Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade - "Shock and Awe"

Agatha Armour - "Marguerite Verne"

William Shakespeare - "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmar"

George MacDonald - "St. George and St. Michael"

The Sword of Antietam

J >> Joseph A. Altsheler >> The Sword of Antietam




The armies had disentangled themselves from the woods and bushes.
They were now in the open and face to face on a long line. The
Winchester regiment had risen to its feet again, and stood directly
behind and almost mingled with the Kentucky regiment that had saved it.

"They're coming!" exclaimed Warner in quick, excited tones. "Look,
there on the flank!"

It was the division of Cleburne, in the hottest of the battle all through
the morning advancing to a fresh attack upon the Union lines, but it was
received with such a powerful fire that it was driven back in disorder
into some woods.

Dick, however, did not have a chance to see this as the Southerners,
reinforced by fresh troops from Breckinridge's division, were charging in
the center with great violence. So terrible was the fire that received
them that some of the regiments lost half their numbers in five minutes.
Yet the remainder, upheld by their cannon, returned a fire almost as
deadly. Rosecrans, absolutely fearless, stood in the very front where
the danger was greatest. A cannon ball blew off the head of his chief
of staff who stood by his side. "Many a brave fellow must fall!" cried
Rosecrans, a devoted Catholic. "Cross yourselves, and fire low and fast!"

Many a brave fellow did fall, but his men fired low and fast, and,
while the Southern troops charged again and again to the very mouths of
the cannon they were unable to break down the last desperate stand of
the Northern army. They had driven it back, but they had not driven it
back far enough. Then the sun set as it had set so often before on an
undecisive battle, terrible in its long list of the slain, but leaving
everything to be fought over again.

"They didn't beat us," said Dick as the firing ceased.

"No," said Colonel Winchester, "nor have we won a victory, but we're
saved. Thank God for the night!"

"They'll attack again to-morrow, sir," said Sergeant Whitley.

"Undoubtedly so," said Colonel Winchester, who felt at this moment not
as if he were speaking as colonel to sergeant, but as man to man, "and I
hope that our artillery will be ready again. It is what has saved us.
We have always been superior in that arm."

The colonel had spoken the truth, and the fact was also recognized by
Rosecrans, Thomas and the other generals. While they rectified their
lines in the darkness, the great batteries were posted in good positions,
and fresh gunners took the place of those who had been killed. Both
Rosecrans and Thomas were made of stern stuff. Afraid of no enemy, and,
despite their great losses of the day and the fact that they had been
driven back, they would be ready to fight on the morrow. Sheridan,
Crittenden, McCook, Van Cleve and the others were equally ready.

Food was brought from the rear and the exhausted combatants sank down to
rest. Dick was in such an apathy from sheer overtasking of the body and
spirit that he did not think of anything. He lay like an animal that has
escaped from a long chase. Silence had settled down with the darkness
and the Confederate army had become invisible.

Dick revived later. He talked more freely with those about him, and he
gathered from the gossip which travels fast, much of what had happened.
The Union army, so confident in the morning, was in a dangerous position
at night. Nearly thirty of its guns were taken. Three thousand
unwounded and many wounded men were prisoners in the hands of the South.
Arms and ammunition by the wholesale had been captured. The Southern
cavalry under Fighting Joe Wheeler had gone behind Rosecrans' whole army
and had cut his communications with his base at Nashville, at the same
time raiding his wagon trains. Another body of cavalry under Wharton had
taken all the wagons of McCook's corps, and still a third under Pegram
had captured many prisoners on the Nashville road in the rear of the
Northern army.

Dick became aware of a great, an intense anxiety among the leaders.
The army was isolated. The raiding Southern cavalry kept it from
receiving fresh supplies of either food or ammunition, unless it
retreated.

"We're stripped of everything but our arms," said Warner.

"Then we've really lost nothing," said the valiant Pennington, "because
with our arms we'll recover everything."

They had a commander of like spirit. At that moment Rosecrans, gathering
his generals in a tent pitched hastily for him, was saying to them,
"Gentlemen, we will conquer or die here." Short and strong, but every
word meant. There was no need to say more. The generals animated by the
same spirit went forth to their commands, and first among them was the
grim and silent Thomas, who had the bulldog grip of Grant. Perhaps it
was this indomitable tenacity and resolution that made the Northern
generals so much more successful in the west than they were in the east
during the early years of the war.

