brought away four brass pieces which had been imperfectly spiked, and a wagon-load of ammunition. They encountered no opposition in this bold act. Another hour passed, and the patriots began to hope that the enemy had been foiled in their plans by some unknown event. But a few minutes after two o'clock, the thunders of artillery pealed suddenly through the silent air, from three different points. Maryland Heights and Loudon Heights and Sandy Hook, were all hurling their missiles of death upon the little village and the doomed garrison. Soon two other batteries from the Shepherdstown and Charlestown roads opened their fire. The thickly flying shot and shell pursued citizen and soldier, alike fleeing for shelter behind rocks and houses. The Union batteries vigorously returned the fire, and the Fifth Artillery quickly silenced the guns on Loudon Heights. Our forces bravely maintained their position till dusk. Rigby's battery, whose deadly range provoked a rebel charge about eight o'clock, was heroically defended, and the storming party repulsed. The tempest of war ceased with the going down of the sun. During the night the rebels were busy erecting and strengthening their batteries, and at five o'clock, on Monday morning, renewed their assaults from seven different directions, completely enfilading the Union lines. Still our artillery replied vigorously for three hours. At seven o'clock, Colonel Miles declared to General White that it would be necessary to surrender. At General White's suggestion, a council of brigade commanders was called. Colonel Miles represented that the ammunition of the batteries was exhausted, and that capitulation was unavoidable. The council approved his intention, with the exception of Colonel d'Utassy, who declared that he would never surrender. Our fire now ceased, and the white flag was raised from several points over the intrenchments, and General White was dispatched to arrange terms of capitulation. The rebels, however, continued to fire for three-quarters of an hour after the flags of surrender were raised, during which time, and even after the terms of surrender had been signed, Colonel Miles was mortally wounded in the leg by the fragment of a shell. Harper's Ferry was thus ingloriously surrendered at nine o'clock, Monday morning, September 15th. Colonel Miles died the next day. The mortification and rage of our brave soldiers, when they learned their fate, was intense. One of the officers, whose battery had silenced the rebel guns, exclaimed, with tears, "Boys, we have got no country now." Murmurs and imprecations were heard all along the lines from both officers and men. There was one general cry of indignation throughout the country, in view of this ignominious sacrifice. But still it was not easy to decide upon whom the responsibility of the shame should fall. The supineness and neglect of the generals who were commanded to relieve the garrison; the greatly superior force of the besieging army, whose guns were enfilading the position from different directions; and the failure of ammunition, were the most pressing arguments in favor of surrender. But there was yet hope of reënforcements until the forty-eight hours had expired, which limit of endurance Colonel Miles himself had fixed. Our artillery was safe from assault, even though its fire were silenced. Our infantry was in trenches five feet deep, with an abundant supply of car tridges. The troops were not discouraged. They had an ample supply of provisions, and could certainly, under a strong commander, have made a much more heroic and protracted resistance. The sequel showed of what immense importance it was to the Union cause that such defence should have been made. General McClellan would not then have been outnumbered at Antietam, and General Lee's army, weakened by the absence of thirty thousand men, detained at Harper's Ferry, could have been attacked in detail, with the Potomac in its rear. The terms of capitulation provided that the Union officers should be suffered to depart on parole, with their side-arms and their private effects. The common soldiers were also paroled. Eleven thousand five hundred and eighty-three officers and men were thus surrendered to the rebels. The rebels also captured six 24-pounder howitzers, twelve 6-pounder Napoleons, six 3-inch James's rifled cannon, four 24-pounder rifled Parrotts, and six smooth-bore brass pieces. There were also left, spiked and useless, on Maryland Heights, two 9-inch Dahlgrens, one 50-pounder Parrott, six 12-pounder howitzers, and four common rough guns-a total of forty-seven pieces. The Unionists also lost seven thousand five hundred stand of arms, forty thousand rounds of cartridges, fifty rounds of canister-shot, and six days' rations for twelve thousand men. The National loss in killed and wounded was reported at about two hundred. The rebel loss was estimated by their own officers at fifteen hundred. road. All the cavalry, numbering two thousand three hundred, escaped on Sunday night, cutting their way through the rebel lines by the Sharpsburg They captured, on their route, Longstreet's train of a hundred wagons, and nearly a hundred prisoners. The greatest praise is due to Colonel Davies, of the Eighth New York Cavalry, whose persistent demands upon Colonel Miles for permission to attempt to escape, united