As the twilight crept up the battle sank in all parts of the peninsula.

McClellan, who had lost those two most precious days, and who had finally failed to make use of all his numbers at the same time, now, great in preparation, as usual, made ready for the emergency of the morrow.
All the powerful and improved artillery which McClellan had in such abundance was brought up.

The mathematical minds and the workshops of the North bore full fruit upon this sanguinary field of Antietam.

The shattered divisions of Hooker, with which Dick and his comrades lay, were sheltered behind a great line of artillery.

No less than thirty rifled guns of the latest and finest make were massed in one battery to command the road by which the South might attack.
To the south the Northern artillery was equally strong, and beyond the Antietam also it was massed in battery after battery to protect its men.
But the coming twilight found both sides too exhausted to move.