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Chapter 16: battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam.
Late in the afternoon of the 15th,
General Lawton received an order from
General Jackson to move the division on the road to Boteler's Ford, on the
Potomac below
Shepherdstown, and he at once put his own and
Trimble's brigade, which had gotten rations from
Harper's Ferry, in motion, and ordered me to follow with my own and
Hays' brigade as soon as they were supplied likewise from the stores of the enemy.
I was detained until after night before the men of the two brigades could be supplied, and I then followed
General Lawton, finding him just before morning bivouacked about four miles from Boteler's Ford.
Brigadier General Hays, wounded at
Port Republic while
Colonel of the 7th Louisiana, had returned to the brigade on the 15th after the surrender of
Harper's Ferry and assumed command of his brigade before we started on this march.
The division moved at dawn on the 16th, arid, crossing the
Potomac, arrived in the vicinity of
Sharpsburg in the early part of the day, and stacked arms in a piece of woods about a mile in rear of
Sharpsburg,
Jackson's division having preceded it, and
Hill's being left behind to dispose of the prisoners and property captured at
Harper's Ferry.
After the different columns, which had been sent against the latter place, had moved from the vicinity of
Frederick, the residue of
General Lee's army had moved across
South Mountain in the direction of
Hagerstown, and the division of
General D. H. Hill had been left to defend Boonsboro Gap against the
Federal Army, composed of
Pope's army and
McClellan's army combined, and heavy reinforcements which had arrived to their assistance, now approaching under
General McClellan.
General Hill had been attacked on the 14th, at
Boonsboro 
