and a corresponding depression upon the people at the South.
The Southern Army, from its many successive victories in the past, had
taught themselves to believe that they were simply invincible upon the
field of battle, and the people of the South looked upon the strategy
and military skill of Lee and Jackson as being far beyond the cope of
any Generals the North could produce. But this battle taught the South
a great lesson in many ways. It demonstrated the fact that it was
possible to be matched in generalship, it was possible to meet men
upon the field equal in courage and endurance to themselves. But
it also proved to what point of forbearance and self-sacrifice the
Southern soldier could go when the necessity arose, and how faithful
and obedient they would remain to their leaders under the severest of
tests. The Confederate soldier had been proven beyond cavil the equal
in every respect to that of any on the globe. After fighting all day,
without food and with little water, they had to remain on the field
of battle, tired and hungry, until details returned to the wagons and
cooked their rations. It may be easily imagined that both armies were
glad enough to fall upon the ground and rest after such a day of blood
and carnage, with the smoke, dust, and weltering heat of the day.
Before the sound of the last gun had died away in the distance one
hundred thousand men were stretched upon the ground fast asleep,
while near a third of that number were sleeping their last sleep
or suffering from the effects of fearful wounds. The ghouls of the
battlefield are now at their wanton work. Stealthily and cautiously
they creep and grope about in the dark to hunt the body of an enemy,
or even a comrade, and strip or rob him of his little all. Prayers,
groans, and curses mingle, but the robber of the battlefield continues
his work. Friends seek lost comrades here and there, a brother looks,
perhaps, in vain for a brother.

The loss in some of our regiments was appalling, especially the
Seventh. Two regimental commanders, of that command had fallen,
Colonel Aiken and Captain White, leaving Captain Hard, one of the
junior Captains, in command. The regiment lost in the two battles of
Maryland Heights and Sharpsburg, two hundred and fifty-three out of
four hundred and forty-six.

General McClellan, in his testimony before the War Investigating
Committee, says: "We fought pretty close upon one hundred thousand
men. Our forces were, t