r of some haystacks. On the
same hill was placed a formidable battery of rifled cannon, throwing
twenty-pound shot, commanded by Lieutenant Benjamin, of the regular
artillery. The guns are so heavy that they each have eight horses to
drag them, and the caissons have six. There was unfortunately a short
supply of ammunition, and the battery was fired slowly during the day.
The guns were well placed and served, and aimed with wonderful accuracy.
Shells were planted in two of the enemy's ammunition carts, blowing them
to pieces; and the fire of cannon was so hot that it compelled a rebel
battery two miles off, coming down a road to get into position, to wheel
round and gallop over the hill. Proud, indeed, were the Lieutenant's men
of their exploits on that day, and wonderful stories they told of their
famous battery.

The Antietam in front of Burnside was deep, not fordable, flowing in the
bottom of a charming valley, and overshadowed by trees. There was a
solid stone bridge over it, with three arches, rising picturesquely in
the centre, with stone parapets on the sides, the parapets spreading at
both ends of the structure. One would almost imagine that it was an old
Italian bridge transported to our wooden-building land. The side of the
valley held by the rebel troops rises sharply, not densely wooded, but
covered by large trees thickly placed, as in an old English park. Along
the top of this ridge ran a solid stone wall, thicker and of heavier
stones than any we saw in the neighborhood. Where the wall ended rifle
pits had been dug. Behind the massive trunks, and in the branches of the
old trees, behind this wall and in the pits, were crowded the
sharpshooters of the rebels. The ascent from the bridge out of the
valley on the enemy's side, was too steep for a straight road up the
ridge. If ever a bridge could be defended, that should have been; the
only disadvantage the rebels were under was that they could not sweep it
with artillery.

Our left had vainly attempted to cross the bridge; twice had they been
repulsed. On the right our troops were hard pressed; much of the ground
gained in the morning had been lost; Hooker was wounded, Sumner's corps
routed, Mansfield killed, and his corps beaten back. Then McClellan
ordered Burnside to take the bridge, and hold it at any cost. Burnside
sent some troops farther down the river, where it was fordable. He
called up one of his old brigades that had been with him in North
Carol