Between Snow Storms

In the short break between snowstorms, my daughter Rachel and I escaped from our snowbound house yesterday and got some pictures of a wintery Antietam Battlefield and Harper's Ferry. We said hi to Rangers Mannie Gentile and John Hoptak manning the Visitor's Center. Needless to say, it was a quiet day and we had the battlefield all to ourselves. Rachel is a very good photographer and a number of these snowy scenes are hers. We are back inside as the next storm starts to blow out there. Enjoy the pictures of familiar views once again covered in a snowy blanket. 40 days until spring (I think).

“I was beholding what must be the turning point of the war.”

Being socked in this weekend with 28 inches of snow here in Jefferson Maryland, I have had a bit of time to return to my neglected Antietam blogs. This is quite a contrast to last weekend when I was in Sydney Australia traveling to a conference. These two pictures, the first taken last Sunday of the Australian Pacific coast south of the Sydney, and the second, a view out of my front door on yesterday offer a contrast of where we would certainly like to be and where we are now. In the dead of winter with no apparent hope of a quick release into spring's embrace, I spent the weekend compiling many of the quotes that I collected by soldiers on both sides who fought at the battle of Antietam. Below is a selection of some of my favorites. The entire collection is found at Antietam Voices.

“I was beholding what must be the turning point of the war.”

a Confederate staff officer

a confederate staff officer commenting on the invasion of Maryland

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. Pg 139

“Never were want and exhaustion more visibly put before my eyes, and that they could march or fight at all seemed incredible.”

a Virginia woman

a woman who lived in Virginia commenting on Lee’s veterans at this time

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. Pg 152

“those corn acres of hell.”

A Virginian

Describing the Cornfield

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. Pg 154

“brought down the enemy as grain falls before a reaper

Confederate Officer

Confederate officer’s description of French’s attack into the Sunken Road

Sears, Stephen. George B McClellan – The Young Napoleon. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1988 pg 311

“the hottest place I ever saw on this earth or want to see hereafter…The dogs of war were loose, and ‘havoc’ was their cry

One of Hood’s Texans

Sep 17 1862

One of Hood’s Texans describing their attacks through the Cornfield. Confederate Veteran, 22 (1914) : 555

Robertson, James I. Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1997 pg 614

“It was horrible in the extreme to witness the men with mangled limbs and bodies making their way to the rear….The whole face of the country seemed covered with them.”

Richmond Daily Dispatch

Sep 27 1862

Comments by a Virginia soldier

Robertson, James I. Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1997 pg 898

“the incessant explosions of artillery, the shrieking whistles of the shells, and the sharper, deadlier more thrilling roll of musketry; while every now and then the echo of some charging cheer…and as the human voice pierced that demoniacal clangor, we would catch our breath and listen.”

Richmond Enquirer

Sep 23 1862

How the battle sounded from Shepherdstown, 4 miles away

Robertson, James I. Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1997 pg 614

“The Federals in apparent double battle line were moving toward us at charge bayonets, common time, and the sunbeams falling from their well-polished guns and bayonets gave a glamour and a show at once fearful and entrancing.”

Staff Officer in the Stonewall Bde

Sep 17 1862

A staff officer of the Stonewall Brigade noting the Union advance through the Cornfield. Confederate Veteran, 22 (1914) : 66

Robertson, James I. Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1997 pg 612

“a seamless wall of canister”

describing the fire from Nicodemus heights into the West Woods

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008, pg 156

“For a time the loss of life was fearful. We had never seen anything like it.”

a Massachusetts soldier

describing the fire from Nicodemus heights into the West Woods

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. pg156

“pouring in a sweeping fire as they advanced, and our men fell like sheep at the slaughter”

a member of the 4th RI

Sep 17 1862

describing AP Hills attack at Antietam . George H. Allen, Forty Six Months in the 4th RI Volunteers (Providence 1887), 147

Robertson, James I. General A. P. Hill. New York: Random 1987. Pg 146

all realized that there was ugly business and plenty of it just ahead.”

a Pennsylvania soldier

Pennsylvania soldier talking about upcoming battle of Antietam

http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/upload/Battle%20history.pdf

“The shouts of our men, and their sudden dash toward the sunken road, so startled the enemy that their fire visibly slackened, their line wavered, and squads of two and three began leaving the road and running into the corn.”

a soldier of the Irish Brigade

Sep 17 1862

A soldier of the Irish Brigade describing their last attack

Mason, Jack C. Until Antietam The Life and Letters of Major General Israel B. Richardson, U.S. Army. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois Press, 2009 pg 181

“I thought I had seen men piled up and cut up all kinds of shape, but never anything in comparison to that field.”

A Yankee

Describing the Cornfield

Wert, Jeffry D. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008. Pg 154

“The Confederates had gone down as grass falls before the scythe. They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps, like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are inadequate to portray the scene.”

northern correspondent

Sep 18 1862

a northern correspondent reaches the bloody lane on Sep 18,1862

Krick, Robert K. ” It Appeared As Though Mutual Extermination Would Put a Stop to the Awful Carnage Sharpsburg’s Bloody Lane”, Gallagher, Gary W. ed The Antietam Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pg 223

“With fixed bayonets [at] the double quick, [they] passed through a narrow opening in a strong chestnut fence-which there was no time to remove-and charged in the most gallant manner directly up the road to the bridge. As the attacking party led by Colonel Griffen debouched from the field into the road, the rebels from heir entrenched position, redoubled the fury of their fire, sweeping the head of the column with murderous effect. Of the first hundred men who passed through the opening in the fence, at least nine tenths were either killed or wounded. Such sweeping destruction checked the advancing column, but the men sheltered themselves behind logs, fences, and whatever other cover they could find, and bravely held the ground already gained. 6th New Hampshire soldier

soldier 6th NH

Action at the Burnside Bridge during attack by 6th NH

Tucker, Phillip T. Burnside’s Bridge The Climactic Struggle of the 2nd and 20th Georgia at Antietam Creek Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole, 2000. Pg 102

