A GLIMPSE OF STONEWALL JACKSON.
pose. It was one of the bloodiest of the war, and a defeat for both armies. The prestige of the day was with Lee, but when on the night of the 18th he recrossed into Virginia, although, as the Comte de Paris says, he “left not a single trophy of his nocturnal retreat in the hands of the enemy,” he left the prestige of the result with McClellan. . . .
AN ORDERLY AT HEADQUARTERS.
was coming, but had not arrived, and it was apparent that Burnside must be stayed, if at all, with artillery.
One of the sections, transferred to the right from Jackson at the request of General Lee, was of the Rockbridge Artillery, and as it galloped by, the youngest son of the general-in-chief, Robert E. Lee,
Jr., a private at the guns, black with the grime and powder of a long day’s fight, stopped a moment to salute his father and then rushed after his gun.
Where else in this war was the son of a commanding general a private in the ranks ?
Going to put this section in place, I saw Burnside’s heavy line move up the hill, and the earth seemed to tremble beneath their tread. It was a splendid and fearful sight, but for them to beat back Jones’s feeble line was scarcely war. The artillery tore, but did not stay them. They pressed forward until Sharpsburg was uncovered, and Lee’s line of retreat was at their mercy. But then, just then, A, P. Hill, picturesque in his red battle-shirt, with 3 of his brigades, 2500 men, who had marched that day 17 miles from Harper’s Ferry and had waded the Potomac, appeared upon the scene. Tired and footsore, the men forgot their woes in that supreme moment, and with no breathing time braced themselves to meet the coming shock. They met it and stayed it. The blue line staggered and hesitated, and, hesitating, was lost. At the critical moment A. P. Hill was always at his strongest. Quickly advancing his battle-flags, his line moved forward, Jones’s troops rallied on him, and in the din of musketry and artillery on either flank the Federals broke over the field. Hill did not wait for his other brigades, but held the vantage gained until Burnside was driven back to the Antietam and under the shelter of heavy guns. The day was done. Again A. P. Hill, as at Manassas, Harper’s Ferry, and elsewhere, had struck with the right hand of Mars. No wonder that both Lee and Jackson, when, in the delirium of their last moments on earth, they stood again to battle, saw the form of A. P. Hill leading his columns on; but it is a wonder and a shame that the grave of this valiant Virginian in Hollywood cemetery has not a stone to mark it and keep it from oblivion.
The battle at Sharpsburg was the result of unforeseen circumstances and not of deliberate pur-
And now D. H. Hill led in the rest of his division ; Hood also took part to the right and left, front and rear, of Dunker Church. The Federal line was again driven back, while artillery added its din to the incessant rattle of musketry. Then Sumner, with the fresh division of Sedgwick, re-formed the Federal line and renewed the offensive. Hood was driven back, and Hill partly; the Dunker Church wood was passed, the field south of it entered, and the Confederate left turned. Just then McLaws, hurrying from Harper’s Ferry, came upon the field, and hurled his men against the victorious Sedgwick. He drove Sedgwick back into the Dunker wood, and beyond it,intotheopenground. Farther to ourrigh t, the pendulum of battle had been swinging to and fro, with D. H. Hill and R. II. Anderson hammering away at French and Richardson, until the sunken road became historic as “Bloody Lane.” Richardson was mortally wounded, and Hancock assumed command of his division.
For a while there was a lull in the storm. It was early in the day ,buthours aref earful-lylongin battle. About noon Franklin, with Slocum and W. F. Smith, marched upon the field to join the unequal contest. Smith tried his luck and was repulsed. Sumner then ordered a halt. Jackson’s fight was over, and a strange silence reigned around Dunker Church.
General Lee had not visited the left that day. As usual he trusted to Jackson to fight his own battle, and work out salvation in Ms own way. How well he did it, against the ablest and fiercest of McClellan’s lieutenants, history has told.
During all this time Longstreet, stripped of his troops,— sent to the help of Jaekson,— held the right almost alone, with his eye on the center. He was now called into active work on his own front, for there were no unfought troops in Lee’s army at Sharpsburg; every soldier on that field tasted battle.
General Burnside, with his corps of fourteen thousand men, had been lying all day beyond the bridge which now bears his name. Ordered to cross at 8 o’clock he managed to get over at 1, and by 3 was ready to advance. He moved against the hill which D. R. Jones held with his little division of 2500 men. Longstreet was watching this advance. Jackson was at General Lee’s headquarters on a knoll in rear of Sharpsburg. A. P. Hill
“STONEWALL” JACKSON AS FIRST LIEUT. OF ARTILLERY, U. 8. A.
From an amln’otype taken August 20, 1847.
with the Potomac in his rear. Except some sparring between Hooker and Hood on our left, the 16th was allowed to pass without battle, fortunately for us. In the new dispositions of that evening, Jaekson was placed on the left of Lee’s army.
The first onset, early on the morning of the 17th, told what the day would be. The impatient Hooker, with the divisions of Meade, Doubleday, and Ricketts, struck the first blow, and Jackson’s old division caught it and struck back again. Between such foes the battle soon waxed hot. Step by step and marking each step with dead, the thin Confederate line was pushed back to the wood around the Dunker Church. Here Lawton, Starke (commanding in place of Jones, already wounded), and D. H. Hill with part of his division, engaged Meade. And now in turn the Federals halted and fell back, and left their dead by Dunker Church.
Next Mansfield entered the fight, and beat with resistless might on Jackson’s people. The battle here grew angry and bloody. Starke was killed,
Lawton wounded, and nearly all their general and field officers had fallen; the sullen Confederate line again fell back, killing Mansfield and wounding Hooker, Crawford, and Hartsuff.
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