One or two shots from
the far side warned them to come more slowly, and Colonel Winchester drew
his men up on a knoll, waiting for the rest of the army to advance.
Dick put his glasses to his eyes, and slowly swept a wide curve on the
peninsula of Antietam. Great armies drawn up for battle were a spectacle
that no boy could ever view calmly, and his heart beat so hard that it
caused him actual physical pain.
He saw through the powerful glasses the walls of the little village of
Sharpsburg, and to the north a roof which he believed was that of the
Dunkard Church, of which Shepard spoke. But his eyes came back from the
church and rested on the country around Sharpsburg. The Confederate
masses were there and he clearly saw the batteries posted along the
Antietam. Beyond the peninsula he caught glimpses of the broad Potomac.
There lay Lee before them again, and now was the time to destroy his
army. Jackson, even with his vanguard, could not arrive before night,
and the main force certainly could not come from Harper's Ferry before
the morrow. Here was a full half day for the Army of the Potomac,
enough in which to destroy a divided portion of the Army of Northern
Virginia.
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