Descending from the ridge, we rode some way up a narrow valley--where
overhanging pine-woods and soft green pastures, traversed by rapid
streams, reminded me often of the Ardennes--and then climbed the Elk
Range, beyond which lies the field of Antietam. We soon crossed the
creek, along whose banks was waged that fierce battle that made men
think as lightly of the South Mountain fight as if it had been but a
passing skirmish, and I rode up to the appointed meeting-place in
Sharpsburg just a few minutes in advance of the appointed hour.
My first question, after making myself known to the good man of the
house, was naturally, of my horses and men. Will you be kind enough to
fancy my feelings, when I heard that they were miles away, and--the
reason why. Three days before the ferry-boat had been carried away and
shattered by the floods; nothing but a skiff could cross till a cable
was rigged from bank to bank; there was no chance of this being
completed before the beginning of the following week. The neighborhood
was too dangerous to linger in; there was a provost-marshal guard
actually stationed in Sharpsburg: so my men, hearing of the disaster on
their road, had very properly remained at their last halting-place,
about ten miles farther up the country.
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