Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 5.
Frank Moore, Ed.

Information this moment received, completely confirms the rout and demoralization of the rebel army.

General Lee is reported wounded, and Garland killed.

General Hooker, alone, has over a thousand more prisoners, seven hundred having been sent to Frederick. It is stated that Lee gives his loss as fifteen thousand. We are following as rapidly as the men can move.

Major: I have the honor to report that this division left the Monocacy at six A. M., September fourteenth, and arrived at the Catoctin about half-past 12 P. M. Here the column halted until half-past 2 P. M., when Brig.-Gen. Hatch assumed the command in place of General King, who was assigned to other duty.

The enemy's position was on the summit of South-Mountain. To avoid the fire of his batteries, the division was diverged from the main road, and struck off in a by-road to the right, which led to a stone church at the foot of the Mountain, where we found Gen. Hooker and his staff. The division at this time consisted of Doubleday's, Patrick's, and Phelps's (late Hatch's) brigades, General Gibbon having been detached with his brigade on special service.

The general order of battle was for two regiments of Patrick's brigade to precede the main body, deployed as skirmishers, and supported by Patrick's two remaining regiments; these to be followed by Phelps's brigade two hundred paces in the rear, and this in turn by Doubleday's brigade, with the same interval. In accordance with this disposition, Gen. Patrick deployed the Twenty-first New-York, under Colonel Rogers, as skirmishers on the right, and the Thirty-fifth New-York, under Col. Lord, on the left, supporting the former with the Twentieth New-York, Col. Gates, and the latter with the Twenty-third New-York, Col. Hoffman. By Gen. Hatch's order, Phelps's brigade advanced in column of divisions at half distance, preserving the intervals of deployment. My brigade advanced in the same order. On reaching a road part-way up the mountain, and parallel to its summit, each brigade deployed in turn and advanced in line of battle. Col. Phelps's brigade, owing to an accidental opening, proceeded for a while in line of skirmishers, but soon halted and advanced in line some thirty paces in the rear. Gen. Patrick rode to the front with his skirmishers, drew the fire of the enemy, and developed their position. They lay behind a fence on the summit, running north and south, fronted by woods and backed by a corn-field full of rocky ledges.

Col. Phelps now ordered his men to advance, and Gen. Hatch rode through the lines, pressing them forward. They went in with a cheer, poured in a deadly fire and drove the enemy from his position behind the fence, after a sharp and desperate conflict, and took post some yards beyond. Here Gen. Hatch was wounded, and turned over the command to me, and as, during the action, Col. Wainwright, Seventy-sixth New-York volunteers, was also wounded, the command of my brigade subsequently devolved upon Lieut.-Col. Hoffman, Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania volunteers.

Phelps's brigade being few in number and having suffered severely, I relieved them just at dusk with my brigade, reduced by former engagements to about a thousand men, who took position beyond the fence referred to, the enemy being in heavy force some thirty or forty paces in our front. They pressed heavily upon us, attempting to charge at the least cessation of our fire. At last I ordered the troops to cease firing and lie down behind the fence, and allowed the enemy to charge within about fifteen paces, apparently under the impression that we had given way. Then, at the word, my men sprang to their feet and poured in a deadly volley, from which the enemy fled in disorder, leaving their dead within thirty feet of our line. I learned from a wounded prisoner that we were engaged with four thousand to five thousand, under the immediate command of Gen. Picket, with heavy masses in their vicinity. He stated, also, that Longstreet in vain tried to rally the men, calling them his pets, and using every effort to induce them to renew the attack.

The firing on both sides still continued, my men aiming at the flashes of the enemy's muskets, as it was too dark to see objects distinctly, until our cartridges were reduced to two or three rounds. Gen. Ricketts now came from the right, and voluntarily relieved my men at the fence, who fell back some ten paces, and lay down on their arms. A few volleys from Ricketts ended the contest in about thirty minutes, and the enemy withdrew from the field. Not, however, until an attempt to flank us on our left, which was gallantly met by a partial change of front of the Seventy-sixth New-York, under Col. Wainwright, and the Seventh Indiana, under Major Grover. In this attempt the enemy lost heavily, and were compelled to retreat in disorder.

While the main attack was going on at the fence referred to, Col. Rogers, with his own, and Lieut.-Col. Gates's regiments — the Twentieth and Twenty-first New-York volunteers, of Patrick's brigade — rendered most essential service by advancing his right and holding a fence bounding the north-east side of the same corn-field, anticipating the enemy, who made a furious rush to seize this fence, but were driven back. Colonel Rogers was thus enabled to take the enemy in flank, and also to pick off their cannoneers and silence a battery which was on their right and behind their main body.

Our men remained in position all night, sleeping on their arms, and ready for any attack, but with the dawn it was discovered that the enemy had fled, leaving large numbers of dead and