the news that his plans were known and Jackson's absence discovered.
He accordingly posted his troops so that he could form a junction
with the rest of the army at the earliest possible moment and halted
in the vicinity of Sharpsburg near Antietam Creek.





Chapter XVIII




The Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg


Had McClellan not absurdly overestimated the number of troops opposed
to him when his army neared Sharpsburg on the 15th of September,
1862, he might have defeated Lee and possibly destroyed or captured
his entire force. Never before had a Union commander had such an
opportunity to deliver a crushing blow. He had more than 80,000
men under his control--fully twice as many as his adversary; he
had the Confederate plan of campaign in his hands and such fighting
as had occurred with the exception of that at Harper's Ferry had
been decidedly in his favor. Moreover, Lee had recently met with
a serious accident, his horse having knocked him down and trampled
on him, breaking the bones of one hand, and otherwise injuring him
so severely that he had been obliged to superintend most of the
posting of his army from an ambulance. By a curious coincidence,