USA > Maryland > Washington County > Hagerstown > A history of Washington County, Maryland from the earliest settlements to the present time, including a history of Hagerstown > Part 55
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
correct, so far as Southern and Eastern Maryland was concerned, but that it was not shared by the people of Western Maryland, the Confederacy learned to its entire disgust in the campaign of 1862. But the loyal people of Hagerstown had no confidence whatever in the moderation of the Southern troops, although they were afterwards brought to acknowledge it. The excitement and trepidation did not subside until Lee had retired across the Potomac two days after the battle of AAntietam.
Lee having entirely defeated the Federal forces under Pope and driven them back on the Potomac, on the 5th day of September, 1862, cross- ed the Potomae into Frederiek County, at White's Ford. The troops, and especially the Maryland regiments, notwithstanding their hunger and fa- tigue, sct foot upon Maryland soil with great en- thusiasm singing and shouting, while the bands played "Maryland, My Maryland." The army went into camp near Frederiek City. On the 10th, Wednesday. Stonewall Jackson, McLaws and Wal- ker. with their respective commands were detached to invest Harper's Ferry and capture the garrison, which had been permitted to remain there as an easy prey. Walker crossed the Potomac at the Point of Rocks, and took position on Loudoun Heights. Jackson and McLaws marched through Washington County, the former crossing the Poto- mac at Williamsport and approaching Harper's Ferry through Martinsburg from the West and the latter occupying Maryland Heights. Several hun- dred men were put to each piece of artillery and a battery was drawn up the rugged mountain, and planted, overlooking the town but too high up for efficient work.
With his army thus weakened by division, Lee marched up the Boonshoro turnpike to Hagers- town, with Mcclellan and his ninety thousand fresh and well fed troops closely following. In Frederick, General Mcclellan got possession of the celebrated lost order, directed to General D. H. Hill, which gave him complete information of Loes' plan of campaign, and advised him of the division of the Southern Army in front of him. D. II. Hill had been left with five thousand men, as a rear guard to impede Mcclellan's progress as much as he could with so small a force. He sta- tioned himself in Turner's Gap, where the National turnpike crosses South Mountain his right resting upon Crampton's Gap some miles below, just above the village of Burkettsville. It was design-
ed to defend this pass also, as long as possible, to prevent the relief of Harper's Ferry. It was in this portion of the battlefied of South Mountain that General, afterwards President, Rutherford B. Ilays was wounded.
Ilere the battle of South Mountain was fougilt on the 14th of September. Crampton's Gap was carried by the Federal forces under General Frank- lin, after an engagement of three hours. On the Turner's Gap part of the field, the action began early in the morning of the 14th. Burnside's di- vision encountered the first Confederates at the bridge over Catoctin creek, a short distance west of Middletown. General Hill oceupied the crest of the mountain at the Mountain House on the turnpike and also had a detachment to proteel an ordinary wagon road, crossing through Fox's Gap a short distance south of Turner's Gap. In the meantime Lee, with the main body of his troops had reached Hagerstown. On the night of the 13th learning of the approaching attack by Me- ('lellan's great army upon Hill's division, Lee or- dered Longstreet to return to South Mountain and support Hill. Longstreet detached Toombs to re- main in Hagerstown to guard the baggage and supplies and with the remainder of his army, began the march over the hot and dusty pike, thir- teen miles to Turner's Gap, early on the morning of the 14th. Ile arrived upon the scene of the battle at three in the afternoon and found Hill with his little band still gallantly struggling with the great army hefore him, but in a demoralized condition. A courier was dispatched to General Lee informing him of the situation. The com- biped forces of Longstreet and Hill continued to hold the Gap until nightfall, when they received an order from Lee to retire to Sharpsburg. They crossed the Antietam on the afternoon of the next day and formed in front of Sharpsburg on both sides of the Boonsboro pike.
The battle of South Mountain was two inde- pendent actions, some sit miles apart, the South- ern. in Cramptons Gap, now called Gapland ; the Northern was in Turner's and in Fox's. Cramp- ton's Gap is six miles north of the Potomac, and looks from the east like a low shelf, or niehe, in the middle of the high sweep of the South Mountain.
