The Cornfield, Copes and Me

Last Sunday afternoon in hot 95 degree weather, I set out for the Cornfield and snapped the photographs that you see below. I wanted to find a format where I could combine the photos with one of the Copes maps to get a better appreciation of what went on in that part of the Cornfield that I was standing on. I dont know if this is the best format and would therefore appreciate any input that you might have. I actually turned powerpoints into pictures to get the effect you see here.

What can quickly be seen is that by moving just a short distance in any direction, you will obtain a very different view. Look for example at the Poffenberger barn in those pictures that point north. The view varies from being able to see the entire structure, to just the top of the barn, to nothing at all.

"I tell you there is no romance in making one of these charges"

As we remember the Battle of Gettysburg this weekend on the 234th birthday of our nation, consider the words of Sharpsburg veteran John Dooley a young Irishman from Richmond who joined the First Virginia Infantry along with his father and brother. Dooley fought at South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. Elected lieutenant before Gettysburg, he participated in Pickett's Charge on July 3 where he was shot in both legs and lay on the battlefield all night. Captured the next day, Dooley was released on February 27, 1865. His war journal is a great first hand account of the fighting in the Army of Northern Virginia.

This quote was made by Dooley on July 3. Pickett's Charge glorified mostly by those who never fought there has a different look from the eyes of an infantryman like Dooley. Here is the full quote as Dooley prepares to make the charge:

"Our artillery has now ceased to roar and the enemy have checked their fury, too. The time appointed for our charge is come. I tell you, there is no romance in making one of these charges. You might think so from reading 'Charlies O'Malley,' that prodigy of valour, or in reading of any other gallant knight who would as little think of riding over gunners and such like as they would of eating a dozen oysters. But when you rise to your feet as we did today, I tell you the enthusiasm of ardent breasts in many cases ain't there, and instead of burning to avenge the insults of our country, families and altars and firesides, and the thought is most frequently, Oh. if I could just come out of this charge safely how thankful would I be!"

A New South Mountain Blog

Welcome to another great blog on the Maryland Campaign. Check out Tim Ware's Bloody Prelude: The Battle of South Mountain here. Tim is a seasonal ranger at South Mountain who I know well as a fellow volunteer with Antietam National Battlefield's historical artillery unit Battery B, 4th US Artillery. Tim has already done several interesting articles on this important battle of the Maryland Campaign in his blog. He is a very serious student of Civil War history and I look forward to learning more about South Mountain from him. Welcome to the blogosphere Tim!

"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

From the Antietam to the Little Bighorn

Last weekend, I picked up Nathaniel Philbrick's new book The Last Stand - Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (New York: Viking 2010). I received the book as part of the Treasury Executive Institute's program. My casual scan through the book quickly turned serious as I realized how great it was. I usually don't have trouble putting a book down after an hour or two but I spent all of last weekend devouring this one. It is that good. Mr. Philbrick's research is very thorough. His portrayal of all the characters, both Native American and United States is tremendous. Mr. Philbrick's vivid narrative gave me a very clear understanding of Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, Custer's principle lieutenants for the first time. Benteen is a fascinating character. Read the book and see why. The maps that accompany the narrative are first class. For the first time, I could clearly understand the geography of the Little Bighorn Valley and the movements of the various columns. Needless to say, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested not just in this particular campaign but in this period of American history as well.

But why do I mention this book in a blog dedicated to the Maryland Campaign? In reading the book, you will discover a number of soldiers at or near the Little Bighorn who also fought at Antietam. Obviously, George Custer is one of them. Custer was, in 1862, a young brash second lieutenant fresh out of West Point. Assigned to General McClellan's staff, it was Custer who requisitioned Phillip Pry's house for McClellan's headquarters. As the Little Bighorn Campaign of 1876 unfolds, Custer is now second in command (but acting commander in the field) of the Seventh Cavalry. The Seventh is part of a column moving westward from the Dakotas and part of an effort to trap the Sioux between three converging columns approaching them from the east, west, and south. General Alfred Terry commands this west bound force known as the "Dakota" column.

John Gibbon, commander of the Iron Brigade at Antietam, leads the so called "Montana" column, moving eastward from Montana. Like Custer who in 1876 is back to his regular army rank of lieutenant colonel, Gibbon too had reverted to his regular rank of colonel after the Civil War. As their columns separate and Custer and the Seventh Cavalry depart to meet their destiny Gibbon tells the young officer, "Now, Custer, don't be greedy, but wait for us." To which Custer ambiguously replies"No, I will not."

