forces moving parallel to each other, giving and receiving fire. The Fifth gaining the advantage, faced to the right and delivered its volley. The enemy staggered, but rallied and advanced desperately at a charge. Being reinforced by the Eighty-first Pennsylvania, these regiments met the advance by a counter charge. The enemy fled, leaving many killed, wounded, and prisoners, and the colors of the Fourth North Carolina, in the victors' hands.

Another column of the enemy, advancing under shelter of a stone wall and corn-field, pressed down on the right of the division; but Colonel Barlow again advanced the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth New York against these troops, and with the attack of Kimball's brigade on the right, drove them from this position.

On the left of this part of the line, the Union troops having driven back a determined attack of the enemy, the rebels made a rush upon the front, but were fiercely repulsed by two regiments under Colonel Barlow, who followed them through the cornfield and into the orchard beyond. A building called Riper's house was a strong point here; and Colonel Barlow's advance gave the Union men possession of it, and they at once occupied it. A section of Robertson's horse-battery now arrived, and in good time, for Richardson's division up to that juncture had been without artillery; and subsequently Captain Graham, First Artillery, commanding a battery of brass guns, arrived, and taking a position on the crest of the hill, soon silenced the enemy's guns in the orchard. Heavy firing began immediately; and while directing the firing of Captain Graham's battery, the gallant Richardson was mortally wounded. The place of General Richardson was supplied by General Hancock. Colonel Bunke, of the Sixty-third New York, commanding General Meagher's brigade, was ordered to the centre.

The battle raged with uninterrupted fury; and on right and left, rebels and Unionists strewed the ground with gory corpses. The groans and cries of the wounded and dying filling up every interval of the battle's roar. Dark and darker grew the aspect of affairs. The different battlefields were shut out from each other's view, but all were visible from a centre hill, from which General McClellan, during the whole day, with his field-glass held to his eyes, watched eagerly and anxiously the fighting of the several brave corps under his command.

The afternoon was waning; and things looked very black for the Army of the Union. At three o'clock General McClellan issued an order to General Burnside to push forward his troops with all possible vigor, and carry the enemy's position on the heights. General Burnside replied that he would advance up the hill as far as he could, before being stopped by a battery, placed directly in his path. Upon hearing this,

General McClellan ordered Burnside to flank the battery, storm it, and carry the heights.

The advance was made most gallantly, the enemy utterly routed, and the heights carried triumphantly. Night was now approaching, and the enemy was receiving strong reinforcements from Harper's Ferry. General Burnside's troops were attacked on the left flank, and obliged to retire to a lower line of hills, near the bridge and the question as to whether the well-won position on the heights could be maintained, became a problem of vital importance Burnside's brigades were in close columns, and would not give way before a bayonet-charge; and the enemy hesitated to dash in on the dense masses of Union soldiers. Then suddenly the rebel left gave way, scattering over the field, but the rest stood firm, and poured forth a heavy fire upon the Federals. More infantry came up, and General Burnside found himself outnumbered, outflanked, and compelled to yield up the position he fought so bravely to win. He no longer attacked; but, with unfaltering firmness, defended himself, and sent to General McClellan for help.

McClellan already knew of the sore strait to which Burnside was reduced, for his glass had not been turned away from the hard-pressed left of the field; but to send assistance was out of his power. In the valley, Porter's fifteen thousand troops were impatient to join the fight; but when the two Generals, McClellan and Porter, looked into each other's faces, cach read in the other's eyes, "They are the only reserves of the army-they cannot be spared." As an answer to General Burnside's desire for reinforcements, the Commander in Chief was obliged to reply: "Tell General Burnside this is the battle of the war. He must hola his ground till dark at any cost. I will send him Miller's battery. I can do nothing more. I have no infantry." Then as the messenger was riding away he called him back. Tell him if he cannot hold his ground, then the bridge, to the last man!—always the bridge! If the bridge is lost, all is lost."

Till Burnside's message reached McClellan, no one anticipated that the battle could be concluded on that day; and few expected how near was the peril of total defeat. But suddenly and unexpectedly, the rebels. halted, instead of pushing forward, and following up the advantage gained in recapturing the hill. As the twilight deepened into darkness, the fierce, wrathful cannonading ceased, and the long, desperately-contested battle of Antietam was over. For fourteen hours nearly two hun. dred thousand men, and five hundred pieces of artillery had been engaged in this memorable battle. The Army of the Potomac, notwithstanding the moral depression consequent upon its late severe reverses, had achieved a great victory over an army elated by recent successes; and, on the night of September 17th, the soldiers of the Union slept in

peace and triumph on a field won by dauntless bravery, and covered with the dead and wounded, friends and foes, patriots and rebels.

On both sides the casualties among officers in the battle of Antietam was unusually numerous. Among the rebel killed were Brigadier-Generals Starke and Branche, and among their wounded were Major-General Anderson, Brigadier-Generals Anderson, Lawton, Wright, Ripley, Amistead and Ransome.

The Union army was called upon to mourn the loss, among many other valuable officers, of Brigadier-General Isaac P. Rodman, of Rhode Island. He had left the quiet pursuits of business, and volunteered in defence of the Government. He entered the service in one of the regi ments of his native State as Captain, and was quickly promoted to a Coloneley, and led his regiment in General Burnside's North Carolina expedition. He was made a Brigadier for services at Roanoke and Newbern, and was mortally wounded while acting as division commander at Antietam. The loss of the Federal army in this terrible battle bears ample testimony to its courage and endurance. From the official records. the total loss in killed was two thousand and ten; missing, one thousand and forty-three; total, twelve thousand and sixty-nine. The combined loss at South Mountain, Antietam and Harper's Ferry, was twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety-four.

