Longstreet's Command

On September 17, 1862, Barksdale's Brigade of McLaws' Division in Longstreet's Command, led by Brig. Gen. William Barksdale and composed of the 13th, 17th, 18th, and 21st Mississippi Infantry, crossed the Potomac at Blackford's Ford about daybreak and halted in the western suburbs of Sharpsburg until nearly 9 a.m. It then advanced to the rising ground southwest of this point and formed line in the left center of McLaws' Division, with Kershaw on the right and Semmes on the left. In the division's general advance, it encountered the enemy's line on the edge of the West Woods there and, supported by Ransom's Brigade of Walker's Division, forced it back through the woods to the fields beyond, where destructive Federal artillery fire checked the advance and compelled the brigade to retire to the protection of the hill and ledges of rock in that vicinity. Later in the day, the brigade reoccupied part of the ground from which it had been driven and, with Ransom on the right and Early on the left, held the position until the night of the 18th, when it recrossed the Potomac.

Keedysville, Maryland · United States