otal defeat of his army,
now a scattered mass--a skeleton of its former greatness--while the
flower of the Northern chivalry lie sleeping the sleep of death on the
hills and plains round about. His country and posterity would charge
him with all the responsibility of defeat, and he felt that his brief
command of the once grand and mighty Army of the Potomac was now at an
end. Sore and bitter recollections!

Burnsides had on the field one hundred and thirty-two thousand and
seventeen men; of these one hundred and sixteen thousand six hundred
and eighty-three were in line of battle. Lee had upon the field and
ready for action sixty-nine thousand three hundred and ninety-one
infantry and artillery, and about five thousand cavalry. Burnsides had
three hundred and seventy pieces of field artillery and forty siege
guns mounted on Stafford's Heights. Lee had three hundred and twelve
pieces of field and heavy artillery, with two siege guns, both
exploding, one in the early part of the day.

The enemy's loss was twelve thousand six hundred and fifty-three, of
which at least eight thousand fell in front of the stone wall. It
has been computed by returns made since that in the seven different
charges there were engaged at least twenty-five thousand infantry
alone in the assaults against the stone wall, defended by not more
than four thousand men, exclusive of artillery. Lee's entire loss
was five thousand three hundred and twenty-two killed, wounded, and
missing; and one of the strangest features of this great battle, one
in which so many men of all arms were engaged, the enormous loss of
life on both sides, and the close proximity of such a large body of
cavalry, the returns of the battle only give thirteen wounded and none
killed of the entire cavalry force on the Confederate side.

The men who held the stone wall and Mayree's Hill were three regiments
of Cooke's North Carolina Brigade; the Sixteenth Georgia, Colonel
Bryan; the Eighteenth Georgia, Lieutenant Colonel Ruff; the
Twenty-fourth Georgia, Colonel McMillan; the Cobb Legion and Philip
Legion, Colonel Cook, of General T.R.R. Cobb's Brigade; the Second
South Carolina, Colonel Kennedy; the Third South Carolina, Colonel
Nance, Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford, Major Maffett, Captains Summer,
Hance, Foster, and Nance; the Seventh South Carolina, Lieutenant
Colonel Bland; the Eighth South Carolina, Colonel Henagan and Major
Stackhouse; the Fifteenth South Carolina, Colonel DeS