Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[269] the Antietam. Cox at once ordered forward Sturgis's division, to support the line, and also sent orders to Willcox to withdraw his three brigades from the vicinity of Sharpsburg to the place where his division had formed, under cover near the river. With the assistance of Sturgis the Confederate pursuit was finally checked, but not until all the ground over which the enemy had advanced had been recovered, and the approach of night had at last put an end to the battle.

As darkness enveloped the scene, the Confederates, worn and exhausted by eight days of marching and fighting, dropped down where they stood to sleep and could scarcely be roused even to eat the cooked rations brought up from their camps in the rear.

When all was quiet, the division commanders met where Lee had taken his position on the road near the village, and made their separate reports of the condition of their commands.

Without exception all reported heavy losses and the men exhausted, and all considered it necessary to withdraw from the field during the night. Lee, alone, was in no wise moved. He had read McClellan's inmost soul and knew he was not to be feared. Without a word of explanation or asking advice from either Jackson or Longstreet or any one else, he directed all to collect their stragglers, strengthen their lines, and be prepared to renew the battle in the morning.

When the morning dawned, disclosing the opposing skirmishers in easy range, and the hostile guns nowhere out of range, but no shot being fired on either side, the Confederates drew long breaths of relief. Many men already half understood McClellan, but Lee alone had read him thoroughly and speculated boldly upon the knowledge. Indeed, when the advancing hours of the forenoon had made it certain that McClellan did not intend to attack that day, Lee recurred to a proposed plan of the day before to turn McClellan's right, and he abandoned it reluctantly only after careful reconnaissance by Col. S. D. Lee, on learning of the peculiar strength and heavy preparation of the enemy at that point.

Now there was nothing left to do but to recross into Virginia. That afternoon the orders were given and the trains were started. Soon after dark the movement of the troops began,