On Sunday, September 14, 1862, General Franklin, with the Sixth Federal Corps, earried Crampton's Gap in the afternoon, marching from Jefferson, Frederick County. This division in the battle was commanded by General Slocum, Smith's
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
division in reserve. The Confederates were eom- manded by General Howell Cobb. Slocum lost 112 killed and 400 wounded; and took 400 pris- oners. The Confederates lost rather more .*
On the afternoon of September 15, the Con- federates began assembling and taking position on the field of Antietam. D. H. Hill and Longstreet were the first on the ground, having, as already said, retired into their positions from South Moun- tain, coming to the field by the Boonsboro' pike. Lee, with the main body of troops, eame down the Sharpsburg pike from Hagerstown, Jackson, after an all night's mareh from Harper's Ferry, crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown and reported at Lee's headquarters in the morning of the 16th. Anderson, McLaws and A. P. Hill arrived the next day while the battle was in progress.
The Confederate right rested at Burnside's Bridge which was defended by Toombs, and ex-
tended over the rugged hills to Sharpsburg, aeross the present site of the National Cemetery, and on by the Dunkard Church, through the thiek woods which then extended up to it from behind, and on nearly to the river, which makes a bold sweep to the east below Mercersville. The left of the line was in command of Jaekson and right under Longstreet, with Hood, of Longstreet's Division to strengthen the line at the Dunkard Church. Gen. Lce established his headquarters on the Shepherds- town road a short distance from the present site of the Norfolk and Western railroad station and near Jacob Marker's House. On the afternoon of the fifteenth, the Federal troops began to appear over the erest of the hill which overlooks the Antietam ereek from the east. Of this arrival, Gen. Long- street in his description of the battle, in the Cen- tury Magazine, says "the number increased and larger and larger grew the field of blue until it
*In 1885 Mr. George Alfred Townsend, a prom- inent army correspondent, bought the ground in Crampton's Gap and for a mile south of it, and be- gan the erection of a retreat, or summer residence, which he named Gapland, on account of several Gaps in sight as well as the nature of his land. No other house stood on the mountain within twelve miles distance, or south of the old Mountain Hotel in Turner's Gap. The elevation of Gapland is one thousand feet and it is the easiest ascent of any gap in the mountain. A mile below it, to the west, is Gapland railroad station, which receives much of the hauling from the Catoctin or Middletown Val- ley; a mile east is the village of Burkittsville. It had long been predicted that some important erec- tion would be made on this Gap, which commands bold mountain views on both sides, from McClell- an's Look Out, on Red Hill, to Braddock's Heights, since a resort on Catoctin Mountain and the South Mountain also mounts up near Crampton's Gap to Mt. Gath, or White Rock, 1800 feet. Mr. Townsend in the Autumn of 1884, having gone there to add a scene to his novel, "Katy of Catoctin," bought the site, and he built there in the following year and later, not less than six residences, in cluster, mainly stone houses. In 1896 he built the War Correspond- ent's Memorial at the forks of the cross roads on the top of the mountain, one of the largest monuments upon the battlefields of the Civil War, 50 feet high and 40 feet broad. It consists of an Arabian, or horse shoe arch of Hummelstown purple stone, 16 feet high and span, of which the Keystone weighs two tons: Above this are three Roman arches of limestone from Cedar Creek battlefield, Virginia, each nine feet high and six feet wide. They were said at the dedication to typify Description, Depic- tion and Photography, the great arch below the horse's shoe, which carried the newsman. Abreast of the arches in the tower, is a recessed statue
of Pan, with a mouth organ, and half drawing, or sheathing a Roman sword. Near the arch, in spandrils, are terra cotta heads of electricity and poctry. Two horse heads are above the upper arches.
This is the first monument which was erected of the local, rude mountain stone. It is battle- mented and machiolated and over the turret, or smaller tower, has a gold vane of a pen bending a sword.' The sign "War Correspondents," in carved vermillion brick spans the structure. Under the two heads, upon shields, are the words "Speed," and "Heed." In the rear the structure is all of rude stone and has two tablets giving the names of all the press correspondents and the pictorial men of the illustrated papers, North and South, one hun- dred and fifty-two in number. At the ends of this great screen, are texts from the battle writers of former history, and the story of the work.
