Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/134

116 That night General Lee determined to withdraw his troops and concentrate on Sharpsburg. Maj. J. W. Ratchford, of General Hill’s staff, one of the bravest of the brave, was sent in company with staff officers from General Longstreet s and General Hood s commands to give the requisite orders. So close were the contending lines, that Major Ratchford says that in some places they had to approach the lines on hands and knees and give the orders in a whisper. The retirement to Sharpsburg was made in good order and covered by the cavalry, which during the Maryland campaign was kept busy. The day before the battles just described, the First North Carolina cavalry, Col. L. S. Baker, had taken part in a sharp artillery and cavalry fight at Middletown. Colonel Baker’s regiment held the rear, and, General Stuart says, acted with conspicuous gallantry. General Hampton says of the same battle that this regiment was exposed to a severe fire of artillery and musketry, which it bore without flinching; nor was there the slightest confusion in its ranks. The regiment had eight men wounded, and Captain Siler lost a leg.

On the 15th, Harper s Ferry surrendered, and the troops operating against it were free to hasten a junction with Lee, now seriously endangered. Nothing but the desperate resistance to the Federal advance at the mountain gaps saved Lee, for this check to the movement of the Federals gave Jackson and his comrades time to receive the surrender of Harper’s Ferry, and then to reach Sharpsburg early enough to participate in that great battle. During the investment of this beautiful place, the divisions of Jackson, McLaws and Walker had co-operated. McLaws, on the north bank of the river, seized Maryland heights and placed his artillery in position where it did execution. General Walker approached on the Hillsboro road. At the foot of Loudon heights, he sent Colonel Cooke with the Twenty-seventh North Carolina to occupy the heights. Batteries were then