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THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 511
Isaac P. Rodman, Colonel Kingsbury, of Connecticut, Colonels Crossdale,
Childs and McNull, of Pennsylvania, Colonel Hinks, of Massachusetts,
Colonel Coleman, of Ohio, and Lieutenant Colonel D wight, of Boston.1
Captain Noyes, who visited the field soon after the battle, gives the following graphic description of what he saw:
" My route carried me over the battle-field, and I spent much of the afternoon, part
of the time in company with a friend, in visiting some of the most severely contested
points, to be awe struck, sickened, almost benumbed with its sights of horror. Within this
space of little more than a mile square—this spot, once beautiful with handsome residences and well cultivated farms, isolated, hedged in with verdure, sacred to quiet, calm
content, the hottest fury of man's hottest wrath had expended itself, burning residences
and well-filled barns, plowing fields of ripened grain with artillery, scattering everywhere
through corn-fields, wood, and valley, the most awful illustrations of war. Not a building about us which was not deserted by its occupants, and rent and torn by shot and
shell; not a field which had not witnessed the fierce and bloody encounter of armed and
desperate men.
" Let us first turn off to the left of the Hagerstown turnpike; but we must ride very
slowly and carefully, for lying all through this cornfield are the victims of the hardest
contest of our division. Can it be that these are the bodies of our late antagonists ? Their
faces are so absolutely black that I said to myself at first, ' This must have been a negro
regiment.' Their eyes are protruding from their sockets; their heads, hands, and limbs
are swollen to twice the natural size.
" Passing through this cornfield, with the dead lying through its aisles, out into an
uncultivated field beyond, I saw bodies attired mainly in rebel gray, lying in ranks so
regular that Death, the Reaper, must have mowed them down in swaths. Our burying-
parties were already busily engaged, and had put away to rest many of our own men—
.still here, as everywhere, I saw them scattered over the fields. The ground was strewn
with muskets, knapsacks, cartridge-boxes and articles of clothing ; the carcases of horses,
and thousands of shot and shell. And so it was on the other side of the turnpike, nay, in
the turnpike itself. Ride where we may, through cornfield, wood, or ravine, and our
ride will be among the dead, until the heart grows sick and faint with horror. Here, close
to the road, were the'haystacks near which our General and Staff paused for a while
when the division was farthest advanced, and here, at the corner of the barn, lay one of
our men, killed by a shell, which had well-nigh proved fatal to them also.
" Just in front of these haystacks was the only pleasing picture on this battle-field—
•a fine horse, struck with death at the instant when cut down by his wound, he was
attempting to rise from the ground. His head was half lilted; his neck proudly arched;
every muscle seemed replete with animal life. The wound which killed him was wholly
•concealed from view, so that I had to ride close up before I could believe him dead.
Hundreds of his kind lay upon the field, but all were repulsive save himself, and he was
the admired of every passer-by. Two weeks afterward I found myself pausing to gaze
upon him, and always with the wish that some sculptor would immortalize in stone, this
magnificent animal, in the exact pose of his death-hour. One would like to see something from a battle-field not wholly terrible.
1 General Lee, in his official report, says : by less than forty thousand men on our side, all
"The arduous service in which our troops had of whom had undergone the greatest labors and
been engaged, their great privations of rest and hardships in the field and on the march. Noth-
food, and the long marches, without shoes, over ing could surpass the determined valor with
mountain roads, had greatly reduced our ranks which they met the large army of the enemy
before the action began. These causes had com- fully supplied and equipped, and the result repelled thousands of brave men to absent them- fleets the highest credit on the officers and men
selves, and many more had done so from engaged."—Reports of the Army of Northern Vir-
unworthy motives. The great battle was fought ginia, L, p. 35.
Object Description
| Title | History of Maryland - 3 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Description
| Title | 00000544 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 511 Isaac P. Rodman, Colonel Kingsbury, of Connecticut, Colonels Crossdale, Childs and McNull, of Pennsylvania, Colonel Hinks, of Massachusetts, Colonel Coleman, of Ohio, and Lieutenant Colonel D wight, of Boston.1 Captain Noyes, who visited the field soon after the battle, gives the following graphic description of what he saw: " My route carried me over the battle-field, and I spent much of the afternoon, part of the time in company with a friend, in visiting some of the most severely contested points, to be awe struck, sickened, almost benumbed with its sights of horror. Within this space of little more than a mile square—this spot, once beautiful with handsome residences and well cultivated farms, isolated, hedged in with verdure, sacred to quiet, calm content, the hottest fury of man's hottest wrath had expended itself, burning residences and well-filled barns, plowing fields of ripened grain with artillery, scattering everywhere through corn-fields, wood, and valley, the most awful illustrations of war. Not a building about us which was not deserted by its occupants, and rent and torn by shot and shell; not a field which had not witnessed the fierce and bloody encounter of armed and desperate men. " Let us first turn off to the left of the Hagerstown turnpike; but we must ride very slowly and carefully, for lying all through this cornfield are the victims of the hardest contest of our division. Can it be that these are the bodies of our late antagonists ? Their faces are so absolutely black that I said to myself at first, ' This must have been a negro regiment.' Their eyes are protruding from their sockets; their heads, hands, and limbs are swollen to twice the natural size. " Passing through this cornfield, with the dead lying through its aisles, out into an uncultivated field beyond, I saw bodies attired mainly in rebel gray, lying in ranks so regular that Death, the Reaper, must have mowed them down in swaths. Our burying- parties were already busily engaged, and had put away to rest many of our own men— .still here, as everywhere, I saw them scattered over the fields. The ground was strewn with muskets, knapsacks, cartridge-boxes and articles of clothing ; the carcases of horses, and thousands of shot and shell. And so it was on the other side of the turnpike, nay, in the turnpike itself. Ride where we may, through cornfield, wood, or ravine, and our ride will be among the dead, until the heart grows sick and faint with horror. Here, close to the road, were the'haystacks near which our General and Staff paused for a while when the division was farthest advanced, and here, at the corner of the barn, lay one of our men, killed by a shell, which had well-nigh proved fatal to them also. " Just in front of these haystacks was the only pleasing picture on this battle-field— •a fine horse, struck with death at the instant when cut down by his wound, he was attempting to rise from the ground. His head was half lilted; his neck proudly arched; every muscle seemed replete with animal life. The wound which killed him was wholly •concealed from view, so that I had to ride close up before I could believe him dead. Hundreds of his kind lay upon the field, but all were repulsive save himself, and he was the admired of every passer-by. Two weeks afterward I found myself pausing to gaze upon him, and always with the wish that some sculptor would immortalize in stone, this magnificent animal, in the exact pose of his death-hour. One would like to see something from a battle-field not wholly terrible. 1 General Lee, in his official report, says : by less than forty thousand men on our side, all "The arduous service in which our troops had of whom had undergone the greatest labors and been engaged, their great privations of rest and hardships in the field and on the march. Noth- food, and the long marches, without shoes, over ing could surpass the determined valor with mountain roads, had greatly reduced our ranks which they met the large army of the enemy before the action began. These causes had com- fully supplied and equipped, and the result repelled thousands of brave men to absent them- fleets the highest credit on the officers and men selves, and many more had done so from engaged."—Reports of the Army of Northern Vir- unworthy motives. The great battle was fought ginia, L, p. 35. |
