poured through. Seeing that he must fight, Lee took up a
position on Antietam Creek, a few miles north of Harper's Ferry. Jackson
had just received the surrender of the latter place, with 11,000
prisoners, and now hurried to join Lee.

By the night of September 16th, the two armies were in battle array on
either side of the creek. To the rear of the Confederate left lay a
cultivated area encircled by woods, a cornfield in its centre. At dawn
on the 17th, Hooker opened the battle by a furious charge against the
Confederate left, and tumbled the enemy out of the woods, across the
cornfield, and into the thickets beyond, where he was fronted by
Confederate reserves. The carnage was terrific. Re-enforcements under
Mansfield were sent to Hooker, but driven back across the cornfield.
Mansfield was killed and Hooker borne from the field wounded, Sumner
coming up barely in time to prevent a rout. Once more the Confederates
were pushed through the cornfield into the woods. Here, crouching behind
natural breastworks--limestone ridges waist-high--the southern ranks
delivered so hot a fire as to repulse Sumner's men. Thus, all the
morning and into the afternoon the tide of battle surged back and forth
through the bloody cornfield, strewn with wounded and dead.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Edwin V. Sumner.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Winfield S. Hancock.

On the Confederate right no action took place till late in the day.
Burnside then attacked and gained some slight advantage. But
re-enforcements from Harper's Ferry came up and were put in against him,
forcing him back to the creek. During the next day McClellan feared to
risk a battle. Being re-enforced, he intended to attack on the following
morning; but Lee, who should have been crushed, having but 40,000 men to
McClellan's 87,000, slipped away in the night and got safely across the
Potomac. The Union loss was 12,400; that of the Confederates probably
about the same.

The general dissatisfaction with McClellan's slowness caused his removal
early in November, Burnside succeeding him. The new commander, who, as
the head of the army, was an amiable failure, proposed to move directly
against Richmond, but Lee flung himself in his path at Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg lies on the south bank of the Rappahannock. Behind the
city is a gradually ascending plain, bounded by heights which bend
toward the river. Lee's army, 80,000 strong, lay in a semicircle alo