"The General begs me to say, Mr. President, that he is too much fatigued to see any one this evening and has retired for the night." The orderly stepped pompously to the door to usher them out and John Vaughan bowed and returned to his commander. Hay sprang to his feet livid with rage and spoke to his Chief with boyish indignation. "You are not going to take this insult from him?" The tall figure slowly rose and stood in silence. "Remove him from his command," the younger man pleaded. "For God's sake do it now. Write the order for his removal this minute--give it to me! I'll kick his door open and hand it to him." The deep set dreamy eyes were turned within as he said in slow intense tones: "No--I'll hold McClellan's horse for him if he'll give us one victory!" CHAPTER XXI THE BLOODIEST DAY The struggle opened with disaster for the Union army. Though Lee's plan of campaign fell by accident into McClellan's hands, it was too late to frustrate the first master stroke. Relying on Jackson's swift, bewildering marches, Lee, in hostile territory and confronted by twice his numbers, suddenly divided his army and hurled Jackson's corps against Harper's Ferry. The garrison, after a futile struggle of two days, surrendered twelve thousand five hundred and twenty men and their vast stores of war material. The contrast between General White, the Federal officer in command who surrendered, and Jackson, his conqueror, was strikingly dramatic. The Union General rode a magnificent black horse, was carefully dressed in shining immaculate uniform--gloves, boots and sword spotless. The Confederate General sat carelessly on his little shaggy sorrel, dusty, travel-stained and carelessly dressed. The curiosity of the Union army which had surrendered was keen to see the famous fighter. The entire twelve thousand prisoners of war lined the road as Jackson silently rode by. A voice from the crowd expressed the universal feeling as they gazed: "Boys, he ain't much for looks, but, by God, if we'd had him we wouldn't have been caught in this trap!" The first shock of Lee's and McClellan's armies was at South Mountain, where the desperate effort was made to break through and save Harper's Ferry. The attempt failed, though the Union forces won the fight. Lee lost twenty-seven hundred men, killed and wounded and prisoners, and the Federal general, twenty-one hundred. Lee withdrew to Sharpsburg on the banks of the Antietam to meet Jackson's victorious division sweeping toward him from Harper's Ferry.