f McLaws and Walker were
sent to him. As soon as they reached the field, they were thrown into
action, and General Lee had the satisfaction of witnessing a new order
of things. The advance--it might rather be called the onward rush--of
the Federal line was checked. Jackson's weary men took fresh heart;
that great commander promptly assumed the offensive, and, advancing
his whole line, drove the enemy before him until he reoccupied the
ground from which General Sumner had forced him to retire.

From the ground thus occupied, the Federal forces were unable to
dislodge him, and the great struggle of "the left at Sharpsburg" was
over. It had begun at dawn and was decided by ten or eleven o'clock,
and the troops on both sides had fought as resolutely as in any other
action of the war. The event had been decided by the pertinacity of
the Southern troops, and by the prompt movement of reenforcements by
General Lee from his right and centre. Posted near his centre, he
had surveyed at one glance the whole field of action; the design of
General McClellan to direct his main assault upon the Confederate left
was promptly penetrated, and the rapid concentration of the Southern
forces in that quarter had, by defeating this movement, decided the
result of the battle.

Attacks on the Confederate centre and right followed that upon the
left. In the centre a great disaster was at one time imminent. Owing
to a mistake of orders, the brave General Rhodes had drawn back his
brigade posted there--this was seen by the enemy--and a sudden
rush was made by them with the view of piercing Lee's centre. The
promptness and courage of a few officers and a small body of troops
defeated this attempt. General D.H. Hill rallied a few hundred men,
and opened fire with a single gun, and Colonel Cooke faced the enemy
with his regiment, "standing boldly in line," says General Lee,
"without a cartridge." The stand made by this small force saved the
army from serious disaster; the Federal line retired, but a last
assault was soon begun, this time against the Confederate right. It
continued in a somewhat desultory manner until four in the evening,
when, having massed a heavy column under General Burnside, opposite
the bridge in front of Lee's right wing, General McClellan forced the
bridge and carried the crest beyond.

The moment was critical, as the Confederate force at this point
was less than three thousand men. But, fortunately, reenforcements
arrived