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

[678] it on the south-west. Across the road (on the north-east) was an open field a quarter of a mile in width, extending along the whole front of the line, and beyond it about six hundred yards. This open space was bounded on the north-east, (to my front,) and north-west, (to my left,) by woods, an opening being at the north corner.

Late in the afternoon of the sixteenth, the enemy's skirmishers advanced into the wood in front of my position. They were held in check by my riflemen and the Texas skirmishers. In the mean time, I was ordered by General Hood, commanding the division, to move forward and occupy the edge of the wood in which the skirmishing was going on. This was quickly accomplished, and the enemy was driven at dark to the farther side of the wood toward the Antietam. My brigade was relieved during the night, and moved, with the rest of General Hood's command, to the wood in rear of St. Mumma's Church.

Soon after daylight, on the seventeenth, the attack of the enemy commenced. The battle had lasted about an hour and a half, when I was ordered to move forward into the open field across the turnpike. On reaching the road, I found but few of our troops on the field, and these seemed to be in much confusion, but still opposing the advance of the enemy's dense masses with determination. Throwing the brigade at once into line of battle, facing northward, I gave the order to advance. The Texas brigade, Colonel Wofford, had, in the mean time, come into line on my left, and the two brigades now moved forward together. The enemy, who had by this time advanced half way across the field, and had planted a heavy battery at the north end of it, began to give way before us, though in vastly superior force. The Fifth Texas regiment, which had been sent over to my right, and the Fourth Alabama, pushed into the wood in which the skirmishing had taken place the evening previous, and drove the enemy through and beyond it. The other regiments of my command continued steadily to advance in the open ground, driving the enemy, in confusion, from and beyond his guns. So far we had been entirely successful, and everything promised a decisive victory. It is true that strong support was needed to follow up our success, but this I expected every moment. At this stage of the battle, a powerful Federal force (ten times our number) of fresh troops was thrown in our front. Our losses up to this time had been very heavy; the troops now confronting the enemy were insufficient to cover properly one fourth of the line of battle; our ammunition was expended; the men had been fighting long and desperately, and were exhausted from want of food and rest. Still they held their ground, many of them using such ammunition as they could obtain from the bodies of our own and the enemy's dead and wounded. It was evident that this state of affairs could not long continue. No support was at hand. To remain stationary, or advance without it, would have caused a useless butchery, and I adopted the only alternative — that of falling back to the wood from which I had first advanced. The enemy followed very slowly and cautiously. Under direction of General Hood, I re-formed my brigade in the rear of St. Mumma's Church, and together with the Texas brigade, which had also retired, again confronted the enemy, who seemed to hesitate to enter the wood. During this delay, reenforcements arrived, and the brigade was relieved for the purpose of obtaining ammunition. At one o'clock P. M., having been supplied with ammunition, I was again ordered to the field, and took position in the wood near the church. Here the brigade remained, under an incessant cannonade, until near nightfall, when it was moved half a mile nearer the town of Sharpsburg, where it lay during the night and the following day.

The good conduct of my brigade in this battle has not been surpassed by it in any previous engagement. Weak and exhausted as they were, and fighting against fearful odds, the troops accomplished and endured all that was within the limits of human capacity. Our loss, in proportion to the numbers engaged, was extremely heavy. The officers suffered severely. Colonel Liddell, the gallant and beloved commander of the Fourth Mississippi regiment, fell mortally wounded; Lieutenant-Colonel Butler, of the same regiment, received a painful wound, and Major Evans was killed. Colonel Stone, Lieutenant-Colonel Humphries, and Major Blair, of the Second Mississippi, were all wounded, while leading that distinguished regiment in the charge. Major Webb, commanding Sixth North Carolina, Captain Tate, an acting field officer of the same, and Captain Scruggs, commanding Fourth Alabama, received wounds while gallantly discharging their duty. The members of my staff, Lieutenant Terrell, A. A. G., Captain Kirkman, Lieutenant Law, of the Citadel Academy, and private Smith, Fourth Alabama, as usual, performed every duty bravely and efficiently.

I enclose list of casualties.

I am, Captain, very respectfully,

sir: The division of General D. R. Jones, having, by a forced march from Hagerstown, reached Boonsboroa, Maryland, near South Mountain, about four o'clock on Sunday evening, September fourteenth, was immediately thrown forward to the support of the troops engaged with the enemy on the mountain. Passing through Boonsboroa and crossing a branch, this brigade, in conjunction with General Garnett's, marched by the right flank to a church, some mile and a half to the right and south of the turnpike, and then filed off to the left, about one mile to the foot of the mountain. About the time we reached that position, the firing having pretty well ceased, the two brigades about-faced, marched back within half a mile of the turnpike, and filed off to the