The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's CrisisAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Sword of Antietam: A Story of the Nation's Crisis
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
But as they fell back he felt again that sensation of actual physical
pain, although he was still untouched. Added to it was an intense mental
anguish. They were failing! They had been driven back! They had not
crushed Jackson! He forgot all about Colonel Winchester, and his
comrades Warner and Pennington. He forgot all about his own danger in
this terrible reversal of his hopes, and he began to shout angrily at
the men to stand. He did not know by and by that no sound came from his
mouth, that words could not come from a throat so choked with dust and
burned gunpowder.
But the charge was made again. The thudding great guns now told all the
Northern divisions where Jackson was. The eighty thousand men of Pope
were crowding forward to attack him, and the batteries were galloping
over the plateau to add to the volume of shot and shell that was poured
upon the Southern ranks.
Dick was quite unconscious of the passage of time. Hope had sprung anew
in his breast. He heard a report that ten thousand fresh troops under
Kearney had arrived and were attacking the Southerners in the wood.
He knew by the immense volume of fire coming from that point that the
report was true, and he heard that McDowell, too, would soon be at hand
with nearly thirty thousand men.
Then he saw Colonel Winchester, his face a mass of grime and his
clothing flecked with blood. But he did not seem to have suffered any
wound and he was calmly rallying his men.
“It's hot!” Dick shouted, why he knew not.
“Yes, my boy, and it will soon be hotter! Look at the new brigades
coming into battle! See them on both right and left! We'll crush Jackson
yet!”
It was now mid-morning, and neither Colonel Winchester nor any other of
the Northern officers facing the Southern force knew that Lee and the
other Southern army was at hand. The front ranks of Longstreet were
already in battle, and the most difficult and dangerous of all tasks was
accomplished. Two armies coming from points widely divergent, but acting
in concert had joined upon the field of battle at the very moment when
the junction meant the most. Lee had come, but McClellan and the Army of
the Potomac were far away.
Dick heard the trumpets calling again, and once more they charged,
hurling heavy masses now upon the wood, which was held by the Southern
general, A. P. Hill. Rifle fire gave way to bayonet charges by either
side, and after swaying back and forth the Union men held the wood for
a while, but at last they were driven out to stay, and as they retreated
cannon and rifles decimated their ranks.
The regiment had suffered so terribly that after its retreat it was
compelled to lie down a while and rest. Dick gasped for breath, but he
was not as much excited as he had been earlier in the day. Perhaps one
can become hardened to anything. Although he and his immediate comrades
were resting he could see no diminution of the battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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