Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 9.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[639] o'clock A. M. the garrison surrendered, much to the joy of the toil-worn soldiers, who were ready again to encounter the enemy, if necessary. At three o'clock P. M., orders were received to march back to camp, and cook two days rations, and be ready to march. The cooking was done about twelve o'clock at night, and at one the march was commenced, reaching the Potomac at sunrise. The division was hurried across, and on to Sharpsburg.

battle of Sharpsburg.

Resting for two hours in a grove a mile from Sharpsburg, the division was again put in motion, and took up its position on the extreme left, its right resting on the Sharpsburg and Hagerstown turnpike. A double line was formed — the front, composed of Jones's and Winder's brigades, placed in an open field, under the immediate command of Colonel Grigsby; Taliaferro's and Stuart's brigades, forming the reserves, placed at the edge of a wood, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General Starke; the whole under the command of Brigadier-General J. R. Jones.

This disposition was made about two hours before night, on the sixteenth of September, 1862. Two companies were at once thrown forward as skirmishers, and Poague's battery was placed in the road on the right. A battery of the enemy, about five hundred yards in front and to the right, was playing upon the troops of Hood's division, which was on my right. Poague's battery opened briskly upon it, and silenced it in twenty minutes. The skirmishers were warmly engaged until night. The troops lay on their arms all night, the silence of which was broken by occasional firing from the skirmishers. At the dawn of day, on the seventeenth, the battle opened fiercely. A storm of shell and grape fell upon the division from several batteries in front, and at very short range, and from batteries of heavy guns, on the extreme right, which enfiladed the position of the division, and took it in reverse. These batteries were gallantly replied to by the batteries of the division, Poague's, Carpenter's, Brockenbrough's, Raines's, Caskie's, and Wooding's. It was during this almost unprecedented iron storm that a shell exploded a little above my head, and so stunned and injured me, that I was rendered unfit for duty, and retired from the field, turning over the command to Brigadier-General Starke, who, in half an hour afterward, advanced his lines to meet the infantry of the enemy, which was approaching. The infantry became at once engaged, and the gallant and generous Starke fell, pierced by three balls, and survived but a few moments. His fall cast a gloom upon the troops; they never, for a moment, faltered, but rushed upon the enemy, and drove him back.

The struggle continued for several hours, the enemy all the time receiving reenforcements, and the division, not numbering over one thousand six hundred men at the beginning of the fight, having no support, was finally compelled to fall back to its original line. Early's brigade coming up at this opportune moment, (Colonel Grigsby commanding,) the division rallied its scattered columns, and joined General Early, and drove the enemy half a mile from the field, capturing many prisoners, and covering the field with the dead and wounded of the enemy.

After this repulse, the division was ordered back to a grove to rest and get ammunition, when, in the evening, it again advanced to the support of the battery, but did not become engaged with the enemy. In this bloody conflict, the old Stonewall division lost nothing of its fair name and fame. Having won a world-wide fame by its valor and endurance in the splendid campaign in the valley, it entered upon another series of fights, commencing at Richmond and going through Cedar Run, Manassas, Harper's Ferry, and Sharpsburg, entering the last weary and worn, and reduced to the numbers of a small brigade, with its officers stricken down in the many fierce engagements, closing with a Colonel commanding the division, Captains commanding brigades, Lieutenants commanding regiments. In this fight every man was a hero, and it would be invidious to mention particular names.

Winder's brigade was commanded successively by Colonel Grigsby and Major (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Williams, Fifth Virginia regiment; Jones's brigade by Captains Penn, Page, and Withers, the two first losing a leg; Taliaferro's brigade, by Colonel G. W. Jackson, and Colonel Sheffield; Starke's brigade, by General Starke, Colonel A. L. Stafford, Ninth Louisiana regiment, and Colonel Edward Pendleton, Fifteenth Louisiana.

Enclosed are reports of the various brigade commanders, which give more particularly the parts taken by their brigades.

The list of casualties has already been furnished, amounting to about seven hundred killed and wounded.

This brief report is respectfully submitted.

sir: I beg to submit the following report of an affair with the enemy near Kelley's Ford, on the Rappahannock, on the twenty-first of August last. This skirmish occurred between a portion of General Featherston's brigade and the enemy, and afterward between our artillery and the enemy.

The division crossed the Rapidan at Raccoon Ford on the twentieth of August, and, continuing its march, bivouacked for the night about five miles from Kelley's Ford, on the Rappahannock. Early next morning the march was resumed, the three brigades under my command leading the advance. The march was continued on the road to Stephensburg, till we came to a road that bore off to the right, to Kelley's Ford. My command was directed to take this road. Advancing about one and a half miles, we crossed a small stream,