e rest.

Lee nodded and turned his glasses again toward the long blue line across
the Antietam. McClellan himself was there, standing on a hill and also
watching. Around him was a great division under the command of Burnside,
and his time to win victory had come. He sent the order to Burnside to
move forward and force the Antietam. It is said that at this moment Lee
had only five thousand men with him, all the rest having been sent to
Jackson, and, if so, time itself fought against the Union, as it was a
full two hours before Burnside carried out his order and moved forward
on the Antietam.

But Dick, on the north, did not know that it was as yet only cannon
fire, and not the charge of troops to the south and west. In truth, he
knew little of his own part of the battle. Once he was knocked down, but
it was only the wind from a cannon ball, and when he sprang to his feet
and drew a few long breaths he was as well as ever.

From muttered talk around him, talk that he could hear under the thunder
of the battle, he learned that Sumner, who had come with the great
reinforcement, was now leading the battle, with Hooker wounded and
Mansfield dying.

Sumner, as brave and daring as any, had gathered twenty thousand men,
and they were advancing in splendid order over the wreck of the dead and
the dying, apparently an irresistible force.

Jackson, standing at the edge of a wood, saw the magnificent advance,
and while the officers around him despaired, he did not think of
awaiting the Northern attack, but prepared instead for an attack of his
own. There was word that McLaws and the Harper's Ferry men had come.
Jackson galloped to meet them, formed them quickly with his own, and
then the Southern drums rolled out the charge. The weary veterans,
gathering themselves anew for another burst of strength, fell with all
their might on the Northern flank.

Dick felt the force of that charge. Men seemed to be driven in upon him.
He was hurled down, how he knew not, but he sprang up again, and then he
saw that their advance was stopped. Long lines of bayonets advanced upon
them, and a terrible artillery fire crashed through and through their
ranks. Two or three thousand men in blue fell in a moment or so. Fortune
in an instant had made a terrible change of front.

Dick shouted aloud in despair as the brigades steadily gave back. The
great Union batteries were firing over their heads again, but even they
could not arrest the Southern