"As to burning our house, we know that in doing so, you were carrying out orders."

When I give tours at Antietam National Battlefield, I sometimes relate the story of the burning of the Samuel Mumma farmhouse and the improbable exchange of letters 44 years later between Sergeant Major James Clark of the Third North Carolina Infantry, who led the detail of soldiers that burned the house and Samuel Mumma Jr. who as postmaster of Sharpsburg in 1906 received Clark's letter and responded. To the left is a Alexander Gardner photo of the ruins of the Mumma homestead taken shortly after the battle. When James Clark took up his pen, he was merely addressing his letter to the postmaster of Sharpsburg and had no idea that he would be reaching the son and namesake of the house owner. Perhaps even more surprising is that Mr. Mumma responded to him.

I had never seen the letters until this week when I came across a copy of Antietam The Aftermath a collection of letters and remembrances about the battle and the Sharpsburg vicinity that was arranged, and edited by Wilmer F. Mumma, the great-grandson of Samuel Mumma. This very interesting work copyright 1993 by Wilmer M. Mumma is extremely rare and I am grateful to the Antietam National Battlefield Library for sharing this important work with me.

Below printed in their entirety are the two letters.

New Bern, N. C.
March 19, 1906

Postmaster
Sharpsburg, Md.

Dear Sir:

Please be so kind as to give me the correct name of the man who owned or lived in the brick house that was burned at the Battle of Antietam or Battle of Sharpsburg, being called by both names.

I belonged to the 3rd North Carolina infantry, Colonel William L. Derassette, Ripley's Brigade, D. H. Hill's Division.

This house stood immediately in our front as the battle was being commenced and at times was in the enemy's lines. General Ripley, to prevent its occupation by sharpshooters and protect his officers from being picked off, ordered it burned. A volunteer call was mad as to who would go and do it. Five or six privates from Company A volunteered and I took charge of them, being at that time, Sergeant Major of the Regiment. After firing the house we all got back to our lines, myself being the only one hurt. Ripley ordered me to carry orders down to his line to 44th and 48th Georgia Regiments to come up and take a rail fence in their front. He was shot soon after I left him. I carried the orders down to the Georgia troops and being weak from the loss of blood, went off the field by an old Church and on to our hospital. Then a women, young and beautiful and black haired, helped to bandage my arm. I have often wondered if she was any of the family and where they when caught between the lines of battle.

I wish to write up the particulars of the event truthfully and there are some particulars about the family I would like to have.

On the next campaign, Gettysburg, by the command to which I belonged, we assisted to capture General Milroy at Winchester, Virginia, and I had to lay up for repairs and did not get any further.

My brother, now deceased, said that he saw the old gentleman, or thought he talked with the owner of the house burned, and said that he hoped the next time they fought, they would get out of his cornfields, as he gathered no corn or crops that year.

Hoping to hear from you with a line of particulars, as to where the family went that morning September 17th, 1862, I am,

Yours respectfully and truly
James F. Clark
Late Sergeant Major
3rd North Carolina Regiment

As Wilmer Mumma relates in Antietam The Aftermath, "Although Samuel Mumma, Jr. was a Union sympathizer and his family had lost everything at the hands of Sergeant Clark, he was not one to bear a grudge. In fact, he was rather pleased to hear just what exactly happened. Samuel, Jr. not being much of a scribe, his daughter, Bertha Alice, did the writing as he dictated the following:"

Sharpsburg, Maryland
March 22, 1906

Mr. James F. Clark
New Bern, N. C.

Dear Sir:

In reply to your letter of March 19th asking for some information concerning the burning of the brick house on September 17th, 1862, I will say that the house referred to was owned by my father, Samuel Mumma, Sr. The house, a large brick colonial one, near the Dunkard Church, was burned at the Battle of Antietam. My father was told that the family had better get away, so we left on Monday afternoon the 15th, took nothing with us as they were cannonading then and we were afraid that there would be a battle at once. Some clothing was gotten together and the silverware was packed in a basket ready to take, but in our haste to get away, all was left behind. Father and mother and the younger children left in the two-horse carry-all (the older children walking as there was a large family) going about 4 miles and then we camped in a large church called the Manor Church, where man others congregated.

On Tuesday evening, a friend and I came back to the house, thinking to get some clothing but found that everything of value had been taken. I then started for Sharpsburg and at the ridge on the field above our house, where the line had formed, General D. H. Hill and some other officers had me brought to them, and questioned me as to whether I was a memeber of that family. They then asked me about different roads to the Antietam Creek. I gave them a correct statement although I was a Union boy. After we left, my older brother Daniel came back to the house and went to bed. Towards morning, some officers knocked at the door and Daniel being young also, was afraid to open the door and jumped out the back window, leaving it up and spent the remainder of the night in the upper room of a stone building that was once used by slaves. The next day he went to Sharpsburg. That morning the house and barn were burned but we were told that General Richardson's Battery (a Union General) had shelled the house and barn and burned them.

Our family then went to a friends house until spring. In the spring of 1863 we rebuilt our house and had just moved in a few weeks before the army went to Gettysburg.

As they were passing through to Gettysburg, an officer approached me and asked me if I know who had burned that house. I told him that I did not. Then he told me that he and eight other men were detailed by General Ripley to burn the house and hat he had picked up a chunk of fire from where they had been cooking and had put in in an open window on to a bed. He told me the color of the quilt and the shape of the bedstead.

We lost crops, fencing and everything, all amounting from $8,000 to $10,000 and were never recompensed as the Government claimed it was damaged by being right in the heart of the battle.

As well as I can remember, the hospital you spoke of must have been at the home of one Harry Reel, southwest of the old Dunkard Church. He had a daughter with black hair. She is now dead and the rest of the family have moved west. That was the nearest hospital that I knew of.

As to burning our house, we know that in doing so, you were carrying out orders.

Enclosed find a few souvenir postals of the battle. Hoping that these points will help you in your work, I am,

Sincerely,
Samuel Mumma, Jr.,
Postmaster
Sharpsburg, Md.

NOTE: Both letters and the Wilmer Mumma's intervening narrative are found in Wilmer M. Mumma, ed., Antietam The Aftermath (Sharpsburg, 1993) pp. 24-26