ized, even by officers of his own corps; whether
justly or not, it is difficult to decide. No commander was more confided
in by his soldiers than Sumner. 'He has risen from the ranks, and been
through all the grades of the service,' 'He knows how to treat his men,'
were expressions constantly heard. General Hooker's reputation as a
fighting general was admitted everywhere; his _coup d'oeil_ of the
battle field was represented as most excellent.

It was also on the right that the desperate fighting in the woods and
the deadly struggle at close quarters in the cornfield with such fearful
loss of life took place. An officer who was on the battle fields of
Magenta and Solferino, says that the scene here was much more horrible.
Many spoke of the scenes they saw with a shudder. They could not throw
off the impression made by the masses of wounded and dead; the wounded
often lying neglected and helpless under the dead, sometimes crushed to
death by the wheels of our own artillery.

Our left at Antietam was far off from the right: in these days of guns
of long range the line of battle is longer than it was formerly. At
Waterloo the English occupied a front of less than two miles. In this
battle ours was about four miles. In the battle of Solferino the
engagement extended for eighteen miles.

The contest on the left was fought by General Burnside with only one
army corps, the ninth. The battle at this place was a most gallant
affair, but has excited less attention than the bloody fight on the
right. In the dusty, tiresome march through Maryland, in the skirmishes
in and around Frederick, during the glorious hearty welcome our troops
received in that old town, the advance, consisting of both Hooker's and
Reno's army corps, had been commanded by Burnside. With them he had
fought the successful and brilliant battle of South Mountain, coming to
us so gratefully after the disastrous repulse and retreat of Pope. Reno
had unfortunately fallen, and General Burnside took command of his
corps: it was his old force from North Carolina, increased by General
Cox's Kanawha troops, and some new regiments, in all a little short of
twenty thousand men. On the morning of the battle, Burnside took his
station on the east side of the Antietam, in a field overlooking the
country on the other side of the river. The gathering of his staff to
their breakfast brought the shells of the enemy in their midst, and
compelled a change of position to the rea