(Map of Approximate positions of the Troops during the attacks of Hooker and Mansfield on the Confederate left, at the Battle of Sharpsburg.)

9 A.M.

At this moment, as if by common consent, the firing ceased on this flank of the battle; and as McClellan’s Second Army Corps, led by Sumner, advanced to sustain the First and Twelfth, we may stand by Jackson near the Dunkard Church, and survey the field after four hours’ fighting.

Assailed in front by superior numbers, and enfiladed by the batteries beyond the Antietam, the Confederate left had everywhere given back.  The East Wood was in possession of the enemy.  Their right occupied the Miller House; their centre, supported by many batteries, stood across the corn-field; while the left, thrust forward, was actually established on the edge of the West Wood, some five hundred yards to northward of the church.  But if Jackson had yielded ground, he had exacted a fearful price.  The space between the woods was a veritable slaughter-pen, reeking under the hot September sun, where the blue uniforms lay thicker than the grey.  The First Army Corps had been cut to pieces.  It had been beaten in fair fight by Jackson’s two divisions, counting at the outset less than half its numbers, and aided only by the cavalry.  It had lost in killed and wounded over 100 officers and 2400 men.  Hooker himself had been struck down, and as far as the Antietam the field was covered with his stragglers.  The Twelfth Corps had suffered hardly less severely; and Mansfield himself, an old man and a gallant soldier, was dying of his wounds.  His batteries indeed remained in action, pouring shot and shell on the West Wood and the Dunkard Church; but his infantry, reduced by more than 1500 rifles, could do no more than hold their ground.

Nor was the exhaustion of the enemy the only advantage which the Confederates had gained by the slaughter of 4000 men.  The position to which Jackson had retired was more favourable than that from which he had been driven.  The line, no longer presenting a weak angle, was almost straight, and no part of the front was open to enfilade.  Stuart and his artillery, withdrawn to a more favourable position, secured the left.  D.H.  Hill on the right, though part of his force had given way, still held the Roulette House and the sunken road, and the troops in the West Wood were well protected from the Northern batteries.  The one weak point was the gap occupied by Greene’s Federals, which lay between Grigsby’s regiments in the northern angle of the West Wood and Hood’s division at the Dunkard Church.  The enemy, however, showed no signs of making good his opportunity; Early’s brigade was close at hand, and Lee had promised further reinforcements.