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 56
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The next morning, with the full extent of the disaster before him, Lee did not change his mind until he had been convinced by an investigation
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that the risk of another battle would be too great. The carnage had been so great within narrow lim- its that it is said that a Federal patrol passing into the cornfield believed that they had come upon a Confederate brigade asleep. But it was the sleep of deatlı. The next morning Lee was still anxious to attack, believing that the Federal right flank which was resting on the northern sweep of the Potomac and canal could be turned. "During the morning," writes General Stephen D. Lce, "a courier from headquarters came to my battalion of artillery with a message that the commander-in- chief wished to sec me. I followed the courier and on meeting General Lec he said, "Col. Lec, I wish you to go with this courier to General Jack- son and say that I sent you to report to hini.' I replied, 'General shall I take my batteries with me?' 'No, just say that I told you to report to him and he will tell you what he wants.' I soon reached General Jackson. He was dismounted with but few persons round him. He said to me, 'Col. Lee, I wish you to take a ride with me,' and I rode to the left of our lines with but one cour- rier, I think. We soon reached a considerable hill and dismounted. General Jackson said, 'Let us go up this hill, and be careful not to expose your- self, for the Federal sharpshooters are not far off." The hill bore evidence of fierce fight the day be- fore. Gen. Jackson said: 'Colonel, I wish you to take your glasses and carefully examine the Federal line of battle.' I did so, and saw a re- markably strong line of battle, with more troops than I knew General Lee had.".
Col. S. D. Lee had lost all his guns but 12. Gen. Jackson asked him if he could crush the Federal right with forty guns. Col. Lee asked permission to try. Jackson pressed his question as to whether it could be done with fifty guns, and finally wrung from him the opinion that it could not. Jackson then ordered Colonel Lee to go to the commander-in-chief and tell him what had occurred. This he did. "I saw a shade come over General Lee's face," says Colonel Lce, "as he said, 'Colonel, go and join your command.'"
It was many years afterward that General Stephen D. Lec learned the meaning of these strange interviews. "It appears," he said, "Gen- eral Lec had ordered Gen. Jackson on the evening of the 17th to turn the enemy's right and Jack-
son said it could not be donc. It appears also front Stuart's report and from the incident I re- late, that General Lee reiterated the order on the 18th and told Jackson to take fifty guns and crush the Federal right. Jackson having reported against such an attempt on the 17th, no doubt said that if an artillerist, in whom General Lee had confi- dence, would say that the Federal right could be crushed with fifty guns, he would make the at- tempt." The Confederates remained in line of battle but during the day information came in which made retreat imperative .*
Of the 57,000 men whom Lec had led into Maryland at White's Ferry, 25,600 went back across the Potomac that night. The number kill- cd had been surprisingly small, 1,253 at Antietam, 314 at South Mountain. But 8,724 were report- cd as wounded in the two battles, and the remain- der of these were missing, many so reported were doubtless killed or dead from exhaustion. At An- tictam the Union Army lost in killed 2,108, wounded 9,549, missing 753 .*
When morning came, and the Federal Army saw that the foc had escaped them, fifteen hundred men crossed the river in pursuit. A. P. Hill turn- ed on these, and swept them bodily into the river, many of theni over the high cliff upon which the southern end of the abutment of the railroad bridge now rests.
Lee had driven back the Army of the Potomac and that of Virginia to the point from which they had started in the spring and summer. He knew how demoralized these armics had become from repeated defeats, and he was fully aware of the scare which Pope's disasters had occasioned at Washington. Mr. Lincoln was known to be very · nervous for the safety of the capital. Lee felt that if he could but still further increase this fear of losing Washington, he might so retain the Fed- eral armies in its neighborhood as to free the northern districts of Virginia from all hostile oc- cupation during the autumn. His object was to keep MeClellan's forces far away from Richmond until winter had so destroyed the roads as to ren- der all field operations near that city practically impossible.
Although a vast amount of valuable equip- ment and military stores had been taken by the Army of Northern Virginia from Pope, it was
*Henderson's Life of Stonewall Jackson.
*Col. H. Kyd Douglas, a distinguished member
of Gen. Jackson's staff wrote an interesting account of the Maryland campaign for the Century Maga- zine in June 1886.
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still a very badly-supplied army and sadly in want of transport. Notwithstanding this fact Lee thought his best plan to accomplish the end he had in view was to invade Maryland, where the Southern cause had thousands of sympathizers, and by that operation keep the war at a distance from Richmond. Lee had, however, it seems to me, underestimated the revivifying influence which MeClellan exerted over the Federal armies when again placed in actual command of them ; nor did Maryland afford him the assistance he had expect- ed. He also miscalculated the time required for the capture of Harper's Ferry-a miscalculation which placed him in a position of real danger. An enterprising commander, not impressed as Me- Clellan always was with the notion that his enemy was vastly stronger than he actually was, would then have pushed Lee very hard, indeed. McClel- lan, with Lee's plan of campaign in his pocket and the large force at his disposal, was in the position where a really great general would have destroyed an adversary who had crossed the Potomac and distributed his troops as Lee's were on the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th of September, 1862.