“freshly plowed and manured field”

Description of 12th Corps bivouac site night before the battle

Wagner, Richard. For Honor, Flag, and Family Civil War Major General Samuel W. Crawford, 1827-1892. Shippensburg: White Mane Books, 2005 pg 134

James Ewell Brown Stuart

This morning, I added to Antietam Voices, 131 quotes that I have collected on Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown Stuart. Most are from Jeff Wert's outstanding biography Cavalryman of the Lost Cause (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008). From the collection, you see a very well rounded view of the man. Regarded by many including John Sedgwick as "the greatest cavalryman ever foaled in America", Stuart also acquitted himself well as a commander of infantry. The most well known event was at the Battle of Chancellorsville where he temporarily assumed command of the Second Corps upon the wounding of Jackson and A. P. Hill. Despite his combat command skills, Stuart nevertheless was a man who triggered different reactions from those around him. He was viewed by some as vain and chillingly ambitious, as William (Grumble) Jones, Wade Hampton and others would attest. But Stuart was warm and considerate to the many who he counted as his friends. Among them was Stonewall Jackson, a person who in many ways was a complete opposite of Stuart. Very much a lady's man, he was nonetheless a faithful husband to his wife Flora and father to his two children.

Stuart's rides around the Union Army and his activities during the Gettysburg campaign are well known. However not as much appreciated were his actions in Lee's first incursion into the north during the Maryland Campaign - a field of battle like Gettysburg, where he again did not show himself to the best advantage. Stuart early in the campaign seemed to discount the approaching Union Army of George McClellan as it occupied Frederick and pushed toward South Mountain. Believing the northern gaps were threatened by only two brigades of the Union Army, he pulled his cavalry off Turner's Gap and sent much of it south. Stuart left D.H. Hill's lone infantry division to confront not two brigades of the Union Army as Stuart had supposed, but the seven divisions of Burnside wing, which included Hooker's First, and Reno's Ninth Corps. Similarly, he spent little time at Crampton's Gap leaving William Parham and Thomas Munford's small forces to defend William Franklin's Union Sixth Corps. Stuart sent most of his available cavalry under Wade Hampton to guard the approaches to Harper's Ferry along the Potomac River at Weverton.

Stuart acquitted himself well at Antietam posting his cavalry on both flanks of Lee's Army. He positioned on the Confederate left with Jackson. There, at Nicodemus Heights, John Pelham and Stuart's Horse Artillery with some of Jackson's guns blasted the flank of advancing Union forces emerging from the North and East Woods into the Cornfield and points south for most of the day. Later that afternoon, Stuart was given command of a scratch force of Confederate infantry and artillery charged with trying to get beyond the Union right flank to open a path to the north. If successful, this would give the ever aggressive Lee another opening to resume his northward advance. Stuart's force made no progress in that direction and was blasted back by massed Federal artillery.

Stuart had a premonition that he would not survive the war and he told this to several of his friends. On May 11, 1862, while repelling Philip Sheridan's cavalry raid at Yellow Tavern, Stuart was mortally wounded and died the next day. Shortly after his death, Lee wrote in a letter to his wife that "more zealous, ardent, brave & devoted soldier than Stuart, the Confederacy cannot have."

Daniel Harvey Hill Quotes

My links to quotes on Antietam Voices is slowly growing. I have linked my quotes to D.H. Hill as you can see here.

Quotes Now Available for Viewing

You will start to notice that my in my quote count column on the left of this blog, some of the subjects now have a link to my other blog Antietam Voices, where you can now view the actual quotes. I have started with George B. McClellan. This project is still in the earliest of stages so there will be some adjustments as I go along. But take a look at it and tell me what you think.

Branching Out

I have decided to branch out a bit and develop a blog/website devoted to the core of my Civil War interests. That is the quotes that I am collecting by and about the men of the Maryland Campaign. This blog is called Antietam Voices. It is not entirely coincidental that this effort coincides with the start of the New Year. I have had some time these past few days to think about what I want to do here. Unlike this blog where the focus has evolved into a more general look at the Maryland Campaign, AntietamVoices will be organized and devoted to the quotations that I have collected, some 1,000 of them and growing literally daily. Another focus here will be my executive leadership training programs. In talking with Antietam Rangers Mannie Gentile and John Hoptak, who have encouraged me on this project, this seems to be a good way to organize my stuff. I also talked with Harry Smeltzer at Bull Runnings who uses WordPress. This is the format/platform that I will use for Antietam Voices. South From the North Woods isnt going anywhere. But my new site is in a state of evolution, not revolution. It will be awhile before you will see what I am trying to develop. Stay with me and hopefully enjoy the development of this project. And Happy New Year to everyone.

Winter Light

Monday was the shortest day of the year and hard to believe the days start getting longer now. For now, winter in all its might holds us in its grip. A record December snowfall blankets our area. All is still and quiet. At the battlefield on Monday, there were very few visitors. Rangers Mannie, Brian, and Gordie were at the Visitor's Center and Christie was at the Mumma Farm when I stopped by to snap some pictures.

More snow than has ever fallen in December covers us. It muffles the sounds and there is a stillness around the battlefield as much caused by the snowfall as it is by the lack of visitors

I was by the battlefield on Monday to capture some of the winter images and take advantage of the pale light that bathed the area today. Enjoy these photos, some of easily recognizable locations, and others of not so familiar places on some of the most sacred soil to be found in our land.

And while I am thinking of it, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.