Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/534

 524 Southern Historical Society Papers

Boonsboro', to Sharpsburg, eight miles off, where they took position before noon of the 15th.

We will now return to Harpers Ferry. McLaws having constructed a road up the Maryland Heights and placed his artillery in position during the 14th, while this fighting was going on at Crampton's Gap and at Turner's Gap, signalled to Jackson that he was ready; where- upon Jackson signalled the order to both Walker and McLaws : " Fire at such positions of the enemy as will be most effective." His Infantry was moved up the road from Charlestown towards Harpers Ferry. At day-light the circle of fire blazed out around Miles, the Federal commander at Harpers Ferry, and by 8 A. M. he surrendered 11,000 men, 73 guns, and immense supplies of food and ammunition. The position on the morning of the 15th, therefore, was this :

McClellan's right, two corps under Burnside, was through Turner's Gap, eight miles from Sharpsburg. The centre, two corps under Sum- ner, was well closed upon Burnside. Franklin, who had been joined by Couch during the night, held eighteen thousand men in Pleasant Valley, behind McLaws, and also eight miles from Sharpsburg. Lee, with Longstreet and D. H. Hill, occupied a position on the west side of Antietam Creek, utterly isolated from his nearest reinforce- ments, which were at Harpers Ferry, seventeen and a half miles off. McLaws cut off in Pleasant Valley, with no escape except first to cap- ture Harpers Ferry, and then cross the Potomac, and passing through that place rejoin Jackson and A. P. Hill. Walker was on Loudoun Heights, Jackson near Bolivar Heights. A march of three hours would have brought the heads of Franklin's and Burnside's columns together in front of Lee, and no earthly power could have prevented the whole of McClellan's 93,000 men being precipitated on Longstreet and D. H. Hill with 9,262, and all the reserve artillery, ammunition, and ordnance of the Confederate army.

When General McClellan, at Frederick, on the 13th, received offi- cial and exact information of Lee's dispositions and purposes, his de- lay in not pushing a vigorous pursuit is utterly incomprehensible. But this delay on the morning of the 15th, is even still more extraor- dinary. He had heard the firing at Harpers Ferry and was advised of the surrender that morning. He knew that he had D. H. Hill and Longstreet just in front, and that all the rest of Lee's army was in Virginia or in Pleasant Valley. Notwithstanding this it took him from the morning of the 15th to the afternoon of the i6th to move eight miles and get into position to attack Lee. General McClellan believed at that time that General Lee had over 97,000 men. He