The report of General McClellan estimates the rebel loss in Maryland at thirty thousand men.

General Burnside, whose corps was stationed on the left of the Federal lines, testified before the investigating committee of Congress, that at half-past eight o'clock in the evening of the 17th, he went over to McClellan's headquarters, and urged the renewal of the attack, saying that with five thousand fresh troops to place beside his own, he was willing to commence the attack in the morning. As his corps had maintained the most critical position during the battle, and had defended the salient points with remarkable bravery and endurance, while suffering heavy loss, it may not be amiss to record his testimony in this place.

General Franklin, whose corps occupied a position on the right of the Federal lines, also gave testimony before the Commission in the following terms:

"When General McClellan visited the right in the afternoon, I showed him a position on the right of this wood, which I have already mentioned, in which was the Dunker church, which I thought commanded the wood; and that if it could be taken, we could drive the enemy from the wood, by merely holding this point. I advised that we should make the attack on that place the next morning from General Sumner's position. I thought there was no doubt about our being able to carry it. We had plenty of artillery bearing upon it. We drove the enemy from there

that afternoon, and I had no doubt we could take the place the next morning, and I thought that would uncover the whole left of the enemy."

No advance was made by the Federal forces on the 18th, which passed away without any engagement. General McClellan was waiting for reinforcements under Generals Couch and Humphreys, then on their way, and in the mean time, had ordered an attack on the 19th. A reconnoissance of the Federal cavalry advanced to the Maryland shore of the Potomac on the evening of the 19th, where they skirmished with the rear guard of the rebels, and captured six guns. General Lee had safely withdrawn his army to the Virginia shore, and was slowly conducting his retreat to the banks of the Rappahannock.

Though the battle of Antietam can hardly be classed as a decisive victory on the part of the Federal forces, in a strictly military point of view, it was conclusive in its results; and General Lee retreated into Virginia with a full conviction of his inability to cope successfully on that ground with the army opposed to him, and thoroughly dispossessed of the confident expectation he had entertained, that the inhabitants would flock by thousands to his standard, when his forces should appear in their midst. Restricted as he had ever been in his commissariat, he had discovered that no dependence could be placed on obtaining supplies in a hostile territory, surrounded by a numerous and vigilant foe, whose well-disciplined and eager cavalry would surely cut off any supplies from the Shenandoah Valley, long before they reached the banks of the Potomac. With a loss of thirty thousand men, in killed, wounded and prisoners, he was compelled therefore to retrace his steps, which he was allowed to do, deliberately and securely.

M'CLELLAN'S ARMY ON THE POTOMAC.

OCTOBER 1-26, 1862.

At this juncture in military affairs, the cautious policy of General McClellan once more came into conflict with that of the United States Government, at Washington. It was McClellan's desire to reorganize the army, which had suffered much under the command of General Pope, and which had just passed through two severe battles. Maryland Heights and Harper's Ferry had been occupied and fortified, and, as the Potomac was low, and easily fordable by rebel raiders, McClellan designed to stretch his forces along that river, from near Washington, to Cumberland, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, to prevent further incursions, and to make occasional sallies for reconnois

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ance or offensive operations, while the work of reorganization should be in progress. General Halleck, on the other hand, representing the President and the War Department, denied the necessity for any delay and urged an immediate onset.

No onward movement was made until the 26th of October. In the meanwhile, President Lincoln, visiting the Army of McClellan on the first of the month, had discussed the whole campaign with that officer, and had personally inspected the battle-field of Antietam; then, returning to Washington, he had, through General Halleck, issued an order to General McClellan, directing him to cross the Potomac and attack General Lee. It was in pursuance of this order that the advance was commenced on the 26th-the intermediate days having been spent in the work of reorganization. But this work had not been accomplished without difficulty. On the 10th of October, the rebel General Stuart crossed the Potomac, at McCoy's Ferry, leading a force of two thousand cavalry and a battery of horse-artillery, and made a raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Means were immediately taken to cut off and capture those forces. All the fords of the river were ordered to be guarded, and Generals Pleasanton and Stoneman started in pursuit. General Stuart, by his raid of the 13th of June, into the rear of the Union armies between the Pamunkey and the Chickahominy, had acquired great credit for boldness and celerity of movement. Hence the desire to capture him was all the more eager, on the part of the National troops. But the failure of a subordinate officer of General Stoneman's to seasonably occupy White's Ford, a point about three miles below the mouth of the Monocacy, unfortunately left open a chance of retreat, through which, on the 12th of October Stuart succeeded in making his escape, after a conflict with the Union forces, which lasted upwards of four hours. The fight took place near the mouth of the river Monocacy, and, on the Union side, was conducted by General Pleasanton. The losses were slight, upon both sides.

The plan of General McClellan's new campaign, commencing on the 26th of October, may best be stated in his own language:

"The plan of campaign I adopted during this advantage was to move the army, well in hand, parallel to the Blue Ridge, taking Warrenton as the point of direction for the main army; seizing each pass on the Blue Ridge by detachments, as we approached it, and guarding them after we had passed as long as they would enable the enemy to trouble our communications with the Potomac. It was expected that we would unite with the Eleventh corps and Sickles's division near Thoroughfare Gap. We depended upon Harper's Ferry and Berlin for supplies until the Manassas Gap Railway was reached; when that occurred, the passes in the