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Battle of Antietam
New York Times Articles

THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.; Further Particulars from our Special Correspondent. INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE-FIELD. Effect of the Rebel Raid into Maryland Swindling the People Shooting at Women Jackson's Losses The Battle-Ground Shocking Scenes The New-Hampshire Fifth A Daring Act The 9th New-York The 63d New-York Death at the Post of Duty A Death Struggle, &c.

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NEAR THE BATTLE-FIELD OF ANTIETAM, Friday, Sept. 19, 1862.

 

          The smoke of the battle has cleared away; the Grand Army, which, in this campaign, at least, has not been thwarted in one single contemplated movement, is moving on to fulfill the object of its mission, and the enemy having fled in confusion before it, I have a moment's leisure to survey the scene of the late conflict, relate some interesting particulars, omitted in the hurry attending the preparation of my letter giving a general description of the battle, and more calmly look at the results of the campaign in Maryland. Of the advance of the army but little need be said at this time -- only that it is marching as fast as circumstances permit, and that the first great object -- the driving of the enemy from Maryland -- has been accomplished. The visit of Stonewall JACKSON to this State, while attended with much evil, has not been entirely [???] of good. There has been a deep secession current operating upon the people of this State ever since the heresy of secession assumed a tangible shape. Her people have been wheddled and cajoled with the bauble, until a large number of them were anxiously looking forward to the precious moment when they could fairly clutch it. The day which had long been deferred at length arrival, and JACKSON, with his dirty, ragged, and shoeless followers, entered this -- to them -- Paradise. The land was overflowing with milk and honey -- or, to [???] a more practical figure -- the land was full of just what JACKSON's army stood most in deed of -- something to eat, and something to wear, and he and they luxuriated to their hearts' content. They played the role of gentlemanly robbers to perfection, and were so polite in their robberies that some of the people did not discover they had been dealing with swindlers until it was too late to correct the error they had made. The [???] a gentleman, and the warden asks to be [???] like a lady, so [???] and his [???] horde committed the most wanton and crucialitieswith a blank smile and as graceful a bow as the [???] TUMMELL could have made, but asked it to be bound in mind that he was polite and courteous. But with the retreating form of the rebel chief, the illusion which the secession bauble had thrown around the people began to be dispelled. They began to realize that they had been stripped of everything, and only received in return a worthless mass of pottage, otherwise, Confederate "I.G.F.'s," worth, perhaps in good times, when rags are scarce, two cents per pound. Those from whose eyes the scales did not drop at once, found their fight when MCCLELLAN's army came along for what the first aid did not steal the latter borrowed, and the upshot of the matter is, some of Maryland's more fortunate neighbors will have to supply her people with something to eat. Rely upon it, that the said JACKSON into this State has forever squelched all that there was before of secessionism. The masses have tasted the tempting fruit, and found it to be like a green persimmon -- very puckery and unpleasant to the taste. Gen. WOOL can remove his army, destroy his earthworks, and turn the guns of Fort McHenry seaward, without any fear of a rising in Baltimore. You cannot insult a Marylander now more thoroughly than to ask him if there are any Secessionists in his State. He at once sees two large armies passing through his fields, stripping his cornfields, butchering his cows and hogs and robbing his hen-roost. The effect upon the rebel army must be disheartening. They had been assured that all that was necessary to drag Maryland into the whirlpool of secession was to march a large army into the State, and the people would en masse full into the rebellion. This was what the rank and file of the rebel army believed, whether JACKSON believed it or not. He, perhaps, only thought of obtaining supplies for his army; but his soldiers talk bitterly against him for practicing deception, and threaten to deprive him of a worthless life. So that the result of this raid, as affecting the rebel cause, must be, in any event, most disastrous. Instead of obtaining 60,000 undisciplined troops and a cordial welcome, JACKSON not less than 5,000 recruits, lost at least 30,000 men, and finally has had his half-demoralized army kicked out of the State. Perhaps the devil's praying friend earth, after this experience, will desire to make a raid into some Free State -- but we do not believe it. He will endeavor to fall back