The third column moving up from the south is the Wyoming column commanded by George Crook. It is Crook's brigade at Antietam that launches the first attack against the Rohrbach bridge on the southern part of the line. In the Little Bighorn campaign, Crook's force will be prevented from linking up with the other two columns when the Sioux defeat him at the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876. Forced to retreat, Crook's force will not be in any position to assist Custer when the Seventh Cavalry is overwhelmed at the Little Bighorn.

When the bloody battle of the Little Bighorn is over and Gibbon's force at last reaches the battlefield, they will find only the battered remnants of Reno and Benteen's battalions. Along the Little Bighorn Gibbon will discover Custer and his men dead to the last man. Among the fallen will be one other with a connection to Antietam. Second Lieutenant James "Jack" Sturgis, age 22 and fresh out of West Point is an officer of E Troop known as the Gray Horse Troop.

As Philbrick relates in the narrative: "While his body is never officially identified, several decapitated corpses were found near the river at the mouth of a deep ravine. One soldier later claimed he recognized Sturgis's scorched head along with several others in a Sioux fire pit. Out of respect for Sturgis's mother who visited the battlefield several years later, a grave marker was placed in the vicinity of Last Stand Hill. The possibility exists that the young lieutenant came as close as anyone in the Gray Horse Troop to reaching Sitting Bull's village."

James Sturgis is the son of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment's commander Samuel Sturgis. Sturgis commanded a division of Ambrose Burnside's Ninth Corps at the Battle of Antietam. It was men from Ferraro's brigade of Sturgis's division who captured the Rohrbach bridge on September 17, 1862. During the Little Bighorn campaign in 1876, Sturgis was on detached service in St Louis when the battle occurred. Sturgis and Custer did not get along. Sturgis said this about Custer after the battle. "That he was overreached by Indian tactics, and hundreds of valuable lives sacrificed thereby, will astonish those alone who may have read his writings-not those who were best acquainted with him and knew the peculiarities of his character."

[Note: All quotes here are from Nathaniel Philbrick's book The Last Stand - Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (New York: Viking 2010)]

“Goodbye Pope, your grave is made.”

I recently finished reading Peter Cozzens biography General John Pope A Life for the Nation. Those of us who are students of the Maryland Campaign view Pope through the narrow lens of events in the east in the summer of 1862. Just like there is a tendency to stereotype McClellan, there is a similarly inclination to do the same to Pope. He is remembered as the loud mouth braggart who alienated the officers and men of his Army of Virginia and of the Army of the Potomac with his bombastic proclamation to them shortly after assuming command. Robert E. Lee calls him a miscreant and orders Jackson to “suppress” Pope when he issues equally controversial orders that make hard war on the civilians of Virginia. Pope fumbles through the second Bull Run campaign and is exiled to Minnesota to fight the Sioux. This simplistic view hardly stands the test of closer scrutiny. Pope certainly had a big mouth that got him in trouble on more than one occasion. He wasn’t afraid to pull political strings if it would help to advance his career. But before and after the second Bull Run campaign, Pope served his country in a highly creditable way.

Pope was a successful general in the west. In the spring of 1862 he captured Island Number 10 in the Mississippi and participated in the Corinth campaign with Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. In June of 1862 Pope was summoned by Edwin Stanton to command the scattered forces that had been maneuvering unsuccessfully in the Shenandoah Valley to capture Stonewall Jackson. He proceeded east with great reluctance. Gordon Granger, one of his subordinate commanders in Pope’s Army of the Mississippi would bid his commander farewell with the prophetic words “Goodbye Pope, your grave is made.” Pope’s reputation as a successful aggressive commander was viewed with great anticipation by many of his soldiers in Virginia. His orders to make war on the Virginians was viewed with great anger across the south, but most of Pope’s new soldiers were only to willing to comply with them after campaigning up till then under the more restrained warfare of McClellan. However his infamous proclamation of July 14 1862 that impugned their fighting ability caused morale to plummet. Pope was undeniably at his worst during the Second Bull Run Campaign and the decisive defeat suffered by the Union provided Robert E. Lee with the momentum to propel the Army of Norther Virginia across the Potomac into Maryland. In the chaos and crisis of the first week of September 1862, Lincoln reluctantly chose McClellan to pursue Lee over the now apparently discredited Pope. Lincoln appreciated Little Mac’s proven organization skills and recognized that he had the love of his men and the support of the officers. But Lincoln never forgot that McClellan left Pope to “get out of his scrape”. Pope was sent to Minnesota to put down a Sioux uprising that had broken out and threatened to overwhelm the scattered settlements of that far western state. He realized that he made a huge mistake in accepting command in the east. While passing through Chicago enroute to Minnesota, he told well-wishers “My friends-the state of Illinois it has been for many years my home- and I am glad to return to it. God Almighty knows sorry I am I ever left it.”