It is the only war correspondents' memorial in the world. The cost was about $5,500. Newspaper proprietors bankers, public men and writers among them Henry M. Stanley, contributed. The design was furnished by John M. Smithmeyer and the build- er was Daniel Webster Martin of Yarrowsburg, Washington County. Governor Lloyd Lowndes ded- icated the monument, October 16, 1896, and the Secretary of War sent buglers to assist. This struc- ture is efficiently supported by the fine stone houses of the ex-correspondent, who also reported the Austro- Prussian war of 1806. Mr. Townsend's father was a native of Worcester, or Somerset County, Maryland, among the scenes of his son's novel the "Entailed Hat," and a vault in the rear of Gapland has an inscription to his parents.
Various markers of the action of 1862. sur- round the Correspondents' Memorial, that to the New Jersey brigade, a cenotaph, having cost $1,000.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
seemed to streteh as far as the eye could see; and from the tops of the mountains down to the edges of the stream gathered the great army of MeClellan, ninety thousand strong. It was an awe-inspirng spectacle as this grand force settled down in sight of the Confederates, then shattered by battles and scattered by long and tiresome marehes."
The headquarters of Gen. MeClellan was in the farm house of Mr. Philip Pry, on the top of the ridge on the east side of the Antietam, on the Kredysville road. On Elk Ridge. a spur of the mountain cast of the Antietam, a signal station was placed, which commanded every portion of the field. In the Federal disposition of troops, Burn- side was on the extreme left of the line of battle, eonfronting Toombs at Burnside's Bridge; Hooker, Summer and Mansfield were on the right, con- fronting Jackson from the "Sunken road" or "bloody lane" on past the Dunker Chureh. Dou- bleday opposed the Confederate cavalry near the river, and repulsed Stewart when he attempted a flank movement around the Federal right. Fitz John Porter, with a large body of troops, was held in reserve on the Keedysville road, near the headquarters of Mcclellan, at a place called Por- terstown.
Thus the battle was in array. the opposing lines five miles long. The erop of wheat which had covered the fields now overrun by men intent upon the work of destruction, had been harvested. Some little had been threshed, but most of it was still in the ricks at the barns. Nearly all this was burned by bursting shells, or so filled with unexploded shells that it was afterwards only handled at the risk of life. Many of the fields were smiling with a waving erop of eorn. After forty-five years. the physical features of the field of battle have been greatly changed by the clear- ing away of woods. There was a heavy growth of timber along the Hager-town road up to and sur- rounding the Dunker Church. The body of tim- ber on the same pike near the old toll gate, and to the part of it where Mansfield was placed, was much larger. But otherwise, the field today is much as it was during the storm of shot and shell in September, 1802. The division of the fields and the location of fences, roads and bridges is almo-t unchanged. The hundreds of bullet holes in the frneos along the pike showed that the same rails and posts were in many places doing service 30 years after the war.
Several of the most conspicuous buildings in
Sharpsburg including the old Lutheran and Epis- copal Churches were greatly damaged by eannon balls. All these marks have disappeared. The little Dunkard Church, which was so shattered that people eould ride on horseback through the breaches in its walls, has been repaired and painted so that all marks of the injuries it received have been obliterated. A few oaks surround it, and these are scarred with the marks of bullets and for thirty years people searched for minnie balls under them, and seldom were disappointed of finding what they sought.
The contending armies faeing each other on the field of Antietam were strangely different in equipment. The Confederates had the choice and the advantage of position, although had they been routed there would have been nothing to save them from being driven into the Potomac, which enclosed thein from extreme right to ex- treme left. Behind them, it was reinforeed by the eanal. There was no ford, and the banks were rough and precipitous. The only avenue of eseape was Blackford's ford, a mile below Shepherds- town on their right. and for a brief time during the battle they were foreed so far back by Burn- side with his 14,000 men that this avenue was closed, and it was only by the timely arrival of A. P. Hill with his men from Harper's Ferry that Burnside was pressed baek, and the total destrue- tion of Lee and his army averted.
Just before nightfall of the 16th of Septem- ber, Hood's division, away on the left, was at- tacked. But the Federals were driven baek, and the two armies went to sleep, knowing what was coming in the morning, and that many a brave fellow had seen the sun set for the last time ..
