But when they studied with
their glasses the Northern lines and the great batteries, they decided
that it would be better not to try it.
When noon came and still no shot had been fired, Colonel Winchester shook
his head.
"We might yet destroy the Southern army," he said to Dick, "but I'm
convinced that General McClellan will not move it."
The hot afternoon passed, and then the night came with the sound of
rumbling wheels and marching men. Dick surmised that Lee was leaving the
peninsula, and, crossing the Potomac in to Virginia, and that therefore
tactical victory would rest with the Northern side. The noises continued
all night long, but McClellan made no advance, nor did he do so the next
day, while the whole Confederate army was crossing the Potomac, until
nearly night.
But the Winchester regiment and several more of the same skeleton
character, pushing forward a little on the morning of that day, found
that the last Confederate soldier was gone from Sharpsburg. Colonel
Winchester and other officers were eager for the Army of the Potomac to
attack the Army of Northern Virginia, while it dragged itself across the
wide and dangerous ford.
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