The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-11-17
SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER.
The Battle of sharpsburg.
Detroit Free Press.

quaint old town to the west of the ridge
on which pow atands oa.;ona, Cemetery
and from this point the eye can see where
every brigade and division fought on
that memorable 18th day of September
Pope had been crushed at Manassas
and Lee had invaded Maryland. Gen
Mcclellan, retired in disgrace 20 Alex
andria, had been summoned to his old
command, and if be could not reorganize
Pope's shattered and disheartened forces
oyertake Lee and win victory, the
Union was doomed All felt it and knew
It, Mcclellan was the only bullwark
between Lee and Northern invasion
In week Lee was br0ugh to bay Oh the
hills Of Sharpsburg. But for the dis.
graceful surrender Of Miles at Harper's
Ferry his army would have been replaced
before the surrender by one who would
have held the stronghold.
Here, then, on the 10th Of September
Lee had his back to the Potomac and his
face to the mountains Maryland, with
MS head quarters in ti.. very building in
which write. Mcclellan had his back
TO the mountains, and all was ready for
the awful carnage of the morrow.
1t is the most beautiful landscape the
eye ever rested on, and it looks to. day
almost exactly as it did when the sun
rose on that beautiful autumn morning
10 be lost eight of in clouds of smoke and
death. You look down on wheat fields,
pastures, orchards, farm houses hay. .ricks
and highways. There are hills and
valleys and groves and patches of forest,
and the Antietam Greek winds in and
out and rushes and gurgles just as it did
that morning when Gems. Lee and Jack
son stood on the hill behind me and
scanned the fields with their glasses. 1t
was the grandest battlefield Of the war.
Even Gettysburg did not afford such po-
sitions for artillery, and the plains of
Manassas did not afford such chances
for the movement of infantry.
HOOKER BEGAN THE FIGHT
On the right almost before it was light
enough for the men to see to dress their
battle lines. He had Stonewall Jackson
in front Of him with not over 6,OOOmen.
Jackson's left rested on the Potomac to
cover ford. Hooker was to drive him
down on Lees center. and the grapple
took place in the woods along the Hagers-
town road. Hooker carried iuto action
at least $4,000 men, and Mansfield was
right behind him with q full corps.
AFTER NINETEEN YEARS
| rode over the ground to-day with
men who fought on either side in those
grim woods that day. There are fence
rails along the Hagerstown road in which
one may count from ten to thirty bullets.
Scarcely tree is missing in the forest,
and scacely tree can be found which
does not bear the scars of the awful
grapple. Limbs are lying where they fell
that morning as solid shot tore them
away. Trees are riven by shells and
stand there rs dead sentinels appealing
10 the past. Shot and shell and grape
shot searched for men in blue and gray
and finding them not spent their fury on
the forest and left wounds which nineteen
long years have failed to efiace.
A FIGHT OF DEVILS.
If Jackson was forced down in the CEN
ter Lee was gone. Every man under
him realized this, and every confederate
strung his nerves for desperate fighting
Jackson had the advantage Of being at
tacked, but Hooker had three men to
his one, and was determined to crush
him before reinforcements could arrive
from the center. For two hours the
woods echoed screams and shrieks and
| shouts and grOans, and Hooker had no,
| driven Jackson rod. Then Mansfield
arrived and threw his whole corps into
the struggle, and the Confederates wert
pressed back for more than a mile to 6
point Of wood within quarter of Il mile
| of Jackson's headquarters, which were ir
| the
BUNKER CHURCH
and shell rained down around this build
ing until fields seemed te have beer
plowed, and as 1 sat on the grass ant
looked up to count the scars ON the walls
my hand touched a fragment Of shell
thrown there from Hooker's ba. ~eries.
| ''IIERE WE DEP
eve will die here p' wes the quie
order of Jackson as his forces wer,
pushed to the edge of the woods. Tt
retreat furthur was to be without cover
Right there 70 that bit Of forest was
hell on earth for the next half hour
Every stump and rail and tree ant
stone prove it to-day. After the armie
had left, farmers collected shot and shell
by the wagon load and hauled then
down to sink or morass near the churcl
and dumped them in to have them out O
the way. Not two or three wa, ,ons loads
but fifteen or twenty, and every yea
The PioT turns up grape and canister b,
the bushel.
Bravery in IN enemy can be admitted
and admired without detracting from tn
bravery ofour friends. Stonewall Jack
son, with mile and half of woods:fllet
with dead and wounded from his 600
men, here turned at bay and held th
full $4,000 men under Hooker and Mans
field. History admits it, and Gen. Sum
ner proved it before ths Committee oil
the Conduct of the war. Gen. Mansfiel,
was fatally wounded, Hooker wounded
scores of minor officers killed, and tn
limbs Of the trees barely 0utnumbere'
the dead and dying. tore up sods il
that hell yesterday and found bullets an,
grape shot imbedded in the roots.
counted fifty different scars on tree n
larger than my body. l pushed through
the underground and my boots crushe
skulls and bones and struck against soil,
shot which time had buried almost out O
sight. In one open glade, hardly half a
acre in extent, fell 322 Federals and 10
ConfedeTates. 4 Union soldier VIII
helped bury them made the count. Tha
fierce grapplc so broke Hooker's corp
that Summer could not find 500 men c
any organized body.
"NOw PUSH THEM"
Reinforcements came to Jackson ju:
in time to prevent his utter annihilatior
Ac oooO fbau tphoa1a1 into 1ina th