Sending terror and strange alarms,
The clatter of hoofs, and the clang of arms.
Fresh from the South, where the hungry pine,
They ate like Pharaoh’s starving kine;
They swept the land like devouring surge,
And left their path to its furthest verge,
Bare as the track of the locust scourge.
Unknown.
Harper’s Ferry had fallen, and Lee was gathering his army on the west bank of Antietam Creek in Maryland. When we reached the east side of the creek, we caught up to the main army under General McClellan on the 16th of September, just at sunset. We found the rebels to be well posted behind the top of the ridge on the other side of the stream.
The two armies now stood face to face, for McClellan’s army was camped on the east side of the hills on the west branch of the Antietam. Our division was soon among them, and busy getting our supper, while we could see the smoke from the campfires of the opposing forces, where they too were preparing their evening meal.