The record-union., 1897-10-31

| soldier twenty-five feet m hight. The
view from the face of the hill is superb.
| McClellan's headquarters at the Pry
| house. can be seen plainly across the
intervening hilltops, anad glimpses of
roads are caught as they rise over the
rolling ground and drop again out of
sight into the many ravines.
A road leads down from the south
! east corner of the National Cemetery
to the Burnside Bridge, the battle point
perhaps most talked about Following
this road, the visitor sees from the rebel
side how Lee placed his artillery to OBJ
| struct that bloody assault of General
Burnside. The crossing was deep In a
ravine, and was capable of defense by
much smaller number of men than
that ordered to carry it. The bridge
looks just as it did the day of the bat
! Tie, except that at each end of it there
are monuments that are part of the
| bridge, to commemorate the couraee
OF the New Hampshire and Connecticut
men VINO died in the earliest efforts to
carry the bridge by assault.
THE NEGLECTED FORD
| Below the bridge, and almost in SIGHT
OF IT, the water ripples over a we'll
marked ford, and the sight of this ford
sets the veterans to wondering again
why General Burnside did not employ
some of his corps at this point. instead
OF sacrlhcing hundreds of lives at the
bridge. General Toombs, the rebel
commander who held the bridge against
General Burnside until noon. has made
1t plain that the rebels wondered also
ana ne knew that they did not have
force enough to extend their lines 10
| oppose effectively such a movement.
F., Back over the bridge and around to
the left after it has been crossed is the
point where, after the Union troops had
forced the bridge and driven the rebels
| back toward the Hagerstown road. the
rebel $4,000 that had been detached to
capture Harper's Ferry came in. after
| a hurried march of seventeen miles. 10
| hurl themselves on the Union flank
and save Lee from utter defeat and the
| Ccnfederacy from early decentralization.
| That overnight march and McCIelIan's
postponement of the battle from the
10th to the 18th meant everything to
his adversary. Out in the open fields.
at the top of the ridge occupied by the
rebel artillery, is a fine monument. a
shaft raised to mark the valor of the
Ninth New York, which impetuousIy
| charged the rebels on the 18th and cap
tured from them a battery of artillery
planted just where the monument now
| stands.
| General Carman now guides his party
OF visitors north along the Hagerstown
| road toward the position of the rebel
left and Union right. There are many
! tablets all along this line, and great
part of it has been fought over About
| two miles north of the town is Poffen-
berger's farm, where General Hooker,
with the First Corps, and Mansfield
with the Twelfth, began the fighting on
| the morning of September 17th, after
! the all-day artillery firing of the Six
| teenth had given Mcclellan time to
| complete his arrangements, and Lee
| time to understand and prepare to meet
| them.
By the public road and the new roads
made by the Government it is possible
to move close along the line of battle
and to read the story of the terrific as
| saults made by the Union troops and
| the desperate defense of the rebels
| Turning at the north end of the field to
| the east, the line of collision between
/ lIle lWO Utilities Is reached. anu LD6n
| there is a road southwark over ground
that was saturated with the blood of
| thousands of the men who wore the
blue and the gray, for there were about
| -, 900 Of killed and wounded before the
| end of September 18th.
| Nearly 1000 men were killed on the
| field. General Mansfield, an old man,
| fell while commanding a division of
| Hooker's corps. The places where the
six general officers, three on each side,
We're killed or mortally wounded, are
| marked each with a cannon imbedded
up to the trunnions, muzzle up, in a
| raised platform of brick and stone.
BLOODY LANE.
The Government road between the
lines brings the visitor presently to the
Bloody Lane, a sunken road over which
the Second Corps struggled desperately
on the afternoon of the 17th. Here the
inability of the Chief to
get his whole army to fighting at once
was illustrated to the disadvantage of
the officer and the cause for which he
battled- With whole brigades and di-
visions almost idle, attacks that were
splendidly made We're Unsupported, and
The late General Barlow won fame
at the Bloody Lane by bringing up his
brigade in such a way and at such a
time as to weaken by flank attack the
the rebel line of fire, although General
Barlow was wounded and Colonel Miles,
now General Miles, became the senior
officer of the brigade. AT the east end
OF the Bloody Lane the Antietam Com
mission has araHfad a or -;x-
feet high, overlooking the whole field
Westward from the tower is the Dunk
er Church on the Hagerstown Pike.
No building on the field has been so
often mentioned. 1t is a plain little
square building, far away from other
structures, with a gable roof. white
walls and shutters. The two armies
met and struggled about it, the rebels
taking advantage of the shelter of
woods that formerly ran behind the
church, but have been recently cut
away. Near by is what was a cornfieId
in 1862. More lives were lost in hat
ten-acre field than in any similar snaca
on any battlefield of the war. The loss
of one Texas regiment was SO per cent.
of the command.
Along some Of the roads the rails Of
the fences are observed to be freauant-
ly perforated. These holes were made
by bullets. There are few evidences of
the artillery fire, although General lee
had something like 100 guns available
for service, and General McClellan,s
chief OF artillery had $50 at his com
mand. The farmers are still blowing
up relics of the battle. Some of these
are bought by visitors who go to
Sharpsburg and into the places where