cost. I will send him a battery; I cannot do any more. 1 have no infantry." Then, as the messenger was riding away he called him back. "Tell him also," said he, "that if he cannot hold his ground, then the bridge, to the last man, always the bridge; -if the bridge is lost, all is lost."

The bridge was not lost. Every foot of ground was stubbornly contested, and when the sun went down it was a source of gratification to General Burnside to know that the Ninth Corps, after a hard day's fighting, held the bridge, and thus secured victory by remaining on the ground which the Confederates had occupied. Could the Ninth Corps, isolated from the rest of McClellan's forces, have been cut off and overwhelmed, Lee would have gained the victory. "It is certain," said Mr. Pollard, in his History of the War, "that if we had had fresh troops to hurl against Burnside at the bridge of Antietam, the day would have been ours."

The Ninth Corps numbered on the morning of the battle 13,819 officers and men. Its losses during the day were twenty-two officers and 410 enlisted men killed; ninety-six officers and 1,645 enlisted men wounded, and 120 missing. The commanding generals on both sides. could not have been sorry when the sun set, and darkness prohibited any further carnage. General Burnside was actively engaged during the day watching intently every movement of the enemy. Among those who fell was General Rodman, who had been with him since the beginning of the war, and of whom he said: "One of the first to leave his home at his country's call, General Rodman, in his constant and wearing service, now ended by his untimely death, has left a bright record of earnest patriotism, undimmed by one thought of self; respected and esteemed

in the various relations of his life, the army mourns his loss as a pure-hearted patriot, and a brave, devoted soldier, and his division will miss a gallant leader, who was always foremost at the post of danger."

Late in the afternoon, stragglers began to come in from the field, some tenderly escorting wounded comrades, three or four often performing this service for one man. General Burnside ordered many of these stragglers back to their regiments with a sharp reprimand. Among them was a lieutenant of a Connecticut regiment, whom the general reprimanded, ordering one of his aides to take his name. The man went limping away, saying that a ball had hit him in the leg. "But you walked all the way from the field," said the general, "why did you come here to exhibit your cowardice? You had better remained at home." Just then a youth, not over fifteen, who had his arm torn by a shell or ball, came up holding the bleeding member in his other hand. "Look at that boy, Lieutenant," said General Burnside; "he has some excuse for leaving the field, but you have none."

That night General Lee quietly returned into Virginia, leaving his dead and some two thousand of his wounded behind him. General Burnside, visiting General McClellan's headquarters, expressed the opinion that the Union army ought to renew the battle, for the enemy had been worse shaken than they had, and an assault upon his position promised every success. General McClellan had been reinforced during the night in numbers sufficient to cover his losses of the preceding day, but he dared not take the responsibility. "With five thousand fresh troops to pass in advance of my line," said General Burnside, "I will be willing to commence the attack." But the commanding general of the army was in no humor for

more fighting, and on the night of the 19th, General Lee quietly crossed the river into Virginia. "He leaves us," said the correspondent of the New York Tribune, "the debris of his late camp. Two disabled pieces of artillery, a few hundred of his stragglers, perhaps two thousand of his wounded, and as many more of his unburied dead. Not a sound field-piece, caisson, ambulance, or wagon; not a tent, box of stores, or a pound of ammunition. He takes with him the supplies gathered in Maryland, and the rich spoils of Harper's Ferry."

For a month General McClellan remained idle, without following up the enemy. The country, which had lavished its resources to furnish a large, well-equipped army, began to look, after the retreat of Lee, for a blow to be struck that would retrieve the national honor. The battle of Antietam having been fought early in the autumn, there was a prospect of a season of two months during which the state of the roads and weather would favor military operations, and it was supposed that General McClellan would have eagerly availed himself of this opportunity to strike a blow.

On the 27th of September, he wrote to General Halleck : "When the river rises so that the enemy cannot cross in force, I purpose concentrating the army somewhere near Harper's Ferry, and then moving." The river rose, but the army did not move, although it was then 150,000 strong. On the 6th of October General McClellan was peremptorily ordered to cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south; -"your army must move now," he was told, "while the roads are good." But the army did not move, and an acrimonious. correspondence was kept up, General McClellan demanding men, horses, clothing, shoes, ammunition and provis