No less than thirty
rifled guns of the latest and finest make were massed in one battery to
command the road by which the South might attack.
To the south the Northern artillery was equally strong, and beyond the
Antietam also it was massed in battery after battery to protect its men.
But the coming twilight found both sides too exhausted to move. The sun
was setting upon the fiercest single day's fighting ever seen in America.
Nearly twenty-five thousand dead or wounded lay upon the field. More
than one fourth of the Southern army was killed or wounded, yet it was in
Lee's mind to attack on the morrow.
After night had come the weary Southern generals--those left alive--
reported to Lee as he sat on his horse in the road. The shadows gathered
on his face, as they told of their awful losses, and of the long list of
high officers killed or wounded. Jackson was among the last, and he was
gloomy. The man who had always insisted upon battle did not insist upon
it now. Hood reported that his Texans, who had fought so valiantly for
the Dunkard church, were almost destroyed.
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