r
right front; the "open," easily discernable through the woods; the rising
land with its ledges, big and little, in the front; the denser woods in
the left front; the worm fence before noted, and the long ledge behind it,
against which our left companies sheltered themselves by Captain Jordan's
thoughtful guidance; and the gully beginning in the rear of our position
and leading down to the great stone barn and stone mansion,[5] with its
immense spring of water.

The large oak in rear of our right, to which Col. Beal crawled after he
was wounded, was still standing a few paces up (northeast) the Smoketown
road, and another good sized tree nearer the front was recognized by Capt.
(then Sergt.) Goss as the one from which he first opened fire. Lt.-Col.
Emerson (Capt. of H, the right Co.) stood where he stood in 1862 and
pointed out to our guests place after place which he recognized.

Many of "the bushes" of 1862 had grown into sizable trees; they, with
Beal's and Goss's trees and the Smoketown road fence, had been a serious
obstacle to the advance of our right companies.

The scar, or depression in the ground, where we had buried a few of our
dead (northeast of Beal's tree), was still visible, but repeated plowing
since 1889 has entirely effaced it.

Our excursion was entirely for pleasure; we had no thought of controversy,
nor even of the enlightenment of the Sharpsburg people, who knew nothing
of the true locality where Mansfield was wounded, but were showing two or
three erroneous places to visitors. We defended the truth, photographed
the position, but found it difficult for several reasons to decide by
several feet upon the _exact_ spot of the wounding.

It is necessary now to go back to 1862 and tell the story of the battle as
seen by the 10th Maine; and as since the war a generation has grown up
that knows nothing of the way soldiers are arranged for marching and
fighting, it is best to give a great many explanations that may seem
unnecessary to an old soldier.

THE PART TAKEN BY THE 10TH MAINE.

The 12th Army Corps, Mansfield commanding, marched on the Boonsboro pike,
late at night of Sept. 16th, from "the center" through Keedysville to the
farm of George Line (G. Lyons on the old maps) and there rested till
daybreak. Gen. Mansfield slept on the west side of a fence which ran south
from Line's garden to woods. His bed was the grass and his roof a
blanket. The 10th Maine was on the east side of the fence (