But there was exultation in the Confederate camp. Bragg and Polk and
Hardee and Breckinridge and the others felt now that Rosecrans would
retreat in the night after losing so many men and one-third of his
artillery. Great then was their astonishment when the rising sun of New
Year's day showed him sitting there, grimly waiting, with his back to
Stone River, a formidable foe despite his losses. Above all the Southern
generals saw the heavily massed artillery, which they had such good
reason to fear.

Dick, who had slept soundly through the night, was up like all the others
at dawn and he beheld the Southern army before them, yet not moving,
as if uncertain what to do. He felt again that thrill of courage and
resolution, and, born of it, was the belief that despite the first day's
defeat the chances were yet even. These western youths were of a tough
and enduring stock, as he had seen at Shiloh and Perryville, and the
battle was not always to him who won the first day. A long time passed
and there was no firing.

"Not so eager to rush us as they were," said Warner. "It's a
mathematical certainty that an army that's not running away is not
whipped, and that certainty is patent to our Southern friends also.
But to descend from mathematics to poetry, a great poet says that he who
runs away will live to fight another day. I will transpose and otherwise
change that, making it to read: He who does not run away may make the
other fellow unable to fight another day."

"You talk too much like a schoolmaster, George," said Pennington.

"The most important business of a school teacher is to teach the young
idea how to shoot, and lately I've had ample chances to give such
instruction."

It was not that they were frivolous, but like most other lads in the army,
they had grown into the habit of teasing one another, which was often a
relief to teaser as well as teased.

"I think, sir," said Dick to Colonel Winchester, "that some of our troops
are moving."

He was looking through his glasses toward the left, where he saw a strong
Union force, with banners waving, advancing toward Bragg's right.

"Ah, that is well done!" exclaimed Colonel Winchester. "If our men break
through there we'll cut Bragg off from Murfreesborough and his ammunition
and supplies."

They did not break through, but they maintained a long and vigorous
battle, while the centers and other wings of the two armies did not stir.
But it became evident to Dick later in the afternoon that a mighty
movement was about to begin. His glasses told him so, and the thrill
of expectation confirmed it.

Bragg was preparing to hurl his full strength upon Rosecrans.
Breckinridge, who would have been the President of the United States,
had not the Democrats divided, was to lead it. This division of five
brigades had formed under cover of a wood. On its flank was a battery of
ten guns and two thousand of the fierce riders of the South under Wharton
and Pegram. Dick felt instinctively that Colonel Kenton with his
regiment was there in the very thick of it.

Dick's regiment with Negley's strong Kentucky brigade, which had stopped
the panic and rout the day before, had now recrossed Stone River and
were posted strongly behind it. Ahead of them were two small brigades
with some cannon, and Rosecrans himself was with this force just as
Breckinridge's powerful division emerged into the open and began its
advance upon the Union lines.

"Now, lads, stand firm!" exclaimed Colonel Winchester. "This is the
crisis."

The colonel had measured the situation with a cool eye and brain.
He knew that the regiments on the other side of the river were worn down
by the day's fighting and would not stand long. But he believed that the
Kentuckians around him, and the men from beyond the Ohio would not yield
an inch. They were largely Kentuckians also coming against them.

The rolling fire burst from the Southern front, and the cannon on their
flanks crashed heavily. Then their infantry came forward fast, and with
a wild shout and rush the two thousand cavalry on their flanks charged.
As Colonel Winchester had expected, the two weak brigades, although
Rosecrans in person was among them, gave way, retreated rapidly to the
little river and crossed it.

The Confederates came on in swift pursuit, but Negley's Kentuckians and
the other Union men, standing fast, received them with a tremendous
volley. It was at short range, and their bullets crashed through the
crowded Southern ranks. The Winchesters were on the flank of the
defenders, where they could get a better view, and although they also
were firing as fast as they could reload and pull the trigger, they saw
the great column pause and then reel.

