That a counterstroke which would have combined a frontal and flank attack would have been the best chance of destroying the Federal army can hardly be questioned.  The front so bristled with field artillery, and the ridge beyond the Antietam was so strong in heavier ordnance, that a purely frontal attack, such as Longstreet suggested, was hardly promising; but the dispositions which baffled Stuart were the work of a sound tactician.  Thirty rifled guns had been assembled in a single battery a mile north of the West Wood, where the Hagerstown turnpike ascends a commanding ridge, and the broad channel of the Potomac is within nine hundred yards.  Here had rallied such portions of Hooker’s army corps as had not dispersed, and here Mansfield’s two divisions had reformed; and although the infantry could hardly have opposed a resolute resistance the guns were ready to repeat the lesson of Malvern Hill.  Against the rifled pieces the light Confederate smooth-bores were practically useless.  Stuart’s caution was fully justified, and the sun sank on an indecisive battle.

“The blessed night came, and brought with it sleep and forgetfulness and refreshment to many; but the murmur of the night wind, breathing over fields of wheat and clover, was mingled with the groans of the countless sufferers of both armies.  Who can tell, who can even imagine, the horrors of such a night, while the unconscious stars shone above, and the unconscious river went rippling by?"* (* General Palfrey.  The Antietam and Fredericksburg.) Out of 130,000 men upon the ground, 21,000 had been killed or wounded, more than sixteen per cent.; and 25,000 of the Federals can hardly be said to have been engaged.

The losses of the Confederate left have already been enumerated.  Those of the centre and the right, although A.P.  Hill reported only 350 casualties, had hardly been less severe.  In all 9,500 officers and men, one-fourth of the total strength, had fallen, and many of the regiments had almost disappeared.* (* “One does not look for humour in a stern story like this, but the Charleston Courier account of the battle contains the following statement:  ’They [the Confederates] fought until they were cut to pieces, and then retreated only because they had fired their last round!’” General Palfrey, The Antietam and Fredericksburg.) The 17th Virginia, for instance, of Longstreet’s command, took into battle 9 officers and 46 men; of these 7 officers and 24 men were killed or wounded, and 10 taken prisoners, leaving 2 officers and 12 men to represent a regiment which was over 1000 strong at Bull Run.  Yet as the men sank down to rest on the line of battle, so exhausted that they could not be awakened to eat their rations; as the blood cooled and the tension on the nerves relaxed, and even the officers, faint with hunger and sickened with the awful slaughter, looked forward with apprehension to the morrow, from one indomitable heart the hope of victory had not yet vanished.  In the deep silence of the night,