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The whole of the following day you stood prepared to resume the conflict on the same ground, and retired next morning, without molestation, across the Potomac.
Two attempts, subsequently made by the enemy, to follow you across the river have resulted in his complete discomfiture and being driven back with loss.
Achievements such as these demanded much valor and patriotism.
History records few examples of greater fortitude and endurance than this army has exhibited; and I am commissioned by the President to thank you, in the name of the Confederate States, for the undying fame you have won for their arms.
The valor and endurance of the
Southern troops in this campaign are attested by their faithful ministers who labored day and night for their spiritual good.
Rev. J. W. Mills, chaplain of a Florida regiment, gives a graphic picture of the havoc of war:
Many of our regiment fell in the terrible battle of Sharpsburg.
We occupied the centre, where the enemy made his fiercest attack, hoping to break our lines in that vital part of the field, and so win the day. The enemy were formed in a semicircle on the side of a hill.
Our brave men marched up to the attack until they could see the heads and shoulders of their adversaries over the summit of the hill, when firing commenced.
From the two wings and the centre of this semicircle they poured upon us a murderous fire for about one hour.
Five times our colors fell, but as often our men rushed to the spot and raised them to the breeze.
Finally, a retreat was ordered-at that moment the colors fell and were left.
The enemy had suffered too much, notwithstanding his advantages, to pursue, and our gallant Lieutenant-Colonel, already wounded in the arm, went back and brought them away under a shower of bullets.
In the midst of this carnage many a heart turned to
