History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers

cticut now received orders from General Burnside to take the bridge, after the batteries had shelled the woods on the other side, and hold it until General Rodman could march his column over. At about nine o'clock the Sixteenth again formed and marched about a mile, first through a corn-field, and finally into a valley where they halted in an orchard. While passing through the cornfield the men stripped themselves of blankets, overcoats, and all luggage that would impede the progress of marching or the use of firearms. After filling our canteens from a brook near by, we marched up a steep hill that seemed almost impossible to surmount, then down on the other side and into Antietam river, which we forded and marched to a side hill. Soon in plain sight could be seen a rebel battery dashing intrepidly forward and planting itself directly in range of the Sixteenth.

By this time the rebel batteries were all roaring. They opened on us in all their fury. The air was filled with bullets and fiendish missiles.