when that general was relieved by the support of Mansfield; then
Mansfield was killed and Hooker wounded; and then Sedgwick was sent
up to replace Mansfield; then, when Sedgwick was getting the better of
Jackson and Hood, McLaws and Walker drew up to the Confederate left,
and burst completely through Sedgwick's line. Presently, Franklin and
Smith came across from the stream and reinforced the Federals, driving
the Southern advance back to the church, and Burnside rendered some
hesitating assistance; but then rushed up the force which had received
the surrender of Harper's Ferry, singing victory, and drove back
Burnside; and when McClellan, on the morning of the 19th, found that
Lee had withdrawn across the Potomac, he was too much discouraged with
his own hurts to venture a pursuit. He had lost twelve thousand men,
and Lee eight thousand. But Antietam, though for us a costly and
unsatisfactory victory, was for the South a conclusive lesson. The
Peter-the-Hermit excursion into Maryland lasted just two weeks, and
its failure was signal and instructive. Intended as an invasion that
should result in the occupation of Washington and Philadelphia, it led
to nothing but to Stuart's audacious raid into Pennsylvania with his
thousand troopers--a theatrical flourish to wind up an unsuccessful
drama. As for Harper's Ferry, its overwhelming punishment and
precipitate conquest were not without their use: the retention by
the Federals of the little depot of army stores on the Virginia bank
surprised and thwarted Lee. To reduce it, he had to pause, and ere the
operation was complete McClellan was upon him, and cornered him before
he was enabled to take up a firm position in Western Maryland and
prepare for the Pennsylvania invasion. The Ferry fell into our hands
again, but as a ruin. As for the elaborate bridge approaching it, its
history is the history of the Potomac campaign: three times has it
been destroyed by the Confederates, and twice by the Unionists. Eight
times it has been carried away by freshets.