664

PURSUIT OF THE INVADERS.

getic efforts for the pursuit of Lee and his army. On the 4th of September, Gen. McClellan was put in command of the entire force in and around Washington, except so much as was necessary for the immediate defence of the Capital, and ordered to follow and overtake Lee's army with all speed. He at once issued his general orders to the commanders of corps and divisions to report for service, and the next day a considerable portion of his army was in motion, Gen. Couch's division being in the advance. On the 7th, Gen. McClellan himself left Washington to take the field. On the 10th, the main body of his army had reached Damascus, sixteen miles south-east of Frederick, and on the evening of the 12th, his advance under Gen. Hooker entered Frederick, which had that morning been evacuated by Lee's troops. Cavalry —Gen. Pleasanton's division-and artillery, were immediately sent forward to harass the rear of the enemy, and on the 13th, there were several skirmishes. The main column of the Union army reached Frederick on the 13th, and was received with the heartiest welcome. On the evening of the same day, the advance drove the rear of the rebel army out of Middletown, ten miles farther on, in the beautiful valley of the Caloctin, and the rear of the Union army, which had occupied the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Point of Rocks and eastward, moved up the Middletown road to Jefferson.

A brief description of the topography of the region which the army now entered, will, with the help of the map, greatly aid in the understanding of the circumstances under which the subsequent battles were fought. The two chains of hills which have formed so important an element in the battle fields of North Eastern Virginia, the Bull Run Mountains and the Blue Ridge, are both continued, though with other names, north of the Potomac. The Bull Run Mountains crossing that river at Point of Rocks, continue northward as the Catoctin Mountain, for thirty miles or more, and sepa

666

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE FIELD.

rate Frederick from Middletown, which lies in the lovely valley of Catoctin creek, an affluent of the Potomac, west of Catoctin Mountain. The Blue Ridge crosses the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, and its northern extension, called South Mountain, tends nearly due north to, and beyond the Pennsylvania line. The Catoctin Mountain is crossed by two turnpike roads, one starting from Nolan's Ford, the other from Frederick, and uniting at Middletown. The South Mountain is crossed by several roads, one from Jefferson, about eight miles south of Middletown, curving northward till it strikes the Williamsport road, the others diverging from Middletown, toward Sharpsburg, Boonsboro, Williamsport, and Hagerstown. The summit of South Mountain is, for the most part, covered with forest, and its sides are moderate slopes, not very difficult to ascend or descend by the roads, though elsewhere more broken and rocky; the western declivity descends toward Antietam creek, a narrow but usually deep stream, rising in Pennsylvania and flowing southward to the Potomac, which it enters about three miles below Shepardstown.

Finding his rear threatened by the advance of Gen. McClellan's army, Gen. Lee resolved to draw up his forces on the crest of South Mountain,—except the twenty-five thousand sent to Harper's Ferry, and give McClellan battle. His position was well chosen. His right rested upon and covered Crampton's Gap, on the road leading from Jefferson to Boonsboro, while his left occupied Turner's Gap on the road from Middletown to Boonsboro, and his centre commanded the only other road across the mountain between those two points. A small force with artillery had been stationed at the bridge over Catoctin creek, half a mile west of Middletown.

The Union forces, consisting of Reno's, Hooker's, and Franklin's corps, the two former under command of Gen. Burnside, and the latter, together with a part of Porter's corps which had come up, under that of Gen. Franklin, occupied the turn

BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN.

667

pike from Middletown to Jefferson, Burnside having his headquarters at Middletown, and Franklin at Jefferson.

On the morning of Sunday, September 14, the line of battle was formed at day-light, and the force moved westward along the two principal roads already described, to meet the enemy. The first encounter was at the bridge over Catoctin creek above named, and a battery being brought into position, soon drove the small force stationed there, back to a stronger situation on the slope of the mountain.

Finding the enemy in force along the slope, the long lines of infantry opened, and the artillery was brought to the front. During the morning, the battle was mainly an artillery duel, but about noon, Gen. Cox's Kanawha division, of Reno's corps, moved up the mountain and charged upon the enemy, to the left of Turner's Gap, while the ninth army corps, Burnside's old troops, stormed the strong position to the right of that Gap. The fighting in both cases was very severe, more of a hand to hand fight than in any previous battle of the war. The 23d Ohio, of Cox's division, known as the "Psalm-singers of the Western Reserve," met the 23d South Carolina, considered by the rebels as their finest regiment, and though in the desperate struggle the Ohio men triumphed, the Carolinians invariably destroyed their muskets by beating them against the trees or rocks, before they would surrender them. It was the old fight of Roundhead against Cavalier over again, and as of old, so here the Psalm-singers won the day, though with a fiercer struggle than Cromwell's Ironsides encountered. The divisions of Rodman, Wilcox, and Sturgis, were successively brought to re-enforce Cox, before the crest was completely gained and held. Gen Hooker's corps arrived about two o'clock, and after re-enforcing Reno, commenced, about three o'clock, an assault upon the enemy's centre, the Pennsylvania Reserves leading; for three nours the fighting was continued with great obstinacy and

668

BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN.

desperation, but about dark the crest was carried and held. The ascent of the mountain by this corps was one of the finest passages in the battle; though exposed to a heavy and continuous fire from the base of the mountain to near its summit, the line did not waver nor give way for an instant, but moved steadily forward, pouring volley after volley into the enemy's ranks, till, as they approached the crest, the rebels broke precipitately, and ran down the western slope of the mountain. Gen. Gibbons' brigade of this corps, which had moved up the main road to attack the enemy, met with a more desperate resistance, and it was not till some time after night fall, that they succeeded in driving the enemy over the crest.

On the right, the struggle, though shorter, had been very sharp, the heights being carried by a bayonet charge, and the brave General Reno, one of the finest officers in the army, falling just as success was gained. The left wing, under Gen. Franklin, which attempted the passage of the mountain at Crampton's Gap, six miles below, found itself opposed by a strong Confederate force under Gen. Howell Cobb, and had not ascended more than one third of the distance from the base to the crest of the mountain, when they came under the fire of a body of the enemy placed behind a stone wall; a fierce hand to hand fight of nearly an hour ensued, when the Confederate troops retreated, in some disorder, toward the summit of the Gap, where they formed again in a strong position. Slocum's division of Franklin's corps, rushed up the slope, and by a succession of brilliant bayonet charges, drove the enemy back and down the western slope, though not without a bloody struggle and a heavy loss. The entire Union loss in this battle was two thousand three hundred and twenty-five killed and wounded; that of the rebels was not less than five thousand, of whom a considerable number were prisoners.

But while thus successful at South Mountain, the Union cause had, at about the same time, incurred a serious disaster