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Show Battl of Antietam By REV. THOS. B. GREGORY. A NT I ETA M. or. as they call it in the south. Sharpsburg, was fought fifty vcars ago Septeniber IT, 1SC2. BeRlnnlng about 6 o'clock in the morning, the battle raged until 1:30 o'clock In the afternoon, and when the stars came out that night thev looked down upon one of the bloodiest fields of the war. The order of the battle was as follows: fol-lows: The attack of Hooker upon the Confederate left; Mansflotd's move lo the support of Hooker; Sumner's advance ad-vance to the aid of Mansfield, and the attack of Burnslde upon the Confederate Confed-erate right Tho net result of the ten-hour struggle mav be slated In the words of Brlgadloi' General Francis Wln-throp Wln-throp Palfrey in his book, "The An-tlelam An-tlelam and Fredericksburg," page 110: "Tactically, tho battle of Antletam waa a draw, with the advanjag inclining in-clining slightly to the side of the Federals. Fed-erals. The Confederates, however, held most of the ground on which llicv fought, and held it not only to the" close of the battle, but for more than twenty-four hours after and then retired unmolested and In iood order," or-der," . ,, Swlnton, in his "Army of the Potomac." Po-tomac." page r-'-J, saya: "Antletam was a drawn battle, a battle In which McClellan had suffered as much ns he had Inflicted. What McClellan knew was that the battle had cost the terrible sacrifice of ovor 32.000 men, that two of his corps were completely com-pletely shattered and that hie oldest generals counseled a surcease of operations." op-erations." The battle losses were, according to Swlnton: Federals. 12,000: Confederates, Confeder-ates, S000. ,. , The battl of Antletam caused T to turn his face back to "Old Mr cinla." and on that account It was a great union victory, but as a fight it "was the most brilliant that was ever put up by the- army or northern north-ern Virginia. The generalship of Loe throughout that terrible day wa well-nigh perfoct. Tt would be difficult diffi-cult to find anywhere In tho lo.np and varied annals of military achievement a more brilliant day's work than that of Leo at Antletam. He had less than 40.000 men. while McClellan had SP.OOO, and yet so consummate con-summate waa his skill In maneuvering maneuver-ing and shifting from point to point that he was always ahlo to meet the opposing forces with enough men to hold them in check. With no reserves and outnumbered more than two to one, Leo hold his lines throughout the ten hours of stubborn assault and at sundown stood practically where he had stood at sunrise. A "drawn battle." under the conditions condi-tions that prevailed, was a. mighty slim honor to the commander of the armv of the Potomac. He should have given an altogether different account ac-count of himself. After all dun allowance al-lowance Is made for the superb generalship of Lee and the splendid character of his men. it remains tru that McClellan should never have allowed al-lowed the army of northern Virginia Vir-ginia to get back to TIxie. Th chances are a thousand to one that If McCIclInn's $9,000 men an brave men aB over pulled a trigger had boon led by Lan and StonOwal! Jackson, Jack-son, the army of northern Virginia would never have fought another battle. bat-tle. It would have been annihilated. |