th killed. Mansfield, who led one of the Northern army corps fell dead
in the very front line, and the valiant Hooker, caught in the arms of
his soldiers, was borne away so severely wounded that he could no longer
give orders.

Scarcely any generals were left on either side, but the colonels and
the majors and the captains still led the men into the thick of the
conflict. Dick felt a terrible constriction. It was as if some one were
choking him with powerful hands, and he strove for breath. He knew that
the masses pressed upon their flank by Stuart and Hill, were riddling
them through and through.

The Union men were giving ground, slowly, it is true, and leaving heaps
of dead and wounded behind them, but nobody could stand the terrible
rifle fire that was raking them at short range from side to side, and
they were no longer able to advance. Now Dick heard once more that
terrible and triumphant rebel yell, and it seemed to him that they were
about to be destroyed utterly, when shell and shot began to shriek and
whistle over their heads. The woods behind them were alive with the
blaze of fire, and the great Union batteries were driving back the
triumphant and cheering Confederates.

The Union generals on the other side of the Antietam saw the fate that
was about to overtake Hooker's valiant men, and Sumner, with another
army corps, had crossed the river to the rescue, coming just in time.
They moved up to Hooker's men and the united masses returned to the
charge.

The battle grew more desperate with the arrival of fresh troops. Again
it was charge and repulse, charge and repulse, and the continuous
swaying to and fro by two combatants, each resolved to win. There were
the Union men who had forced the passes through the mountains to reach
this field, and they were struggling to follow up those successes by
a victory far greater, and there were the Confederates resolved upon
another glorious success.

The fire became so tremendous that the men could no longer hear orders.
Here was a field of ripe corn, the stems and blades higher than a man's
head, forty acres or so, nearly a quarter of a mile each way, but the
corn soon ceased to hide the combatants from one another. The fire from
the cannon and rifles came in such close sheets that scarcely a stalk
stood upright in that whole field.

Long this mighty conflict swayed back and forth. Dick had seen nothing
like it before, not even at the Second Manassas. It was almos