Confederate cavalryman James Steptoe Johnston of the 11th Mississippi Volunteers wrote a long letter to his sweetheart Mary about the heat and confusion of battle he experienced at Antietam (Sharpsburg). Johnston predicted that newspapers on both sides would claim a victory, but that in truth it had been a close, bloody, and hard-fought contest without a clear winner. According to Johnston, a flag of truce brought Yankees and Confederates together on the field, where they discussed a mutual desire for the fighting to end.