Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/91

 Ceremonies at Unveiling of Statue of General Lee. 85

battle with the army of McClellan. Lee retained, in the mean- while, only three divisions to confront that vast force, trusting^ that Jackson's task would be accomplished before McClellan should discover the weakness of the force left to oppose him. There is no reason to doubt that the plan would have succeeded, but for one of those accidents which "turn awry" the best laid schemes. One of Lee's orders to his general officers, formulating the movement, was lost in some way and fell into the hands of the enemy. Mc- Clellan, thus fortuitously apprised of the departure of Jackson and of the slight force left to oppose him, was quick to hurl his army upon the latter, confident of annihilating it before Jackson could come to its rescue. The situation was fraught with peril, but the heroic resistance of this small force at South Mountain Pass and Crampton's Gap, held McClellan in check, until Jackson, by tre- mendous forced marches, having accomplished the object of his detour, was able to rejoin it, and Lee was thus enabled at last to concentrate his army for the battle of Sharpsburg. The accident of the lost order, however, destroyed the chance of that success which might otherwise have attended this brilliantly planned expe- dition. The divisions with Lee reached Sharpsburg worn and fatigued, and with ranks decimated by the severe fighting they had undergone, while the extraordinary forced marches to which Jack- son was driven, had strewed his route with exhausted and broken- down men.

Lee delivered battle in this engagement with thirty-five thousand men, worn out and exhausted as we have seen, against eighty-seven thousand under McClellan. The result was a drawn battle, both sides resting on their arms the following day, on the night of which Lee, quietly and without molestation, retired his army across the Potomac.

But for the lost order, nothing indicates a doubt that, after the success of Jackson's movement, Lee would have effected an unop- posed and leisurely concentration of his forces in a position chosen by himself where, with at least fifty thousand men, fresh and elated with victory, he would have met the onslaught of McClellan. The result of the engagement actually delivered, as well as of past con- tests, leaves little doubt that an overwhelming victory would have been achieved, the consequences of which no man can now divine.

Not until October, 1862, did the Federal army recross the Poto- mac. A new commander. General Burnside, now leapt into the saddle. His career in that capacity was speedily ended by the