"
The second paragraph was afterwards modified by General Lee so as to
place Longstreet at Hagerstown.
CHAPTER 2.19. SHARPSBURG.
1862. September 17.
It is a curious coincidence that not only were the number, of the
opposing armies at the battle of Sharpsburg almost identical with
those of the French and Germans at the battle of Worth, but that
there is no small resemblance between the natural features and
surrounding scenery of the two fields. Full in front of the
Confederate position rises the Red Hill, a spur of the South
Mountain, wooded, like the Vosges, to the very crest, and towering
high above the fields of Maryland, as the Hochwald towers above the
Rhineland. The Antietam, however, is a more difficult obstacle than
the Sauerbach, the brook which meanders through the open meadows of
the Alsatian valley. A deep channel of more than sixty feet in width
is overshadowed by forest trees; and the ground on either bank
ascends at a sharp gradient to the crests above. Along the ridge to
the west, which parts the Antietam from the Potomac, and about a mile
distant from the former stream, runs the Hagerstown turnpike, and in
front of this road there was a strong position.
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