Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. South Mountain And Antiktam. ABOUT nine o'clock on the evening of Sept. 6th, the section on picket was called in, and as speedily as possible the battery packed up and started towards Washington, passing through the city towards midnight, and early on the morning of the 7th made camp about twelve miles from the city, on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, where we remained until the xoth, when we marched to Lisbon. On the I2th we reached New Market, continuing on to Frederick City the next day. Here the head of our column began to encounter the rebels, and on the I4th our troops fought a severe battle with them at South Mountain, and after persistent and hard fighting, succeeded in driving them over the mountain. Battery D was not engaged in this battle, but from its position, which was upon very high ground, the men had an excellent view of the engagement. Let us pause a moment, for the purpose of narrating the movements of the Confederate army, which had caused this sudden departure of ours into Maryland. After the check given to Gen. Jackson at Chantilly, Gen. Lee decided to invade Maryland. He hoped by this action to have his army largely recruited from the great number of Southern sympathizers inthat State, whom it had been said were only waiting for just such an opportunity as this would give them, to join the Confederate army. Gen. Jackson was ordered to march for the Potomac, and between the 4th and 5th of Sept. the whole Confederate army had crossed into Maryland, and was encamped near Frederick, on the Monocacy River. Gen. Lee issued an address to the people of Maryland, inviting those who were in sympathy with the Southern cause, to join the army ; but it fell flat, and he lost more by desertions than he gained by recruits from the Marylander...