade followed across the ford, and took position in the rear in support. Clark's and Durell's batteries accompanied General Sturgis. General Willcox's division crossed by the bridge and took position on the extreme right of the line. Cook's battery accompanied General Willcox; Muhlenburg's and part of Simms's were already over with the troops of the Kanawha Division. General Cox in person directed the operations of the corps on the west side of the creek. These movements were made across a narrow bridge and a difficult ford, and in the face of a sullen and obstinate enemy, who contested every foot of ground. They occupied considerable time, and at three o'clock the entire corps stood arrayed upon the opposite bank of the Antietam, and began a further advance upon the enemy, making for the village of Sharpsburg. General Sturgis's division was held upon the heights in reserve, and our batteries on the hither side covered the forward movement of the corps.

The order to advance was received and obeyed by the troops. with great enthusiasm. They pressed forward rapidly, cheering and exultant, as they had, been accustomed to charge in North Carolina. For a time all went well. General Willcox with General Crook in support moved up the Sharpsburg road on both sides, and his advance even gained the outskirts of the town. General Rodman pushed on in his own fearless style and handsomely carried the heights on the left of the town. The 9th New York was again conspicuous for its daring. It made a heroic charge upon one of the most formidable of the enemy's batteries, and succeeded in capturing it, losing in the contest nearly half its men. Out of little more than five hundred men it lost, during the afternoon, two hunted and fifty of whom ninety-five were killed. This battery, it would seem,

belonged to the brigade of General Toombs who was highly incensed at its capture. The story told by one of the southern writers is, that "the General, instantly dismounting from his horse, and placing himself at the head of his command, briefly told his men in his effective way that the battery must be retaken, if it cost the life of every man in his brigade, and then ordered them to follow him. Follow him they did into what seemed the very jaws of destruction, and after a short but fierce struggle they had the satisfaction of recapturing the prize. Doubtless there was some rhodomontade of this description on the part of General Toombs. But the recapture was due to something more than the gallantry of this redoubtable brigade.

The enemy, now relieved from our attack upon his left, which had in effect ceased at three o'clock, hurried down reenforcements of infantry and artillery, hoping to overwhelm the Ninth Corps, isolated as it was from the rest of the army. General Lee felt assured that if General Burnside's command could be driven off, victory would rest with them. "It is certain," says Mr. Pollard in his history of the war, "that if we had had fresh troops to hurl against Burnside at the bridge of Antietam, the day would have been ours. The fresh troops

came, but they did not retake the bridge. They were "hurled against Burnside" in vain. General A. P. Hill's light division of Jackson's corps, with fresh troops from Harper's Ferry, appeared upon our left about four o'clock and began a vigorous attack. Our lines were contracted and reformed to meet this new danger. General Rodman's division, which had been obliged, by the inequalities of the ground and other circumstances, to bear more to the left than was originally intended, had become outflanked and was hard pressed. It was recalled from its advanced position, and ordered to move more to the right to close up our lines in that quarter. The movement was made in the face of the enemy in a very steady manner, but it was fatal to the commanding general of the divison and

*Life of Stonewall Jackson.

his aide de camp, Lieutenant Robert H. Ives, Jr. General Rodman was struck by a minie ball, which penetrated his left lung, and knocked him from his horse. Lieutenant Ives was struck by a fragment of shell, which gave him a frightful wound in the thigh and killed his horse. Both officers were carried to the rear and received every attention, but their wounds proved mortal, and they died a few days after the battle. The division, now under the command of Colonel Hawkins of the 9th New York, completed its movement, but in the forced withdrawal of Colonel Harland's brigade, the captured battery was abandoned, and again fell into the hands of the enemy. The time was critical. Reënforcements of the enemy continued to press upon the field, and our left flank was in great danger of being turned and driven in. Colonel Scammon with commendable promptness "caused the 12th and 23d Ohio regiments of his brigade to execute a perpendicular change of front, which was done with precision and success, the other regiment, the 30th Ohio, maintaining its proper front."* This timely movement checked the enemy

and protected our exposed flank.

