hers, forming their line two miles
long. The Third and Fourth regiments were supporting a battery, and the
balance of the Second was held in reserve. They saw the rebel infantry
approach a strip of woods in front, and at once advanced and occupied it
themselves. Against this long thin line of skirmishers, the rebels
opened a severe fire of artillery and musketry, and advanced to drive
the skirmishers from their position; but the brave mountaineers never
dreaming that a Sixth corps skirmish line could not hold a rebel line of
battle, resolutely refused to leave and sent the presumptious rebel line
of battle to the rear in confusion; not, however, until Colonel
Stoughton with the Fourth and Colonel Seaver with the Third, came
forward to the support of the Fifth and Sixth. Again, the rebels,
disgusted at being repulsed by a skirmish line, came up in several lines
of battle and charged upon the Vermonters and they again went to the
rear in confusion. A third charge was made against the obstinate
skirmish line, and a third time the attack was broken. Meanwhile a
strong force attempting to cross the Antietam and come in on the flank,
was repelled by the Second Vermont.

The gallant brigade had repelled Anderson's brigade, of seven large
regiments, from its front, and another from its flank.

An instance of a skirmish line, a mile and a half from any support,
resisting repeated attacks of troops in line of battle, is rarely found
in the history of armies.

The men used from sixty to eighty rounds of cartridge, and when the
first supply was exhausted, a fresh one was brought to the front on
stretchers.

The victory cost the brigade a loss of nine men killed and fifty-nine
wounded, while the enemy lost more than two hundred men.

The men of Neill's brigade were rejoiced to find themselves once more
with the glorious old corps, and when their brigade flag, bearing the
insignia of the Greek cross, was once more thrown to the breeze, it was
greeted with vociferous cheers. Brisk skirmishing was going on along the
line, and frequent charges were made by our Union pickets upon the rebel
line, which usually resulted in the capture of a greater or less number
of the enemy's pickets. All things indicated a great battle on the
morrow. The two armies were facing each other in a line in front of
Hagerstown, near a hamlet called Funkstown, the line of battle extending
several miles. The rebels had occupied the higher grounds, and had
t