troops could make.  Gregg, Branch, and Archer, of Hill’s Division, were thrown into the combat at this most critical moment, after the enemy had forced a crossing at all points and were pushing Lee backwards towards the Potomac.  Short and decisive was the work.  An advance of the whole right was made.  The enemy first staggered, then reeled, and at last pressed off the field.  The batteries lost in the early part of the day were retaken, and the enemy was glad to find shelter under his heavy guns on the other side of the Antietam.  But the battle on the left was not so favorable.  Jackson’s, D.H.  Hill’s, and McLaw’s troops, jaded and fagged by the forced marches in the morning, their ranks woefully thinned by the day’s continuous fighting, their ammunition sadly exhausted, could do no more than hold their ground for the remainder of the day.  The enemy now being re-enforced by Porter’s Corps, his batteries enfilading our ranks.  McLaws was forced to move Kershaw and the troops on his right to the left and rear, nearly parallel to the line first formed during the day.  There had been no material advantage on either side.  On the right the enemy had crossed the Antietam, it is true, but to a position no better than the night before.  Our left and centre were bent back in somewhat more acute angle than on the morning, but to an equally good position.  Not many prisoners were taken on either side in proportion to the magnitude of the battle.  The enemy’s loss in killed and wounded was a little more than ours, but so far as the day’s battle goes, the loss and gain were about equal.  It is true Lee lost thousands of good and brave troops whose places could scarcely be filled; yet he inflicted such punishment upon the enemy that it took him months to recuperate.  The moral effect was against us and in favor of the enemy It had a decided bearing upon the coming elections at the North, and a corresponding depression upon the people at the South.  The Southern Army, from its many successive victories in the past, had taught themselves to believe that they were simply invincible upon the field of battle, and the people of the South looked upon the strategy and military skill of Lee and Jackson as being far beyond the cope of any Generals the North could produce.  But this battle taught the South a great lesson in many ways.  It demonstrated the fact that it was possible to be matched in generalship, it was possible to meet men upon the field equal in courage and endurance to themselves.  But it also proved to what point of forbearance and self-sacrifice the Southern soldier could go when the necessity arose, and how faithful and obedient they would remain to their leaders under the severest of tests.  The Confederate soldier had been proven beyond cavil the equal in every respect to that of any on the globe.  After fighting all day, without food and with little water, they had to remain on the field of battle, tired and hungry, until details returned to the wagons