"It Is A.P. Hill"

Outnumbered Southerners watched the Union Ninth Corps climb the hills toward them, then fired and fled back through the cornfield under the assault. As the Army of Northern Virginia faced possible destruction and the Ninth Corps looked down at the town, General Robert E. Lee saw a column approaching from southwest of town and recognized it as A.P. Hill arriving from Harpers Ferry. Northern observers also saw the movement and warned General Burnside to watch his left, where the 16th Connecticut, in the army only three weeks and inexperienced in regimental movements, stood on the Union flank and was shattered by a terrible volley. Hill's light division, after leaving Harpers Ferry at 7:30 a.m., marching 17 miles in 8 hours, fording the Potomac River, and climbing Miller's Sawmill Road, reached the battlefield shortly before 4 p.m. and rolled up the last Union attack. The Ninth Corps retreated to Antietam Creek, and the battle was over.

Shepherdstown, Maryland · United States