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the Confederate left, he was also diligently preparing for an attack in force upon the centre, by feeling its lines with a heavy artillery fire.
No sooner had the tempest exhausted its fury upon Jackson, than it burst upon D. H. Hill and Longstreet, with almost equal violence; but it was met with the same determined resistance.
To describe its course would lead the reader over a precisely parallel story of fourfold numbers, resisted by the thin Confederate lines, with a sublime heroism which supplied every defect of force; of the lamentable martyrdom of devoted officers and men, but avenged by bloody slaughters of the assailants; of shattered brigades reduced to handfuls, and of fearful onslaughts, turned back by the rally of these unconquerable men, when the effort seemed almost madness.
At one moment, he would see vast masses of the enemy pouring through a breach in the single line of Hill, and about to seize the very key of the Confederate position, arrested and turned back by that General with four field-pieces, and a few hundreds of bayonets, rallied from several broken brigades.
At another, he would see Longstreet, sitting alone upon his horse, near a battery of four field-pieces, which was supported by the North Carolina regiment of Cooke, without a single cartridge, and thus confronting and beating back a whole line of battle.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, McClellan transferred his attack to the Confederate right, and attempted with the corps of Burnside, to force the bridge over the Antietam, leading from the Pleasant Valley.
This was immediately defended by several batteries, and two regiments of General Toombs's Georgia brigade, stationed near the stream.
These troops held the enemy's advance in check until they had passed the stream in great numbers below; when they were necessarily withdrawn, to avoid capture.
Burnside now crossed the bridge in great force, and attacked Longstreet's right, under General D. R. Jones, forcing
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