"The Battle Opened"

"The Battle Opened". . , Dawn was at 5:43 a.m. , By 6 a.m. Southern defenders could see the Union's First Corps: , "In apparent double battle lines, the Federals were moving toward us at charge bayonets, common time, and the sunbeams falling on their well polished guns and bayonets gave a glamor and show at once fearful and entrancing.", Union General Joseph Hooker also saw bayonets in the morning sun: , "We had not proceeded far before I discovered that a heavy force of the enemy had taken possession of a cornfield in my immediate front and from the sun's rays falling on their bayonets projecting above the corn could see that the field was filled with the enemy, with arms in their hands, standing aparently at 'support arms.'", Hooker brought up 36 cannon and obliterated the northern part of the cornfield and the men in it. First Corps moved on toward the Dunker Church., "The battle opened with a resolution which, if it had infected McClellen (sic, McClellan) would have carried the Sharpsburg ridge ere set of sun.", General McClellan was watching from his headquarters across Antietam Creek: , "All goes well; Hooker is driving them." , Then - , "A long and steady line of rebel gray, unbroken by the fugitives who flew before us, comes sweeping down through the woods around the church. They raise the yell and fire. It is like a scythe running through our line. 'Now, save, who can.' It is a race for life that each man runs for the cornfield.", Two Confederate divisions - Starke's and Lawton's - had stopped the first Union attack. But the Northerners rallied and came on again - to be stopped again - this time by Brigadier General John Bell Hood's division charging up from behind the church., Hooker's men were back where they started in the North Woods. The survivors in Major General "Stonewall" Jackson's Corps waited for the next Federal advance.