While Pope’s exile was viewed with delight in Democratic Party circles and by the McClellan clique of the Army of the Potomac, Pope didn’t leave town without some parting shots of his own. He preferred charges of dereliction of duty against McClellan protégé Fitz John Porter for Porter’s apparent disobedience of Pope’s orders to attack with his corps at Second Bull Run. Porter retained command of the Fifth Corps at McClellan’s request during the Maryland crisis but was relieved of command shortly thereafter and tried by court martial in December of 1862. Found guilty by the court martial board hand picked by Edwin Stanton, Lincoln approved the findings and recommendation. Fitz John Porter was cashiered from the United States Army on January 21, 1863. Porter would spend the next 23 years fighting for redemption. In 1879, the Schofield Board would overturn the court martial results but it wasn't until 1885 that Democratic president Grover Cleveland signed a relief bill that reinstated Porter to the army with the rank of colonel and placed him on the retirement list the same day.

In Minnesota, Pope found his niche again competently handling the suppression of the Sioux uprising. Gratified by the results of the Porter court martial, he was anxious to get back into the war. His competent and restrained handling of the Indian crisis on the western frontier had not gone unnoticed and his apparent exile there angered many of the soldiers who he served with in the west. Pope’s advocacy for humane treatment of the Indians was years ahead of most military officers of the time. He was generally well thought of by U.S. Grant. Another friend, William T. Sherman would sarcastically react to Pope’s Minnesota reassignment. Said Sherman, “I see the people have made a clear sacrifice of Pope and McDowell, and are now content with having killed two of their own generals. This is a glorious war.” With the elevation of these western generals to the top military commands later in the war, Pope was hopeful that he would move closer to the main stream of the war. But the bureaucracy moved slowly. It was not until February 3, 1865 that Pope was appointed to command of the Military Division of the Missouri headquartered at St. Louis, Missouri. As Peter Cozzens says in his book, “Ulysses S. Grant had restored much of the luster to John Pope’s tarnished reputation." Pope would end his military career in March 1886 as a major general in the regular army of the United States, ironically filling the major general billet vacated by his erstwhile Bull Run confidante Irwin McDowell.

That Pope is such a controversial figure can be measured by the quotes I have about him. See them here at Antietam Voices. They range from effusive praise to downright condemnation. Cozzens’s book captures this paradox and should be studied to attempt to make a balanced appraisal of the man. Probably Union naval officer Andrew Foote said it best about Pope. “A good man of dash. Give him 10,000 men to carry a position and it is done promptly. He has courage, energy and enterprise, and in a smaller field was remarkably successful, but in a large theatre of action he is out of his place and nothing but failure could be expected.”

Tom Clemen's Maryland Campaign Blog

Tom Clemens, perhaps the subject matter expert on the Maryland Campaign has joined the blogosphere with his new blog The Maryland Campaign of 1862. Tom's blog will focus on Gen. Ezra A. Car­man and his 1,800 page man­u­script his­tory of the cam­paign. Savas-Beatie LLC will release the first vol­ume of Tom's edition of the Carmen manuscript on May 15, 2010. The first vol­ume con­tains the chap­ters lead­ing up to the bat­tle of Anti­etam and includes the plans of both com­man­ders, the pre­lim­i­nary move­ments of both armies and the bat­tles of South Moun­tain. A sec­ond vol­ume will include the bat­tle of Anti­etam and the imme­di­ate aftermath. I am looking forward to learning more about Carmen and his work at Tom's new blog and I wish him every success in this undertaking. I have added Tom's blog to my list of favorites here and at Antietam Voices .