To say to
Stonewall Jackson that you must despair and die where he sent you in to
conquer!

But Jackson had no grimness of aspect. He looked quietly thoughtful. It
was even with a smile of sweetness that he cut short the other's
pleading. "It's all right, colonel, it's all right! Everyone knows that
you are a brave officer and would fight the guns well." At the foot of
the hill he checked Little Sorrel. "We'll part here, colonel. You go at
once to General Lee. Tell him all that has happened since he sent you to
me. Tell him that you examined the Federal position. Tell him that I
forced you to give the technical opinion of an artillery officer, and
tell him what that opinion is. That is all, colonel."

The September day wore on. Grey and blue armies rested inactive save
that they worked at burying the dead. Then, in the afternoon,
information came to grey headquarters. Humphrey's division, pouring
through the gaps of South Mountain, would in a few hours be at
McClellan's service. Couch's division was at hand--there were troops
assembling on the Pennsylvania border. At dark Lee issued his orders.
During the night of the eighteenth the Army of Northern Virginia left
the banks of the Antietam, wound silently down to the Potomac, and
crossed to the Virginia shore.

All night there fell a cold, fine, chilling rain. Through it the wagon
trains crossed, the artillery with a sombre noise, the wounded who must
be carried, the long column of infantry, the advance, the main, the
rear. The corps of Stonewall Jackson was the last to ford the river. He
sat on Little Sorrel, midway of the stream, and watched his troops go
onward in the steady, chilling rain. Daybreak found him there,
motionless as a figure in bronze, needing not to care for wind or sun or
rain.

The Army of Northern Virginia encamped on the road to Martinsburg.
Thirty guns on the heights above Boteler's Ford guarded its rear, and
Jeb Stuart and his cavalry watched from the northern bank at
Williamsport. McClellan pushed out from Sharpsburg a heavy
reconnoissance, and on his side of the river planted guns. Fitz John
Porter, in command, crossed during the night a considerable body of
troops. These advanced against Pendelton's guns, took four of them, and
drove the others back on the Martinsburg road. Pendleton reported to
General Lee; Lee sent an order to Stonewall Jackson. The courier found
him upon the bank of the Potomac, gazing at the northern shore. "Good!"
he