CONFEDERATE ARMY.
First Corps.— James Longstreet. Five divi sions; commanders, Lafayette McLaws, R. H. Anderson, D. R. Jones, J. G. Walker, J. B. Hood.
Second Corps.—T. J. ("Stonewall") Jack son; four divisions; commanders, I. R. Jones, A. R. Lawton, A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill.
Some crucial points of the battle-ground must be noted. The heart of the fighting was north and east of a Dunkard chapel of red brick, a mile north of Sharpsburg on the west side of the Hagerstown turnpike, with tall woods free from underbrush to the west and north (the "west woods"), and elevated ground with ledges, hollows, etc., to the north (Nico demus' Hill) and west. Next to and across the road was open ground, with a field of high strong corn opposite the north end of the west woods, and then the "east woods," also inter spersed with rocks, with a commanding ridge running south, cut a sunken road (the "Bloody Lane") running east from the turn pike.
On the morning of the 17th Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry brigade and some artillery formed the extreme Confederate left, holding Nicodemus' Hill; next Jackson, Jones' division, in and in front of the west woods, and the bulk of Ewell's division on Jones' right, in the open ground east of the Hagerstown turnpike; D. H. Hill on the left centre. Longstreet formed the centre and right, and A. P. Hill on the extreme right came up in the afternoon. Hood on the left was relieved by Ewell the night before, and formed a reserve near the Dunkard church. McLaws withdrew from Maryland Heights on the 15th and 16th, crossed and recrossed the Potomac and rejoined Lee early on the morn ing of the 17th, also taking post on the left.
On the Union side, Hooker having crossed the Antietam, Mansfield also crossed in the night and took position in the rear. Sumner and Burnside remained east of the stream. The Confederates rightly inferred from the Union dispositions that the force of the attack was to be on their left, and strengthened it accord ingly; 10 of the best brigades in their army were placed in the west and east woods and south of the cornfield. They had nearly 40,000
men in the battle; the Union troops engaged numbered about 55,000. This superiority was little enough against the immense advantages of the Confederate position; and even so, it was frittered away in a series of disconnected attacks, which left a large part of the Confed erate force usable at one time against 15,000 Federal troops at most.
1. Hooker, lying nearly a mile north of the Dunkard church, moved down against Jackson early in the morning; reported strength 14,856; actual, under 10,000. The objective point was the elevated ground about the church. The march had its right on the turnpike and its left along the west edge of the east woods, from which a withering fire checked it a little; the right was raked by a flanking fire from the west woods. At length the line gained the southern edge of the cornfield and engaged the Confeder ates in the open ground about 220 yards distant. Under the storm of bullets, shot and shell that rained upon them, they broke and fled through the corn, to reform in a • hollow beyond; the Confederates assailed the Union lines in turn, and in turn were riddled by a concentrated fire that drove them back. Again the Union troops advanced, to be forced back in disorder; and again the Confederates followed, to break and fly. This was one of the most frightful car nages of the Civil War: Jackson's famous ((Stonewall" division was nearly annihilated, more than half of two brigades killed or wounded and more than a third of another, and all the regimental commanders but two. On the Union side 1,051 in Ricketts' division were cut down, a third of its whole number, and two brigades lost over 40 per cent : Hooker was wounded and was succeeded by Meade. Hood and D. H. Hill now came up to replaceJack son's losses; and Hooker's remnants slowly withdrew northward just as the advance of the Twelfth came up, though Ricketts still held the edge of the east wood.