588 Nortu Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

has its value at the time and the general topography of the
field is attentively considered as it has often a vital bearing
upon the issue of the battle. :

The battle of Sharpsburg, Md., or Antietam, as it is called
by the Federals, was fought Wednesday, 17 September, 1862,
between the United States Army, commanded by Major-Gen-
eral George B. McClellan, and the Confederate States Army,
commanded by General Robert E. Lee. The Federal Army
reports for that morning show “present for duty” an effective
force of 101,000 men, consisting of six army corps. The
First, Hooker ; Second, Sumner; F ourth, Couch; Fifth, Fitz
John Porter; Sixth, Franklin; Ninth, Burnside; Twelfth,
Mansfield ; and Pleasanton’s Cavalry Division. On the Con-
federate side there were two corps, commanded respectively
by Longstreet and Jackson. So great had been the loss by
straggling, caused principally by forced marches, with insuf-
ficient food and defective supply of shoes, that when the bat-
tle opened General Lee had not more than 27,000 men in
line. This was raised by the arrival about 9 a. m., of Mc-
Law’s Division, and about 3 p. m., of A. P. Hill’s Division,
to a total of 35,000 men. Indeed, so heavy had been the
straggling that General Lee states in his letter to President
Davis 21 September, that in this battle Evans’ Brigade had
100 men present, Garnett’s Brigade 120, and Lawton and
Armistead’s Brigades combined 600 men.

In this battle there were present thirty regiments and 6ne
battalion of infantry, one regiment of cavalry and three bat-
teries of artillery from North Carolina, to-wit.:

Fifteenth North Carolina, in Cobb’s Brigade.

Twenty-seventh, Forty-sixth and F orty-eighth North Caro-
lina, in Walker’s Brigade.

Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Thirty-fifth and Forty-ninth
North Carolina, in Ransom’s Brigade.

Sixth North Carolina, in Law’s Brigade.

Twenty-first North Carolina and First North Carolina
Battalion, in Trimble’s Brigade.

Seventh, Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth Thirty-third and
Thirty-seventh North Carolina, in Branch’s Brigade.

 

Nortu Carorina At SHARPSBURG. 589

Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth
North Carolina, in Pender’s Brigade.

First and Third North Carolina, in Ripley’s Brigade.

Fifth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third
North Carolina, in Garland’s Brigade.

Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and Thirtieth North Carolina,
in Anderson’s Brigade.

Ninth North Carolina (First Cavalry), Hampton’s Bri-
gade, and the batteries of Manly, Reilly and Lloyd.

Of these, the cavalry regiment commanded by Colonel (af-
terwards General) L. S. Baker, was on our extreme left un-
der Stuart. Pender’s and Branch’s Brigades came up in the
afternoon by forced march from Harper’s Ferry, being part
of A. P. Hill’s Division, and took position on our extreme
right just in time to repulse the advance of Burnside’s corps.

- Early in the morning the North Carolina brigades of Walker

and Ransom had occupied the extreme right to prevent the
threatened advance of Burnside across Antietam creek, but
about 9 a. m., when the left wing was broken by the weight
of the Federal numbers, these two brigades were hurriedly
moved to the center of the left wing near the Dunkard church.
They arrived just in time as the Federals were pouring
through the break in our lines and a delay of ten minutes
longer would probably have been fatal to the existence of the
army. The removal of these two brigades left the advance
of Burnside’s and Porter’s corps across the bridge and fords
of the Antietam creek unopposed except by the small brigade
(400 men) of Toombs. Fortunately Burnside did not cross
till 1 p. m., and when he did he loitered until 3 o’clock when
making his advance the fate of Lee’s army had again been
sealed but for the arrival of A. P. Hill’s Division, two of
whose brigades—Branch’s and Pender’s—were North Caro-
linians. “Had their arrival been delayed ten minutes,” says
the official report, “the army would have been taken in re-
verse.” Thus twice during that eventful day did the Con-
federate Army narrowly escape disaster. And on each occa-
sion North Carolina troops were important factors in the
salvation of the army. They were to Lee what Bulow’s Di-