where, upon familiar ground, his soldiers canfight behind something, instead of meeting our troops in a manly, fair field fight. In this connection we will state that Frederick City did have several citizens who largely sympathized with the rebellion. Two of these individuals were largely engaged in the boot and shoe business. Now, shoe leather is one of the articles STUART's soldiers stand most in need of, and when he entered the fair city of Frederick he put a severe test to his sympathizers in that locality, by buying out whole stocks at different stores. The boot and shoe dealers mentioned were the first to put their professions into practice, and succeeded in parting with -- much against their will -- between them, about $20,000 worth of boots and shoes, and received in payment therefor Confederate and Richmond bank notes. While dealing out their stocks freely, and biting their lips in vexation, but not daring to remonstrate, some of their loyal neighbors, who had concealed their stocks, enjoyed themselves hugely at the expense of the Secession sympathizers, by congratulating them upon the sudden increase of their business. But this was not the worst the rebels did in Maryland. Just upon the eastern bank of the Antietan creek, opposite the battle-ground, resides a highly respectable family, whose head is named ALFRED N. COST. This family were peaceably engaged in their usual household duties and necessarily had to pass occasionally to a spring of water near at hand. On several occasions the women of this family were fired at by the rebel skirmishers while at this Spring, and to the credit of Gen. MCCLELLAN be it said, when his attention was called to the fact, he promptly sent a sufficient force to the vicinity to punish such outrages if repeated. THE BATTLE-GROUND. Late last night and early this morning I visited the scene of the most deadly conflicts during the battle yesterday, and examined particularly the plowed field where HOUKER's, SEDGWICK's and BANKS' troops in turn contended against the rebel hosts, and the side-hill, the cornfield and the road where FRENCH's left was repulsed, and where RICHARDSON's Division gained so signal a triumph, and MEAGHER's, CAULWELL's and BRUCKES' brigades made such terrific slaughter in the enemy's ranks, and gained imperishable renown. The dead and wounded were strewn upon the places indicated, in hideous confusion. Here was a perfect winnow of Butternuts and Graybacks, interlanded with Uncle Sam's blue coats; at another point the dead and wounded rebel and Union troops were in heaps, as if designedly placed so for a funeral pyre or an auto de fe, without the combustible material; and everywhere could be seen stern, unmistakable evidence of the desperate struggle which always characterizes civil war among the whole human family, be it between a savage or civilized people. Here was the pile made by KIRBY's Battery, there was a heap by THOMPSON's and HAZZARD's grape and canister, when the rebel leader, maddened to desperation by the exigencies of the hour, hurled his massed columns upon certain destruction. Scattered here and there were groups of blackened corpses, indicating but too plainly the deadly certainty with which the German New York Battery hurled its thunderbolts from the hill cast of the Antietam. Mangled humanity in all its ghastly forms could be seen [???]; to the left, to the right, behind and before, on every hand the eye behold the horrors of the field. Mingled with the dead came up to the ear the groans of those in whose breasts there yet remained a spark of vitality, but whose lamp had nearly expired; the hopeful cases, so far as possible, were removed for medical assistance before midnight of Wednesday; the hopeless cases were allowed to remain upon the field. Some in a perfectly conscious, others in a half conscious state, while more were insensible to all worldly affairs. One of the latter class -- a rebel soldier -- while we were walking over the field at night, vainly attempted rise; he had received a wound upon the temple from which the brain protruded; he clutched at the air and a helping hand was intended to him and words of sympathy were spoken, but no sign of recognition followed, and in a moment more the helpless victim fell over upon his face, and was numbered with dead. God grant that we may newer witness another such a scene, Thursday morning none of the dead had been removed, and our forces held undisputed possession of the field, so that an approximate estimate could be made of the number actually killed on either side at one point, the bodies of 110 dead rebels were counted, while there were only 12 bodies of Union soldiers -- and with one single exception -- where the Irish Brigade and the left FRENCH's Division had the hardest fight -- this proportion would hold good everywhere on the battle-field. The enemy acknowledge a loss of two men killed to our one, but it would be nearer the truth to say, that they had five men killed where we had one.

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