Today in History:

422 Series I Volume XIX-I Serial 27 - Antietam Part I

Page 422 OPERATIONS IN N. VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XXXI.

report of the two engagements, as they were constantly and heroically engaged till after the fall of their brave commanders.

Of the staff of Major-General Reno, I may mention the following: Captain Edward M. Neill, assistant adjutant-general; Surg. C. Cutter, division surgeon; Captain T. E. Hall, quartermaster; Captain Read, commissary of subsistence; Lieutenant B. F. Reno, aide-de-camp; Lieutenant John A. Morris, aide-de-camp; Lieutenant T. B. Marsh, aide-de-camp, and Lieutenant Charles G. Hutton, aide-de-camp. And of the staff of Brigadier-General Rodman the following: Captain charles T. Gardner, assistant adjutant-general; Dr. H. W. Rivers, acting division surgeon; Captain M. A. Hill, commissary of subsistence; Lieutenant Robert H. Ives, jr., aide-de-camp, who fell mortally wounded while gallantly seconding his commanding general, and Lieutenant Robert Aborn, aide-de-camp.

The loss in the Ninth Army Corps during this engagement was 322 killed, 1,359 wounded, and 194 missing.* The enemy's loss was probably not as large as ours, owing to their strongly fortified position. A full list of the casualties in both engagements will be forwarded to you. Among the many valuable officers killed after crossing the bridge was Lieutenant Colonel A. H. Coleman, commanding the Eleventh regiment Ohio Volunteers, and Lieutenant Colonel M. Clarke, commanding the Thirty-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteers.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General, Commanding Right Wing, Army of the Potomac.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS,

Adjutant-General.

FALMOUTH, VA., January 20, 1863.

GENERAL: When I sent in my report of the part taken by my command in the battle of South Mountain, General Hooker, who commanded one of the corps of my command (the right wing), had not sent in his report, but it has since been sent to me. I at first determined to pass over its inaccuracies as harmless, or rather as harming only their author, but upon reflection I have felt it my duty to notice two gross misstatements made with reference to the commands of Generals Reno and Cox, the former officer having been killed on that day, and the latter now removed with his command to the West.

General Hooker says that as he came up to the front, Cox's corps was retiring from the contest. This is untrue. General Cox did not command a corps, but a division; and that division was in action, fighting most gallantly long before General Hooker came up, and remained in the action all day, never leaving the field for one moment. He also says that he discovered that the attack by General Reno's corps was without sequence. This is also untrue, and, when said of the movements of an officer who so nobly fought and died on that same field, it partakes of something worse than untruthfulness. Every officer present who knew anything of the battle knows that reno performed a most important part in the battle, his corps driving the enemy from the heights on one side of the main pike, whilst, that of General Hooker drove them from the heights on the other side.

General Hooker should remember that I had to order him four sepa-

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*But see revised statement, p. 198.

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Page 422 OPERATIONS IN N. VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XXXI.