1862] SHAMEFUL SURRENDER OF HARPER'S FERRY. 279 but an hour after, a message was received that the general thought it better to sleep upon the ground, near the bivouac-fires, as an example for the troops. Last night came intelligence of the surrender, to Stonewall Jackson, of Harper's Ferry, including the impregnable position of Maryland Hights and our army. Colonel Miles, who commanded, atoned for his weakness with his life, being killed by a stray shot just after he had capitulated. Colonel Thomas H. Ford, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio, who was stationed on the Hights, professed to have a written order from Miles, his superior officer, to exercise his own discretion about evacuating; but he could not exhibit the paper, and stated that he had lost it. He gave up that key to the position without a struggle. It was like leaving the rim of a teacup, to go down to the bottom for a defensive point. He was afterward tried before a court-martial, but saved from punishment, and permitted to resign, through the clemency of President Lincoln. In any other country he would have been shot. On September 16th, General McClellan established his head-quarters in a great shaded brick farm-house. Under one of the old trees sat General Sumner, at sixty-four erect, agile, and soldierly, with snow-white hair. A few yards distant, in an open field, a party of officers were suddenly startled by two shells which dropped very near them. The group broke up and scattered with great alacrity. "Why," remarked Sumner, with a peculiar smile, "the shells seem to excite a good deal of commotion among those young gentlemen!" It appeared to amuse and surprise the old war-horse that anybody should be startled by bullets or shots. Lying upon the ground near by, with his head resting 280 upon A CAVALRY STAMPEDE. [1862. his arm, was another officer wearing the two stars of a major-general. "Who is that?" I asked of a journalistic friend. "Fighting Joe Hooker," was the answer. With his side-whiskers, rather heavy countenance, and transparent cheeks, which revealed the blood like. those of a blushing girl, he hardly looked all my fancy had painted him. Toward evening, at the head of his corps, preceded by the pioneers tearing away fences for the column, Hooker led a forward movement across Antietam Creek. His milk-white horse, a rare target to Rebel sharpshooters, could be seen distinctly from afar against the deep green landscape. I could not believe that he was riding into battle upon such a steed, for it seemed suicidal. In an hour we halted, and the cavalry went forward to reconnoiter. A few minutes after, Mr. George W. Smalley, of The Tribune, said to me: utes. "There will be a cavalry stampede in about five minLet us ride out to the front and see it.” Galloping up the road, and waiting two or three minutes, we heard three six-pound shots in rapid succession, and a little fifer who had climbed a tree, shouted: "There they come, like the devil, with the Rebels after them!" From a vast cloud of dust, emerged soon our troopers in hot haste and disorder. They had suddenly awakened a Rebel battery, which opened upon them. "We will stir them up," said Hooker, as the cavalry commander made his report. "Why, General," replied the major, "they have some batteries up there!" "Well, sir," answered Hooker, "have'nt we got as many batteries as they have? Move on!" 1862.] "FIGHTING JOE HOOKER" IN BATTLE. 281 McClellan, who had accompanied the expedition thus far, rode back to the rear. Hooker pressed forward, accompanied by General Meade, then commanding a division-a dark-haired, scholarly-looking gentleman in spectacles. The grassy fields, the shining streams, and the vernal forests, stretched out in silent beauty. With their bright muskets, clean uniforms, and floating flags, Hooker's men moved on with assured faces. "Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, One glance at their array." With a very heavy force of skirmishers, we pushed on, finding no enemy. Our line was three-quarters of a mile in length. Hooker was on the extreme right, close upon the skirmishers. As we approached a strip of woods, a hundred yards wide, far on our extreme left, we heard a single musket. Then there was another, then another, and in an instant our whole line blazed like a train of powder, in one long sheet of flame. Right on our front, through the narrow belt of woods, so near that it seemed that we might toss a pebble to them, rose a countless horde of Rebels, almost instantly obscured by the fire from their muskets and the smoke of the batteries. My confrère and myself were within a few yards of Hooker. It was a very hot place. We could not distinguish the "ping" of the individual bullets, but their combined and mingled hum was like the din of a great Lowell factory. Solid shot and shell came shrieking through the air, but over our heads, as we were on the extreme front. Hooker-common-place before-the moment he heard the guns, loomed up into gigantic stature. His eye |