After resting awhile we loaded our muskets for the first time, and marched over a hill, and into a meadow which lay between two hills. While getting into this position we could plainly see the rebel gunners load and fire, some of the shells coming quite near us. At last we were in the great "line of battle" of the "Army of the Potomac," 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 9th Corps, General Burnside, on its extreme left. It was now eight o'clock in the evening, and quite dark; we were within a few rods of the enemy, and orders were given in a whisper; we were ordered to make no noise and to rest on our arms; for thirty minutes the utmost quiet prevailed. A musket was accidentally discharged; in a second the troops were on their feet, with arms at a "ready," and as they stood peering into the darkness ahead you could hear both lines of battle spring to arms for miles. Occasionally the boom of artillery was heard, and during the night there were repeated alarms, so that the soldiers on either side obtained but little rest. The hostile pickets on one portion of the line were so near each other, that during the night six of the enemy were captured. CHAPTER II. 1862. THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. The next morning dawned beautifully; little did we imagine that that bright sun would be obscured by the smoke of battle, the field we trod ploughed with shot, flow with blood, and planted thick with the dead. Scarcely had the sun risen when a shell from the enemy dropped not far from our force, which was quietly resting upon their arms near the crest of a low knoll a short distance from the enemy's position. Immediately another followed, a twelve pounder crashed diagonally through the Eighth Connecticut, killing three men instantly, and wounding four in Company D. The position was changed for one less exposed, but in getting there the troops were obliged to pass under a deadly fire from a rebel battery stationed at short range distance. In this undertaking the Sixteenth lost three wounded. We lay here perhaps two hours, and had a good view of the battle on the right, which had by this time assumed a fearful magnitude. Along the western banks of the Antietam River, there runs, with a gradual rise of undulating ground, a crescent-shaped ridge, presenting its concave side to the river. The top of this ridge spreads out into a broad tableground of forests and ravines. A series of timbered-covered hills surrounded this ridge; some of the adjacent hills had been cleared of the forest, and were covered with orchards and cornfields, enclosed with fences of rails or stone. Behind this ridge runs the road from Hagerstown to Sharpsburg and Shepardstown. Sharpsburg is just in the rear of the ridge.