It was now apparent that it was time for us to fall back if we wanted to save our battery. Capt. Monroe soon gave the order, and we fell back to Mumma's house, just under the hill to our rear. We had to leave one piece, but Lieut. Fisk soon returned with some men and the piece was taken to the rear with the prolonge, leaving the limber, which was recovered next day.
The battery soon moved back to the position we occupied in the morning, and replenished our ammunition. Lieut. Parker went on a hunt for horses to replace those that were killed and wounded. He succeeded in getting horses enough so that we were in shape to move at a moment's notice.
In this battle our battery lost four killed, sixteen wounded, and two missing (six of the slightly wounded staid with the battery). We lost thirty-eight horses. Capt. Monroe's horse was shot six times.
Capt. Campbell, of Battery B, Fourth United States, having been severely wounded, Capt. Monroe succeeded him as Chief of Artillery, and the command of Battery D passed to Lieut. Fisk.
The afternoon was well advanced when an order was received that we take position "In battery" along the ridge occupied by us in the early morning, and with us went four other batteries, making twenty-nine guns. Every officer was ordered to keep a sharp lookout, and at the first indication of an attempt by the enemy to place artillery in position, all the guns in that line were to commence firing, concentrating their fire upon that spot.
About five o'clock a horseman was seen to ride over the hill from which the rebel battery had shelled us in the morning, followed almost immediately by the teams of a battery, and rapidly making the left about, drop their pieces into battery, but before they had fired a shot, twenty-nine projectiles of various kinds and sizes were flying towards that unfortunate battery, creating, a few seconds later, the greatest consternation, as they exploded among the pieces and limbers; round after round followed in quick succession, and that battery beat a hasty retreat. Other batteries tried to maintain the position, but it was of no use; our fire was too frequent and well directed for anything to live upon that hill for any length of time. Gradually it became more and more quiet, so that by nine o'clock all firing had ceased, save an occasional picket shot.
Battery D remained in position. Through the night rumor had it that we had practically destroyed Lee's army, and that it only remained for us to up and at him in the morning, to drive him into the Potomac. But the next morning we were very much surprised at the entire absence of noise; instead of the roar of battle, we could not hear even the noise of a single picket gun. Our curiosity kept us hunting for a reason, until it was ascertained that we were under a flag of truce.
All day long we lay in our position, expecting that the truce would end, and we should resume the fight. During the forenoon we took advantage of the inaction to recover the limber left on the field, visit our wounded in the hospitals, refitting our disabled pieces, caissons, etc., and at last night closed in without our having fired a shot. This was not entirely satisfactory to us, for although we were not actually starving for a fight, still the impression of all, even the privates, was that we had our enemy at great disadvantage, which we were by this delay losing.
On the morning of the 19th of Sept., the battery was early prepared for an advance movement, but it was nearly noon before we moved out of park. Since early morning we had seen troops moving forward along the Hagerstown Pike, and were momentarily expecting to hear the roar of battle, but not a sound reached our ears until near the middle forenoon, when distant artillery could be heard. What has happened? Soon mounted messengers returned at full speed to McClellan's head-quarters, and the mortifying intelligence is given that there is no enemy in our front, Gen. Lee having taken advantage of the darkness of the night and moved his entire command across the Potomac at Shepherdstown Ford.