It is no part of my plan to give a complete and detailed story of this great battle. That has already been done by many able pens. All I can hope to do is to give a meagre and imperfeet out- line. The Confederates, having the choice of po- sition placed themselves a little behind the highest ridge of the field, which somewhat overtopped the Federal position, and afforded them some sort of protection. The position of the Federals on the eve of the battle was along the high ridge to the cast of the Antietam affording an exeellent posi- tion for artillery practice. This position, together with the superiority of guns and ammunition, gave the Federal side a great advantage in the ensuing artillery duel.
1
Gen. Lee's Headquarters at the Battle of Antietam.
Gen. Mcclellan's Headquarters at the Battle of Antietam Residence of D. G. Kefauver.
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OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The carly morning of the 17th of September was saluted by a roar of cannon over the fields around S. Munma's house. Hooker, Sumner and Mansfield liad concentrated and opened the battle by an attack upon Jackson's men in the cornfield. In a short time the rattle of musketry was added to the din of the artillery, and the battle became fearful. The Confederate bayonets had been dis- covered rising above the tall and luxuriant corn, and in a wonderfully short time, the corn stalks had been leveled by the balls as completely as if they had been cut down with knives. The Con- federate line was overpowered, and retired across the Hagerstown pike to the woods around the Dunker Church, and the carnage was terrific. Just in front of the little church, to the east of the road, General Stark was killed and General Lawton wounded. Then, on the other side, Mans- field was killed and Hooker wounded. Hood came to the assistance of Jackson and stayed the Federal onset, but the lost ground at this point was not regained at the end of the day ; but all day long "the lines swayed back and forth as a cord exposed to the rushing currents."#
On the Federal left, Burnside, with 14,000 men was endeavoring to cross the bridge which has since borne his name. Opposed to him was Toombs with his brigade, posted on the bluff over- looking and commanding the bridge. At one o'clock in the afternoon the passage was effected and Toombs' twelve hundred Confederates, after- wards supported by D. R. Jones with as many more, were being driven back and the Confederate right turned, thus givng Burnside command of the ford of the Potomac, Lee's only possible avenue for escape. And thus did Toombs by causing this long delay save the Southern Army for at the very critical moment, up rode A. P. Hill with his men from Harper's Ferry, stayed Burnside's ad- vance and drove him back to the Antietam. If Burnside had crossed the creek at an earlier hour or if A. P. Hill had arrived at a later hour, it is likely that Lee would have surrendered at An- teitam instead of Appomattox and that Mcclellan would have occupied Grant's place in history.
One of the Confederate movements of the day was an attempt to turn the Federal right. Jack- son sent Stuart with about 5.000 men to turn the right flank and attack the Federal line in the rear, expecting to drive it into the Potomac. Walker
was to attack the front as soon as Stuart's guns should be heard in the rear; but he waited for hours, and the wished for sound never came. To Jackson's great surprisc. Stuart found the Federal right, resting on the Potomac which he thought was several miles to the southewest, being unaware of the great bend in the river at that point .*
The most terrific slaughter was around the Dunker Church. This was the Confederate cen- tre which was during the whole morning the princi- pal point of attack. A short distance south of the little church, a lane enters the pike at a right angle. It is worn down much below the surface of the surrounding fields. In this road was a por- tion of D. II. Hill's division, and here they were attacked by French and Richardson and were mowed down in swathes. They retreated, but left the road piled with dead. In the cornfield ad- joining, French, of the attacking party, was mor- tally wounded. The road is known as "Bloody Lane." When night closed in upon this dread- ful scene. it came welcome to the two opposing commanders. Neither side knew exactly how it fared with the other. The men threw themselves upon the ground and slept without waiting for sup- per, although they had fasted since daybreak. When the sun set, and the sullen roar of artillery ceased, 3,300 men lay dead upon the field and near- ly 17.000 more, gricvously wounded. No human being who has never witnessed such a scene can picture in his mind the horror of that field. Four- teen dead bodies were counted lying in a heap in the cornfield adjoining Bloody Lane; the whole field was dotted with the dead, single and in heaps, and the air was filled with the groans and the lamentations of the wounded and dying, calling for help and begging piteously for water. Young boys in the delirium of pain were talking of homes and mothers. Dead and wounded horses added no inconsiderable element of horror.
