of a desperate struggle. Hooker had sent in two divisions,
Meade on the left and Doubleday on the right, while a third under
Ricketts acted in close support of Meade.* (* Doubleday's Division
consisted of Phelps', Wainwright's, Patrick's, and Gibbon's brigades;
Rickett's Division of Duryea's, Lyle's, and Hartsuff's; and Meade's
Pennsylvania Division of Seymour's, Magilton's, and Anderson's.) The
attack was waged with the dash and energy which had earned for Hooker
the sobriquet of Fighting Joe, and the troops he commanded had
already proved their mettle on many murderous fields. Meade's
Pennsylvanians, together with the Indiana and Wisconsin regiments,
which had wrought such havoc in Jackson's ranks at Grovetown, were
once more bearing down upon his line. Nor were the tactics of the
leaders ill-calculated to second the valour of the troops. Hooker's
whole army corps of 12,500 men was manoeuvred in close combination.
The second line was so posted as to render quick support. No portion
of the front was without an adequate reserve in rear. The artillery
was used in mass, and the flanks were adequately guarded.

The conflict between soldiers so well matched was not less fierce
than when they had met on other fields. Hooker's troops had won a
large measure of success at South Mountain three days previously, and
their blood was up. Meade, Gibbon, and Ricketts were there to lead
them, and the battle opened with a resolution which, if it had
infected McClellan, would have carried the Sharpsburg ridge ere set
of sun. Stubborn was the resistance of Jackson's regiments, unerring
the aim of his seasoned riflemen; but the opposing infantry,
constantly reinforced, pressed irresistibly forward, and the heavy
guns beyond the Antietam, finding an opening between the woods, swept
the thin grey line from end to end. Jones' division, after fighting
for three-quarters of an hour on the meadows, fell back to the West
Wood; General Jones was carried wounded from the field, and the guns
on the turnpike were abandoned.

6.30 A.M.

So tremendous was the fire, that the corn, said Hooker, over thirty
acres was cut as close by the bullets as if it had been reaped with
the sickle, and the dead lay piled in regular ranks along the whole
Confederate front. Never, he added, had been seen a more bloody or
dismal battle-field. To the east of the turnpike Lawton's division,
strengthened at the critical moment by the brigade in second line,
held Meade