the five brigades of D.H. Hill, with
B. H. Anderson's division and two of Walker's regiments; and here
Longstreet, confident as always, controlled the battle with his
accustomed skill. The Confederate artillery was by this time
overpowered, for on each battery in turn the enemy's heavy ordnance
had concentrated an overwhelming fire, and the infantry were
supported by no more than a dozen guns. The attack was strong, but
the sunken road, fortified by piles of fence-rails, remained
inviolable. Still the Confederate losses were enormous, and defeat
appeared a mere question of time; at one moment, the enemy under
French had actually seized the wood near the Dunkard Church, and was
only dispossessed by a desperate counterstroke. Richardson, who
advanced on French's right, and at an appreciable interval of time,
was even more successful than his colleague. The 'Bloody Lane,'
already piled with dead, and enfiladed from a height to the
north-west, was carried by a brilliant charge; and when the Roulette
Farm, a strong defensive post, was stormed, Longstreet fell back to
the turnpike through the wreck of the artillery. But at this critical
juncture the Federals halted. They had not been supported by their
batteries. Richardson had received a mortal wound, and a succession
of rough counterstrokes had thinned their ranks. Here, too, the
musketry dwindled to a spattering fire, and the opposing forces, both
reduced to the defensive, lay watching each other through the long
hours of the afternoon. A threat of a Federal advance from the
Sharpsburg Bridge came to nothing. Four batteries of regulars,
preceded by a force of infantry, pushed across the stream and came
into action on either side of the Boonsboro' road; but on the slopes
above, strongly protected by the walls, Evans' brigade stood fast;
Lee sent up a small support, and the enemy confined his movements to
a demonstration.

Still further to the south, however, the battle blazed out at one
o'clock with unexpected fury. The Federal attack, recoiling first
from Jackson and then from Longstreet, swung round to the Confederate
right; and it seemed as if McClellan's plan was to attempt each
section of Lee's line in succession. Burnside had been ordered to
force the passage of the bridge at nine o'clock, but either the
difficulty of the task, or his inexperience in handling troops on the
offensive, delayed his movements; and when the attack was made, it
was fiercely met by four Co