General Burnside, observing the state of affairs, ordered General Sturgis forward to assist the advanced forces in their desperate struggle with the constantly increasing masses of the enemy. The division reëntered the fight with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm and, though they were already somewhat exhausted and short of ammunition, they presented a bold front and with great courage held the enemy at bay. Numbers of troops came down from the enemy's left, where their presence was no longer needed, and, with the addition of General Hill's division, now on the ground and doing good service for the enemy, began to press us back. But the Ninth Corps as yet stood firmly, and could reënforcements have been sent from our side, would not only have made good its position in the neighborhood of Sharpsburg, but would have decisively

* Cox's Report of the Battle of Antietam.

beaten the enemy. General Burnside begged of General McClellan for help. But no help was to be obtained. General Franklin, with twelve thousand men, was thought to be needed upon the right. General Fitz John Porter, with thirteen thousand, could not be spared from the centre. At least so thought General McClellan, who, careful to guard points that were not in absolute peril, did not think it necessary to reenforce those which required aid. The rest of the army seemed to be waiting on their arms, while the Ninth Corps waged its unequal battle.

No

The day was now rapidly declining. As the enemy greatly outnumbered us and as no aid could be given, General Cox gradually withdrew the corps to the high banks of the creek in his rear, and there firmly held his ground. It had been hard work through this long September day, but it had been most nobly done. As the sun set and the evening shadows gathered, and the cessation of the firing on both sides proclaimed the end of the great battle, General Burnside was gratified to know that his command had gained the most advanced position of any portion of our army, and had attested its bravery in the most signal and distinguished manner. No duty had been left unperformed. No unnecessary delays had been made. No cessation of fighting had taken place. part of its line had been. broken. But everything that was possible to brave men had been done. A position well nigh impregnable had been dauntlessly carried. A steady advance had been made. The enemy had been pressed back, and had reënforcement met reëenforcement, the day would have been most certainly our own. The enemy's account acknowledges that the immense Yankee force crossed the river and made the dash against our line, which well nigh proved a success. The timely arrival of General A. P. Hill, however, with fresh troops, entirely changed the fortunes of the day, and after an obstinate contest, which lasted from five o'clock until dark, the enemy were driven "* back. It had been a day of most san

*Life of Stonewall Jackson.

guinary fighting, and the commanding generals on both sides were not sorry to see the sun go down below the western horizon, and to know that the darkness prohibited any further carnage.

Our losses were large. The ground over which the great struggle of the morning had taken place, alternately in our own and the enemy's possession, was literally covered with the dead and wounded of both armies. General Sumner's corps of eighteen thousand eight hundred and thirteen men lost no less than five thousand two hundred and nine in killed, wounded and missing, of whom forty-one officers and eight hundred and nineteen men were killed, and four general and eighty-nine other commissioned officers, and three thousand seven hundred and eight men were wounded. General Hooker's corps of fourteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-six men lost three hundred and forty-eight killed, two thousand and sixteen wounded, and two hundred and fifty-five missing. General Mansfield's, afterwards General Williams's corps of ten thousand one hundred and twenty-six men lost two hundred and seventy-four killed, one thousand three hundred and eightyfour wounded, and eighty-five missing. General Franklin's corps of twelve thousand and three hundred men lost seventy killed, three hundred and thirty-five wounded, and thirty-three missing. General Fitz John Porter's corps of twelve thousand nine hundred and thirty men, and the reserve artillery, lost twenty-one killed, one hundred and seven wounded, and two missing. General Pleasonton's division of four thousand three hundred and twenty men lost five killed and twenty-three wounded.

The Ninth Corps numbered, on the morning of the battle, thirteen thousand eight hundred and nineteen officers and men. Its losses during the day were twenty-two officers and four hundred and ten enlisted men killed, ninety-six officers and one thousand six hundred and forty-five enlisted men wounded, and one hundred and twenty missing. The trophies of the entire campaign in Maryland captured from the enemy were

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