slaughter. This was the attack of Burnside’s corps, mainly directed by General Cox, as Burnside was in command of one of the wings. To make this attack, the corps thought it necessary to carry what has since been known as Burnside’s bridge across the Antietam, held by two regiments and a part of a regiment from General Toombs brigade. No more gallant deed was done that day than the defense of this bridge by those devoted Georgia regiments. The enemy, however, found a ford, and by attack from the men who crossed there and a direct assault on the bridge carried it. This was followed by the attack of this corps on the Confederate right, held by the division of D. R. Jones, in which there were no North Carolina troops. Jones men stood manfully to their lines, but while his left baffled the efforts of Burnside’s men, his right was overlapped and broken. At this crisis, A. P. Hill’s division, after a hard march of 17 miles, deployed into battle line without a moment’s breathing spell, and their fearless onslaught decided the day on the right. In his brigades were two purely North Carolina ones, Branch s and Fender’s. General Longstreet, to whose corps Jones belonged, thus describes the close of the battle:
When General Lee found that General Jackson had left six of his brigades under Gen. A. P. Hill to receive the property and garrison surrendered at Harper’s Ferry, he sent orders for them to join him, and by magic spell had them on the field to meet the final crisis.[1] He ordered two of them, guided by Captain Latrobe, to guard against approach of other forces that might come against him by bridge No. 4, Pender’s and Brockenbrough’s, and threw Branch’s, Gregg’s and Archer’s against the forefront of the battle, while Toombs’, Kemper’s and Garnett’s engaged against its right. . . . Pegram’s and Crenshaw’s batteries were put in with A. P. Hill’s three brigades. The Washington artillery, S. D. Lee’s and Frobel’s, found places for part of their batteries, ammunition replenished.
—
- ↑ Thomas brigade was, left behind to finish at Harper’s Ferry, so Hill had only five.