Rosecrans, who had fallen back with the retreating brigades, instantly
noted the opportunity. Here, a general who received too little reward
from the nation, and to whom popular esteem did not pay enough tribute,
rushed two brigades across Stone River and hurled them with all their
weight upon the Southern flank. Sixty cannon posted on the hillocks just
behind the river poured an awful fire upon the Southern column. The fire
from front and flank was so tremendous that the Southerners, veterans as
they were, gave way. The men who had held victory in their hands felt it
slipping from their grasp.

"They waver! They retreat!" shouted Colonel Winchester. "Up, boys,
and at 'em!"

The whole Union force, led by its heroic generals, rushed forward,
crossed the river and joined in the charge. The two thousand Southern
cavalry were driven off by a fire that no horsemen could withstand.
The division of Breckinridge, although fighting with furious courage,
was gradually driven back, and the day closed with the Union army in
possession of most of the territory it had lost the day before.

As they lay that night in the damp woods, Dick and his comrades, all
of whom had been fortunate enough to escape this time without injury,
discussed the battle. For a while they claimed that it was a victory,
but they finally agreed that it was a draw. The losses were enormous.
Each side had lost about one third of its force.

Rosecrans, raging like a wounded lion, talked of attacking again, but the
rains had been so heavy, the roads were so soft and deep in mud that the
cannon and the wagons could not be pushed forward.

Bragg retreated four days later from Murfreesborough, and Dick and his
comrades therefore claimed a victory, but as the winter was now shutting
down cold and hard, Rosecrans remained on the line of Murfreesborough and
Nashville.

The Winchester regiment was sent back to Nashville to recuperate and seek
recruits for its ranks. Dick and Warner and Pennington felt that their
army had done well in the west, but their hopes for the Union were
clouded by the news from the east. Lee and Jackson had triumphed again.
Burnside, in midwinter, had hurled the gallant Army of the Potomac in
vain against the heights of Fredericksburg, and twelve thousand men had
fallen for nothing.

"We need a man, a man in the east, even more than in the west," said
Warner.

"He'll come. I'm sure he'll come," said Dick.




Appendix: Transcription notes:

This ebook was transcribed from a volume of the 16th printing

Despite the fact that this is a fictional work, I myself find it
inappropriate that our fictional hero, Dick Mason, is credited
with discovering the "lost" copy of Lee's General Order No. 191.
In fact, Sergeant Bloss and Corporal Mitchell, of the 27th Indiana
Infantry, found the envelope containing the order, along with the
three cigars, in a field of clover on the morning of 09/13/1862.


The following modifications were applied while transcribing the
printed book to ebook:

Chapter 2
Page 31, para 4, add missing close-quotes
Page 51, para 3, add missing comma
Page 51, para 6, fix typo ("Pennigton")
Page 52, para 7, add missing open-quotes

Chapter 3
Page 68, para 4, changed "it" to "its"

Chapter 4
Page 83, para 3, added a missing comma (In these books, I am
often tempted to add/move/remove commas, but I generally avoid
doing so. In this case, an additional comma was sorely needed.)

Chapter 5
Page 105, para 3, add missing open-quotes
Page 107, para 2, add missing open-quotes
Page 118, para 5, changed "he know not" to "he knew not"

Chapter 6
Page 142, para 11, add missing open-quotes

Chapter 7
Page 157, para 2, add missing open-quotes

Chapter 9
Page 191, para 6, add missing comma
Page 196, para 2 and 3, fix closing quotation marks
Page 197, para 1, add missing close-quote

Chapter 10
Page 210, para 1, fix typo ("Pennigton")

Chapter 13
Page 276, para 1, change "a" to "as"
Page 281, para 2, add missing close-quotes
Page 283, para 8, change "in" to "is"
Page 288, para 4, fix typo ("seeemd")
Page 293, para 4, add missing close-quotes
Page 297, para 2, closing double-quote should be single-quote

Limitations imposed by converting to plain ASCII:

- The word "marquee" in chapter 3 was presented in the printed
book with an accented "e"

I did not change:

- Inconsistent spelling/presentation in the printed book:
"rearguard" and "rear guard", "guerrilla" and "guerilla",
"round-about" and "roundabout", "to-morrow" and "tomorrow"

- "bowlder" in chapter 10

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