The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-04 00:00:00

2111 3 BATTLE, OF SIIA.RPSBURG.

The fo'ilowing ace°• unt of the above battle is given
by the correspondent of the .1%7620 York Tribune :
Battle-field of Sharpsbnrg, Wednesday
Evening, Sept. 17, 1862.

Fierce and desperate battle between 200,000 men
has raged since daylight, yet night closes on an un-
certain. field. It is the greatest fight since Waterloo
—all over the fiel,l contested with a obstinacy equal
even to Waterloo. If not wholly a victory to-night,
I believe it is tl-le prelude to a victory to-morrow.
But what can he foretold of the future of a fight in
which from five in the morning till seven at night
the best troops of the continent have fought with-
out decisive result?

I have no time for speculation—no time even to
gather details of the battle; only time to state its
broadest features—then mount and spur for New
York.

After the brilliant victory near Middletown
General M'Clellan pushed forward his army rapidly
and reached Keedysville with three corps on
Monday night. That march has already been
described. On the day following the two armies
faced each other idly, until night. Artillery was
busy at intervals; once in the morning, opening
with spirit, and continuing for half an hour with
vigour, till the rebel battery, as usual, was silenced.
M'Clellan was on the hill where Benjamin's bat-
tery was stationed, and found himself suddenly nn-
der a rather heavy fire: It was still uncertain
whether the rebels were retreating or reinforcin g—
their batteries would remain in position in either
case, and as they had withdrawn nearly all their
troops from view, there was only the doubtful indi-
cation of columns of dust to the rear.

On the evening of Tuesday Hooker was ordered
to cross the Antietum Creek with his corps, and,
feeling the left of the enemy, be ready to attack
next morning. During the day of apparent activity
M'Clellan hnd been maturing his plan of battle, of
which Hooker's movement was one development.
The position on either side was peculiar. When
Richardson advanced on Monday he found the ene-
my deployed and displayed in force on a crescent-
ehaped ridge, the outline of which followed more or
less exactly the course of Antietum Creek. Their
lines were then forming, and the revelation of force
in front of the ground which they re ally intended
to hold was probably meant to delay our attack
until their arrangements to receive it were complete.
Daring the day they kept their troops exposed,
and did not move them, even to avoid the artillery
fire, which must have been occasionally annoying.
Next morning the lines and columns which had
darkened cornfields and hill crests, had been with-
drawn. Broken and wooded ground behind the
sheltering hills concealed the rebel masses. What
from our front looked like only a narrow summit
fringed with woods was a broad table-land of forest
and ravine—cover for troops everywhere, nowhere
easy access for an enemy. The smoothly-sloping
surface in front and the sweeping crescent of slowly-
mingling lines was all a delusion. It was a rebel
stronghold beyond.
Under the base of these hills runs the deep
stream called Antietum Creek, fordable only at dis-
tant points. Three bridges cross it, ene on the
'Hagerstown road, one on the Sharpsburg pike, one
to the left in a deep recess of sleepy falling hills.
Hooker passed the first to reach the ford by which
he crossed, and it was held by Pleasanton with a
reserve of cavalry during the battle. The second
was close under the rebel centre, and no way im-
portant to yesterday's fight. At the third Burn-
side attacked and finally crossed. Between the first
and third lay most of the battle lines. They
stretched four miles from right to left.

Unaided attack in front was impossible. M'Clel-
lan's forces lay behind low, disconnected ridges, in
front of the rebel summits, all, or nearly all, un-
wooded. They gave some cover for artillery, and
guns were therefore massed on the centre. The
enemy had the Shepherdstown road and the
Hagerstown and Williamsport road both open to
him in rear for retreat. Along one or the other, if
beaten, he must fly. This, among other reasons,
determined perhaps the plan of battle which M'Clel-
lan finally resolved on.
The plan was generally as follows :—Hooker was
to cross on the right, establish himself on the ene-
my's left, if possible, flanking his position, and to
open the fight. Sumner, Franklin, and Mansfield
were to send their forces also to the right, co-ope-
rating with and sustaining Hooker's attack, while
advancing also nearer the centre. The heavy work
in the centre was left mostly to the batteries. Por-
ter massing his infantry supported in the hollows.
Oa the left Burnside was to carry the bridge
already referred to, advancing then by a road which
enters the pike at Sharpsburg, turning at once the
rebel flank and destroying his line of retreat.
Porter and Sykes were held in reserve. It is
obvious that the complete success of a plan
contemplating widely divergent movements of
separate corps must largely depend on accurate
timing, that the attack should be simultaneous and
not successive.

Hooker moved on Tuesday afternoon at four
o'clock, crossing the creek at a ford above the
bridge and well to the right, without opposition.
Fronting south-west his line advanced not quite on
the rebel flank, but overlapping it and threatening
it. Turning off from the road after passing the
stream he sent forth cavalry skirmishers straight
into the woods and over the fields beyond, Rebel
pickets withdrew slowly before them, firing scat-
tering and harmless shots. Turning again to the
left the cavalry went down on the rebel flank,
coming suddenly close to a battery which met them
with unexpected grape and canister. It being the
motive of cavalry to retire before batteries, this com-
pany loyally followed the law of its being, and came
swiftly back without pursuit.
Artillery was sent to the front, infantry was
rapidly deployed, and skirmishers went out in front
on either flank. The corps moved forward com-
pactly, Hooker, as usual reconnoitring in person.
They came et last to an open grass-sown field, en-
closed on two sides with woods, protected on the
right by a mill, and entered through a corn-field in
the rear. Skirmishers entering these woods were
instantly met by rebel shots, but held their ground, I
and as soon as supported, advanced, and cleared the
timber. Beyond, on the left and in front, volleys
of musketry opened heavily, and a battle seemed to
have begun a little sooner than it was expected.
Gen. -Rooker formed his lines with precision and
Without hesitation. Ricketts' division went into th€
woods on the, left in force. Meade, with the Penn-
sylvania reserves, formed in the centre. Doubl4-
day was sent out on the right, planting his batteries
on the hill, and
opening
at once on a rebel battery
that began to enfiladeandthe the central line. It was
already dark,
rebelposition could only be
discovered by the tashese
their guns. They pushed
on the
forward
otbheroldly
flank on the
right,
made no
losing ground
,
attempt to re-
gain their hold on the woods,
The
light flashed,
and glimmered, and faded, and finally went out in
the dark.
that
tla close to
a il yz rebels
Hooker had found out what he wanted to know.
When the firing ceased the hostile
linesinevitable
each other, their pickets so near
were captured during the night. It was nev
that the fight should recommence at table
daylight.
Neither side had suffered considerable loss ; it was
a skirmish, not a battle. "We are through for to_
night," remarked the general, "but to-morrow we
fight the battle that will decide the fate of the
Republic."
Not long after the firing ceased it sprang up
again on the left. General Hooker, who had taken
up his head-quarters in a barn, which had been
nearly the focus of the rebel artillery, was out at
one. First came rapid and unusually frequent
picket shots, then several heavy volleys. The gene-
ral listened a moment and smiled grimly. "We
have no troops there. The troops are shooting each
Fair Oaks over again." So everybody
other. It is Fa
lay down again ; but all the night through there
were frequent alarms.
M'Clellan had been informed of the night's work
and of the certainties awaiting the dawn. Sumner
was ordered to move his corps at once, and was ex-
pected. to be on the ground at daylight. From the
extent of the rebel lines developed in the evening it
was plain that they had gathered taw whole
beh,ncl.the heights, and were waiting fur the shock.
The battle began with the dawn. MoiLlng