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was glad to hear him well spoken of by his associates. I have been addressed, by perfect strangers from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, as Curtis, under different titles, and when, on a closer inspection, they found I did not know them, nor they me, each said I bore a striking resemblance to one of his neighbors. I have no knowledge that I have relatives in the South, beyond a family tradition that a near descendant of William Curtis went from Boston to the South in the seventeenth century. It is a subject of much interest, sometimes, to find that avital characteristics are so well transmitted, that a grandson of the tenth generation can sit for a portrait of a cousin nine times removed.

Whether my donation, or the comments of the Georgian who discovered my resemblance to one of their officers, mollified the unfriendly North Carolinian, I can not say; but he sent an attendant to request me to stop at his cot before leaving. When I approached him he said: “I wish to apologize for the harsh words addressed to you when you entered. They doubtless annoyed, but could not injure you; they did me, for they belied my breeding, and I ask you to ascribe them to the anæsthetics I took before submitting to the cruel operation I had just passed through. Your kind words and generous conduct to my fellow sufferers satisfy me that your heart is right, if according to my views your principles are wrong; and I ask you to forgive me for the words I used and, should you ever think of me again, that you will believe me a true son of the South and a gentleman."

Slocum's division remained encamped on the field it had so brilliantly won, until an early hour of the morning of the 17th, when it marched across Pleasant Valley to the sound of the cannon with which the battle of Antietam was opened.

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CHAPTER XVII

THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM

ENERAL LEE'S purpose "to move his army into Western Maryland, establish communication with Richmond through the Valley of the Shenandoah, and, by threatening Pennsylvania, induce the enemy to follow, and thus draw him from his base of supplies," was frustrated by the continued occupation of Harper's Ferry by Colonel D. S. Miles. The withdrawal of Longstreet's corps from their march to Hagerstown, to oppose the passage of Burnside's command, the First and Ninth Corps, through Turner's Pass, and to strengthen the forces of McLaws in resisting the passage of Franklin's corps through Crampton's Pass, required General Lee to select another position from which to operate instead of Hagerstown, and one affording him the greatest advantage in case he should be forced to give battle. He chose the heights of Sharpsburg, west of Antietam Creek, where his flanks would be protected by the Potomac River. Following the unsuccessful efforts to prevent the Union army from passing through Turner's and Crampton's Passes, as described in the last chapter, he ordered the commanders of the different detachments, including those charged with the capture of Harper's Ferry, to assemble at Sharpsburg by forced marches. Longstreet's corps marched from the battle-field of Turner's Pass, arriving early on the morning of the 15th at Sharpsburg, and took position on the heights east and north of that village. General Jackson (having designated General A. P. Hill to receive the surrender

of Colonel Miles's command), by forced marches arrived at Sharpsburg at sunrise on the 16th, took position two miles or more south of D. H. Hill's division, which was the left of Longstreet's corps, and connecting his own left with General Stuart's cavalry which extended to the Potomac. General McLaws, with his own and R. H. Anderson's divisions, reported to General Lee at sunrise on the morning of the 17th, and was sent to re-enforce the centre and left of the Confederate line.

When the First Corps opened the battle on the morning of the 17th, General Lee had in line of battle, and in reserve, all the troops of the army of Northern Virginia, except A. P. Hill's division, and that joined him at 2.30 P.M., in time to be put into position on the right of his line, and into action to meet the attack of Burnside's corps.

General McClellan's army came upon the field and went into action in the following order: General Hooker's corps, the First, marched, on the 15th, from the battle-field of Turner's Pass and bivouacked near Keedysville. On the afternoon of the 16th, he crossed Antietam Creek, advanced to the front of the enemy's left, and engaged him with his artillery and infantry until dark. His men slept on their arms that night, with General Seymour's brigade picketing the front of the corps. At daylight, on the 17th, Hooker's corps advanced upon the enemy, engaging him with artillery and infantry, and was met with stubborn resistance. The Twelfth Corps, under command of Major-General Mansfield, came on the field at 2 o'clock that morning, encamped in the rear of Hooker's, and was early put into action on the right of the First Corps.

General McClellan in his report, says:

"The line of battle of this corps [the Twelfth] was formed, and became engaged about 7 A.M., the attack being opened by

Knap's Pennsylvania, Cothran's New York, and Hampton's Pittsburgh batteries."

Knap's battery marched and fought with the Sixtieth New York throughout that regiment's term of service. Its brave and efficient commander was the grandson of James Averell of Ogdensburg, one of our first merchants and bankers. We are glad to believe that the company's standing, as one of the best in the service, was in large part due to the sterling qualities inherited by its commander from his maternal ancestors. His father, Thomas L. Knap, was well known as a man of great intelligence and of untiring energy. He was the pioneer in developing the Rossie Lead Mines, and in establishing smelting works. In the early fifties, he moved to Pittsburg and became associated with his brother, Charles Knap, who was one of the early masters of that industry which has made Pittsburg the centre of the greatest steel and iron manufacturing districts in the world. Thomas L. Knap died some years before the war, and when his eldest son, Joseph M. Knap, organized an artillery company, it is worth remembering that his uncle, Charles Knap, tendered the guns and the battery's equipments to the United States Government. For meritorious services and gallant conduct in action while commanding his battery, and as chief of artillery of his division, Captain Joseph M. Knap was promoted major, and given command of a battalion of light batteries.

General Sumner's corps, the Second, marched from Keedysville at 7 o'clock A.M., and went at once into action on the left of the First Corps. These three corps were hotly engaged with the enemy until 10 o'clock, when General W. F. Smith's division of Franklin's corps, the Sixth, arrived on the field from Crampton's Pass battle-field. General Hancock's brigade was sent to support batteries on Sumner's

line, General Brooks's brigade, at the right of General French's line. Colonel Irwin's brigade charged the enemy, near the Dunker Church, and gallantly drove them back into the woods. General Slocum's division of Franklin's corps followed Smith's from Crampton's Pass, and arrived on the field at noon. Colonel Bartlett's brigade was placed in front of the Dunker Church, relieving a portion of Sumner's corps. Newton's and Torbert's brigades had been formed into a column of attack to take possession of the woods near the church, and were waiting for Bartlett's brigade to come from Sumner's front to form the reserve of the attacking column, when General Sumner ordered the attack to be postponed. The enemy, anticipating the proposed movement, filled the woods with infantry and opened on our lines with artillery, to which the Sixth Corps batteries responded and soon silenced their guns.

General Sumner had been actively engaged for five or six hours, had witnessed the fearful losses sustained by the three corps which had fought the same ground over two or three times, and was greatly depressed by what he had seen. General Franklin had just come on the field and formed his opinion of the situation as he saw it, without being influenced by the conditions and operations which had preceded his arrival. It was the opinion of Franklin, as well as that of many officers of the Sixth Corps, that the attack should have been made, and that it would have been successful in closing the operations of our right wing with a complete victory. This was the feeling of the officers and men of the Sixteenth, and at no time in its term of service would the regiment have advanced upon the enemy with more alacrity and confidence of success than at that time.

General Burnside's corps, the Ninth, marched on the morning of the 15th from Turner's Pass by the Sharpsburg road, and took position on the extreme left opposite the

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