588

FORCING FOX’S GAP AND TURNER’S GAP.

in consequence of which he moved first toward the hill on the north of theturnpike (afterward carried by Hooker’s corps), until he was recalled andgiven the right direction by Reno , who had arrived at Pleasonton’s head-quarters. As he went into position on my right, the artillery fire from thecrest beyond the turnpike annoyed him, pnd to avoid being enfiladed by it,he formed with his right thrown back nearly at right angles to the frontand facing toward the turnpike. We were not long left idle. Longstreet’sdivisions had been arriving on the field faster than ours, and made a most

determined effort to push us back from the ridgewe held. I sent two regiments of Willcox’s toextend my left, which was in danger of beingturned. Their strongest attackfell upon the angle of Will-cox’s command, and for a littlewhile there was some confusionthere, due to the raking artil-lery fire which came from theright; but Willcox soon re-formed his lines, and after avery bloody contest, pushedacross the Sharpsburg road,through Wise’s fields, and in-to the wooded slope beyond.Along the front of the Kana-wha Division the line wassteadily maintained and the en-emy was repulsed with severeloss. At nearly 4 o’clock,Sturgis’s division arrived andrelieved the left wing of Willcox’s division, the latter taking ground a littlemore to the right and rear. Rodman was the last to arrive, and as part ofLongstreet’s corps again threatened to pass beyond my left flank, I sentFairchild’s brigade to extend the line in that direction, the rest of thatdivision going to the support of Sturgis and Willcox. During all this timethere was sharp fighting all along the front, the struggle being on the partof the Confederates to drive back our center and left, where we held thehighest summits of the mountain, and on our part to push forward ourright so as to gain the one elevation they still held on our side of theNational road, at the Mountain House. On the other side of the turnpikeHooker had by this time deployed, and his corps was fighting its way upthe mountain side there.

McClellan, Burnside, and Reno had come, soon after Willcox’s division, tothe knoll in the valley which had been Pleasonton’s position, and from thatpoint, a central one in the midst of curving hills, had issued their orders.The Ninth Corps troops, as they came up the mountain, had reported to mefor position, as I was senior on the line. Soon after the arrival of Rodman’s

THE WASHINGTON MONU-MENT ON SOUTHMOUNTAIN.

FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.

This monument, to the memory of George Washington , wasfirst erected by the citizens of Boonsboro’ and vicinity in 1827.It stands on the summit, a mile and a half north of Turner’sGap [see map, p. 568]. Originally it was twenty feet high. In itstumble-down condition, as seen on the right of the picture, itserved as one of the Union signal stations during the battle ofAntietam. In 1882 the monument was rebuilt, as seen on the leftof the picture, by the Odd Fellows of Boonsboro’. The presentheight of the tower, including the observatory, is forty feet.

Editors.