Even the young soldiers knew the immensity of the stake.

This was the open ground, elsewhere the Antietam separated the fighting armies.

But victory here would decide the whole battle, and the war, too.

The Northern troops fought for a triumph that would end all, and the Southern troops for salvation.
So close and obstinate was the conflict that colonels and generals themselves were in the thick of it.

Starke and Lawton of the South were both killed.