The sultry air was laden with the smoke of gunpowder and of the smouldering ruins of burnt houses and barns and straw piles. The fields were ploughed by cannon balls and strewed thick with all manner of debris. Fences were demolished, and rails in splinters ; the green corn blades were in shreds .. and trampled into the dust. The trees of the woods looked as if they had been threshed by a giant's flail. One was garnished with the dead body of a Confederate sharp shooter lodged
*Gen Longstreet in Century Magazine June 1886.
-* Gen. Walker.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
in its fork. Canteens, arms, cartridge boxes, knap- sacks were everywhere. The little Dunker Church was a ruin. Many of the conspicuous buildings in Sharpsburg had suffered, and shells had fallen in the public square.
The next day the hideousnesss of the sight was greatly inereased. The dead bodies were fes- tering in the hot September sun, and the faees turned up to the sky were blaek and swollen. And when the soldiers were buried, many of them simply by having a little earth thrown over them, their projeeting feet, faecs, arms or here and there a head, formed a spectacle too horrible for any tongue or pen to deseribe. The steneli beeame intolerable, and the air was almost darkened by vast numbers of vultures attraeted to the place.
In the rear of the lines during the battle the work of mercy was going on, to repair as far as possible the devil's work in the front. The Feder- al Hospital was established at Hoffman's barn in the north-eastern portion of the field, and here the ambulances were unloading their freight of mang- led humanity all day long. People from Hagers- town, from the College of St. James, from the surrounding country, were there with food and lint and bandages. Many loeal physicians were there too and did good work in rescuing limbs from the saws of the army surgeons, whose sole treat- ment seemed to be amputation.
Thus ended the battle of Antietam, one of the bloodies and fiereest of the war. Neither side knew which was the victor; both sides were willing to stop fighting, and when the tired soldiers threw themselves on the ground in exhausted slumber, there was no fear of an attack from the other side. All night long the infirmary eorps were making the rounds of the field and gathering a rich har- vest of wounded. All day long on the 18th the two armies faced each other. There was a taeit armistice, and men were busy burying the dead- such burial as it was-and the burying parties of the two armies worked side by side. At nightfall of the 18th the campfires of the Confederates gleamed all along the line as if the soldiers were intent upon cooking their suppers. But under cover of the darkness, the troops began to move down the road from Sharpsburg to Shepherdstown. All night long there was a stream of infantry. cav- alry, supply wagons, ambulaners and artillery, moving across the river and into the little town of Shepherdstown on the Virginia bank. At day- light the great Confederate commander turned
his horse's head to the south and muttered "Thank God," as he saw the last battery and the last ambulanec of wounded of the torn and tatter- ed and weary remnant of his army enter the water of the Potomac. He had sat upon his horse all night long watehing the passage, a worn and ex- hausted man.
But he did not, even after the earnage and exhaustion of his army had been revealed to him, willingly abandon the field to his foes. Lieuten- ant-Colonel G. F. R. Henderson of the British Army, in his life of Jaekson, after telling how the ranks of the Confederacy sank exhausted to slum- ber after the terrible work of that dreadful day, says: "From one indomitable heart the hope of vitory had not yet vanished. In the deep silenee of the night, more oppressive than the stunning roar of battle, Lee, still mounted, stood on the highroad to the Potomae, and as general after general rode in wearily from the front, he asked quietly of each, 'How is it on your part of the line?' Each told the same tale; their men were worn out; the enemy's numbers were overwhelm- ing; there was nothing left but to retreat aeross the Potomae before daylight. Even Jackson had no other counsel to offer. His report was not the less impressive for his quiet and respectful tone. He had had to contend, he said, against the heaviest odds he had ever met. Many of his di- visional and brigade commanders were dead or wounded and his loss had been severe. Hood, who came next, was quite unmanned. He exclaimed that he had no men left. 'Great God,' eried Lee, with an exeitement he had not yet displayed, 'where is the splendid division you had this morn- ing?' 'They are lying on the field where you sent them,' was the reply, 'for few have straggled. My divison has been almost wiped out.' After all had given their opinion, there was an appalling silence, which seemed to last several minutes, and then General Lee, arising ereet in his stirrups said, 'Gentlemen we will not cross the Potomac to-night. You will go to your respective commands ; strengthen your lines ; send two offieers from each brigade towards the ford to collect your stragglers, and get them up. Many may come in. I liave had the proper steps taken to colleet all the men who are in the rear. If MeClellan wants to fight in the morning. I will give him battle. Go!'"
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