Several efforts have been made to correctly report the numerical strength of my column, some erroneously including the brigades detached with R. H. Anderson’s, and others the brigade of General Toombs and the regiment of G. T. Anderson’s brigade, that were left at Hagerstown. General Hill concedes reluctantly that four thousand of my men came to his support in detachments, but does not know how to estimate the loss. Considering the severe forced march, the five brigades that made direct ascent of the mountain were in good order. The three that marched south of the turnpike, along a narrow mountain trail part of the way, through woodlands and over boulders, returning, then up the mountain, the last march at double time, were thinned to skeletons of three or four hundred men to a brigade when they reached the Mountain House. That they succeeded in covering enough of the position to conceal our retreat after night is sufficient encomium of their valorous spirit.
CHAPTER XVII.
PRELIMINARIES OF THE GREAT BATTLE.
Confederates retreat from South Mountain—Federals follow and harass them—Franklin and Cobb at Crampton’s Pass—A spirited Action—Fighting around Harper’s Ferry—Its Capitulation—The Confederates take Eleven Thousand Prisoners—Jackson rejoins Lee—Description of the Field of Antietam—McClellan posts his Corps—Lee’s Lines advantageously placed—Hooker’s Advance on the Eve of Battle should have been resisted.
At first sight of the situation, as I rode up the mountain-side, it became evident that we were not in time nor in sufficient force to secure our holding at Turner’s Gap, and a note was sent General Lee to prepare his mind for disappointment, and give time for arrangements for retreat.
After nightfall General Hill and I rode down to head-quarters to make report. General Lee inquired of the prospects for continuing the fight. I called upon General Hill to demonstrate the situation, positions and forces. He explained that the enemy was in great force with commanding positions on both flanks, which would give a cross-fire for his batteries, in good range on our front, making the cramped position of the Confederates at the Mountain House untenable. His explanation was too forcible to admit of further deliberation. General Lee ordered withdrawal of the commands to Keedysville, and on the march changed the order, making Sharpsburg the point of assembly. General Hill’s troops were first withdrawn, and when under way, the other brigades followed and were relieved by General Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry on the mountain at three o’clock in the morning, Hood’s two brigades, with G. T. Anderson’s, as rear-guard.
General Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry was ordered to cover our march, but Pleasonton pushed upon him so severely with part of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry and Tidball’s battery that he was forced off from our line through Boonsborough and found his way to the Potomac off the rear of General Lee’s left, leaving his killed and wounded and losing two pieces of artillery. Otherwise our march was not disturbed. In addition to his regular complement of artillery, General D. H. Hill had the battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel A. S. Cutts. The batteries were assigned positions near the ridge under the crest, where they could best cover the fields on the farther side of the stream. A few minutes after our lines were manned, information came of the capitulation of Harper’s Ferry, and of the withdrawal of the troops to the Virginia side of the Potomac.
General Toombs’s brigade joined us early on the 15th, and was posted over the Burnside Bridge. He was subsequently ordered to detach two regiments, as guard for trains near Williamsport.