Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/538

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The following incident, which came under the observation of the writer, who was a courier on the staff of Colonel Law, of the Fourth Alabama regiment, commanding the third (Bee's) brigade of Hood's division, Army Northern Virginia, has never, to his knowledge, been published, and is recorded here at the suggestion of a friend as an interesting reminiscence of the late war between the States, and as illustrative of the character of the beloved chieftain, the least incident of whose grand life is cherished by those brave men who for three years followed him on fields of glory, but to final defeat:

In the early morning of September 17, 1862, McClellan opened the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) by an attack in force on our centre, just at the junction of Jackson and Longstreet's corps. Hood's division was the left of Longstreet's corps; the commander of Jackson's right is not known to the writer. At 11 o'clock on the previous night Hood, who had covered the retreat from South Mountain, was relieved by a brigade which had just joined the army and had seen but little real service. The attack was so heavy that these troops soon began to waver, and couriers were sent in quick succession to Hood, who was a few hundred yards in the rear resting his weary and hungry men, to hold himself in readiness to move to the front to the support of the heavily pressed lines. Soon the order to "fall in" was given, and the