with his gallant leadership, saved to the Government this valuable corps, with whose horses and equipments, Jackson had hoped to refurnish his jaded and forlorn squadrons. According to the careful judgment of the investigating committee appointed by Congress, Harper's Ferry was prematurely surrendered. It was proved that Colonel Miles had failed to fortify Maryland Heights, when ordered to do so one month previous to the surrender; that, in view of an attack, he had withheld from Colonel Ford reënforcements and the necessary means for throwing up barricades; that without sufficient cause he permitted these Heights, which he acknowledged to the officers as the only defensible position of the post, to be abandoned on the 13th; that he frequently paroled rebel officers and prisoners during the siege, sending them to the rebel head-quarters, where they could communicate the exact state of the garrison and of the fortifications; that he had, when their abandonment was announced, only expressed the fear that it was "too soon;" that he had alleged, in refusing to allow the infantry to escape with the cavalry, that he had no instructions to defend the Ferry to the last extremity; and that this refusal was speedily followed by the surrender of this large force, without any attempt to form a junction with General Franklin, who was so near to him. Colonel Miles was a veteran officer in the service of his country. He had fallen mortally wounded. Still, the above recorded facts compelled the committee to the decision, which their sympathies rendered as mild as possible, that his conduct "exhibited an incapacity amounting almost to imbecility." The indignant voice of the public was, that it was an act of treason. Colonel Ford was also convicted of having shown, in his defence of Maryland Heights, such a lack of military capacity as to disqualify him, in the opinion of the commission, for a command in the service. In accordance with their report, Colonel Ford and other officers were dia missed from the service by the President. This punishment would have seemed almost too lenient for his commanding officer, had not the singular providence of his death summoned him before another tribunal to answer for his part in this humiliation of the National arms, and the grave conse quences which followed. Hardly were the terms of surrender signed, when the rebel force of twenty thousand exultant troops were hurrying away, in rapid march, to support General Lee at Antietam. The victory at South Mountain, brilliant as it was, scarcely atoned for the National reverse at Harper's Ferry, the result certainly of delay, stupidity, and cowardice, to which, perhaps, is to be added treason. CHAPTER XII. BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. From September 15th to September 23d, 1862. FIRST POSITION OF THE REBELS.-PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. THE FIELD OF BATTLE......... FORCES ON EITHER SIDE.-OPENING OF THE BATTLE.-HEROISM OF HOOKER'S DIVISION.—IN. CIDENTS OF THE BATTLE-GENERAL BURNSIDE'S CHARGE. THE INDECISIVE VICTORY.-THE RETIREMENT OF THE FOE.-REMONSTRANCES OF OFFICERS.-GREAT ERRORS. IMMEDIATELY after the victory of South Mountain, the main body of the National army pressed on in pursuit of the retreating rebels. They had fallen back in the direction of the Potomac, and, with concentrated force, had selected a strong position near Sharspburg. Here they intrenched themselves; the memorable battle of Antietam soon ensued. In the pursuit, our cavalry advance engaged a body of the rebel cavalry at Boonesboro', and put them to flight, with a loss of two hundred and fifty prisoners and two guns. All the corps of the National Army were, on Monday, September 15th, marching upon Sharpsburg, except Franklin's, which was left to hold the enemy in check at Brownsville. The subordinate generals had received instructions from their Commander-in-Chief, that if the enemy were met in force, and well posted, the troops were to be placed in position for attack, and then to await his arrival. Richardson's Division was in advance, and found the enemy deployed a few miles beyond Keedysville, on ground fronting the position they really intended to hold, and where their lines were then forming. When General McClellan reached the front, on the afternoon of the 15th, he found the divisions of Richardson in position, and the remainder of the column halted on the main road. He deemed it too late to make an attack, and the remainder of the day and night was spent in preparation for battle on the morrow. The patriot force was massed on each side of the Sharpsburg road. The whole night was spent in moving the troops to their appointed stations. The morning light revealed the forces of Lee, formed behind the sheltering crests of the mountain, and in the woods which covered the broken ground, where they were determined to make a desperate stand. Along the western banks of the Antietam River, there runs, with a gradual rise of undulating ground, a crescent-shaped ridge, presenting its concave side to the river. The top of this ridge spreads out into a broad table-ground of forests and ravines. A series of timber-covered hills surrounded this ridge; some of the adjacent hills had been cleared of the forest, and were covered with orchards and cornfields, enclosed with fences VOL. II-10 |