The National tribune., 1908-01-09
CHAPTER xxx.
AFTER ANTIETAM.

The Long Delay On the Banks of the Po-
tOmac - ImpOrtunIng Mcclellan to
Move-Excuses for Not Doing Se-Dis-
putes With Headquarters mt Washing
ton-The Emancipation Proclamation.
McCIeIlan's Popularity Wanes.
Charles Carleton Coffin, the noted
war correspondent, says that he was
in Sharpsburg on the 10th. when Por-
ters, Corps was passing thru the town.
Mcclellan and his staff came galloping
up the hill Porter's men swung their
hats, and gave cheer. but few hur-
hahs came from the other corps-none
from Hooker's. A change had come
over the army The complacent look
which I had seen upon McClellan's
countenance on the 18th, as if all were
going well, had disappeared. There
was troubled look instead--a mani
fest awakening to the fact that his
great opportunity had gone by. Lee
had slipped thru his fingers"
Mismanased Reconnaissance.
1t was incumbent upon Mcclellan to
make some show of pursuing his enc
my in order to give color to ais claim
ter was ordered to clear the fords and
support the cavalry in accommodating
beyond the river. Porter made his first
tentative skilfully, lined the bank with
skirmishers, put some guns into posi-
tion at favorable points, and sent a
brigade across the river under Gen.
Griffin, which captured five pieces of
artillery and their appurtenances. One
of these guns was that which had been
taken away from Battery D, 5th U. S.
Art, at the first Bull Run. The next
morning the crossing was repeated by
the brigade, consisting of the 4th Mich,
11Sth Pa. and. 18th and 22d Mass.
There was the same lack of co-opera-
tion that seemed fatality with move
ments made by the Army of the Poto-
mac; the cavalry was not on hand, and
several of the infantry commanders
claimed not to have received their or
ders. The 11Sth Pa, the Corn Ex-
change Regiment, was a particularly
fine body OF, men, into which had gone
representatives of the good, substan-
tial, well-educated, God-fearing fami-
lies of Philadelphia Special efforts had
been made to bring into it high class
Of young men, and there was possibly
o little jealousy with regard to Claims
made for them. The regiment was
finely uniformed and better equipped
Chan most of the other regiments, ex-
cept that it had been furnished guns
bought ir Europe, and which were al
most worthless in character. Put into
an old brigade, the members had been
forced to endure the chatting which re-
cruits always must receive from SOL
diers of older experience. But little
opportunity for drill, discipline CT
learning the art of war had been given
the regiment, and its members had the
customary feeling of high-spirited
,-k E.rt.k
when and where fight was offered
them.
The movement across the river was
not supported as it should have been
with artillery upon this side, nor were
other reasonable precautions taken, for
which FitZ-John Porter should be held
accountable. The crossing was unop-
posed, and after passing out some dis
tance into the country the brigade
found, by signs quickly read by the
older soldiers, that it was in the pres
ence Of substantially the whole of Lees
army. The other regiments began a
timely and leisurely withdrawal, but
either the order was not communicated
properly to the Colonel of the 11Sth
Pa. or he misunderstood it.
When the Corn Exchange men saw
their comrades falling back and in
Quired as to the reason. they were re-
piled to with laughter and jeers, which
older soldiers than they would have
understood. Presently they we're viz
tually left alone on the bank, and when
the enemy suddenly appeared in over
whelming force before them they be-
gan a. desperate, almost frantic, resist
ance. Their inefficient arms and undis-
ciplined yalor could avail little before
Lees tried veterans. They were crush
ed with cruel impetuosity, and sent in
q disorderly mass back to the river.
where they were shot down deliberate
~ as they struggled across the stream.