The battles of South Mountain and Antietam proved to Lee that his army was not strong enough to carry out an aggressive campaign against the now united armies of the North. From the mo- ment that Mcclellan had restored confidence to the Northern army and, thanks to the captured dis- patch, had made up his mind to act, it was ob- viously Lee's policy to avoid fighting as much as possible and recross into Virginia. Antietam, though a battle unwittingly fought by him, was, however, unavoidable. It is necessary to estimate a general's purposes in judging what he has gain- ed or lost by a battle. That the actual result on the battle-field was a Confederate victory seenis to be little disputed. Lor had gained what he had hoped to secure by that battle, which was to make good his repassage of the Potomac. The Confed- erate army had won a batttle, but had achieved no victory. whilst the Confederacy had failed in its intention to carry the war into the enemy's coun- try. Colonel Kyd Douglas states the case very fairly when he says: "The prestige of the day was with Ice, but when, on the night of the 18th, he recrossed into Virginia, he left the prestige of the result with Mcclellan."
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Tre's management of the battle against vastly superior forces was wonderfully successful. His retreat afterwards was as wise and necessary as
it was admirably conducted. It is only for school- boys that retreat under such circumstances can be said to take anything from the prestige of men like Lee. He was soon to show, against generals who, as Mcclellan put it, "acted before they were ready," how brilliantly he could deal with the op- portunities victory gave him, as well as with cir- cumstances which, as in this instance, made it necessary to prepare the way for retreat .--- Gen. Sir Garnet Wolseley in the North American Re- view.
Shortly after the battle, the Hon. A. W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland, with his staff and eighteen surgeons, visited the battlefield and the hospitals, the surgeons volunteering to remain to help with the wounded. Upon his return to Annapolis, the Governor issued an address thank- ing the Marylanders under McClellan for their patriotism and also expressing in behalf of the State acknowledgments to Gen. McClellan and Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania.
On October 1, President Lincoln arrived at Sharpsburg to visit General Mcclellan, who was still encamped on the field of battle. The Pres- ident was accompanied by John W. Garrett, pres- ident of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, Mr. Ken- nedy superintendent of the census, Marshal La- mon of the District of Columbia, and others. They came on the railroad to Frederick, rode the twenty miles from that city to Sharpsburg in an army ambulance, and remained several days with Gen- eral Mcclellan, visiting the battle fields of An- tietam and South Mountain and many of the hos- pitals. While they were at Antietam an incident occurred which serves to illustrate the generous nature and humanity of President Lincoln, which is thus related by the war correspondent of a Northern paper who was present.
"The President's party passed a house in which was a large number of Confederate wound- ed. By request of the President the party alight- ed and entered the building. Mr. Lincoln after looking, remarked to the wounded Confederates that if they had no objection he would be pleased to take them by the hand. He said the solemn obligations which we owe to our country and posterity compel the prosecution of this war, and it followed that many were our enemies, through uncontrollable circumstances, and he bore them no malice and could take them by the hand with sym- pathy and good feeling. After a short silence the Confederates canie forward and each silently but
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fervently shook the hand of the President. Mr. Lincoln and Gen. McClellan then walked forward by the side of those who were wounded too severely to be able to arise and bade them be of good cheer, assuring them that every possible care should be bestowed upon them to ameliorate their condition. It was a moving scenc, and there was not a dry eye in the building, either among the Nationals or Confederates. Both the President and Gen. McClellan were kind in their remarks and treatment of the rebel sufferers during this remarkable interview."
After the battles, all the southeastern portion of the County, including Hagerstown, was filled with wounded. There were large hospitals here and there, and many private houses contained wounded men. Immediately after the battle, churches and public buildings in the vicinity were all occupied. The day after South Mountain there were four large hospitals in Boonsboro" containing, as all did, Federal and Confederate wounded lying side by side. In December, all the Confederates had been removed and there were still twelve thousand wounded in the County. The women of the County were unremitting in their care and attention in supplying food suited to the condition of the sick and wounded, and which the Government could not furnish. No one was more conspicuous in ministering to the physical and spirtual wants of the wounded than the Rev. Dr. J. B. Kerfoot, the President of the College of St. James, and the Rev. Henry Edwards, Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Hagerstown. For the time, the latter held a commission as army chaplain. The largest and most important of the hospitals was that at Smoketown, in the woods near the Hagerstown and Sharpsburg turn- pike and on the northern edge of the Antietam battle-field. It was in charge of Surgeon Vander- kieft of the regular army. This hospital consist- ed of a village of tents. It was found that, even in the winter, the patients in tents fared better and recovered more rapidly than those in house hospitals.
The roar of the guns from South Mountain battle caused great excitement in Hagerstown and many of the people went out to see the battle. The town at the time was in possession of the Confederates. Gen. Toombs was encamped at John Heyser's place on the Williamsport pike at the edge of town. During the Southern occupa- tion this time, as at other times, many of the
Union people fled to Pennsylvania leaving their property to the care of their secessionist friends. On the day of the Antictam battle, the roar of artillery was heard very loud in Hagerstown. Supplies were carried for the wounded by many charitable people. Among those who went carry- ing a quantity of wine and biscuits werc Matthew S. Barber and J. Dixon Roman. At Lappans Cross Roads, they found a number of Confederate soldiers, faint and broken down, by the roadside. To these they ministered. At that point the roar of the battle scemed so close that they moved east on the Boonsboro road. At St. Mark's Church they encountered a federal picket who was induced by the gift of a bottle of wine to let them pass, and they reached Boonsboro and wit- nessed the bringing in of numbers of wounded from the field of battle, filling all the halls and churches. There they distributed their supplies and witnessed the ghastly work of the surgeons with their knives and saws.
An incident at the battle of Antietam which is worthy of mention was told by the Hon. Elihu Root, secretary of war, at the dedication of the Maryland monument at Antietam on May 30, 1900. There were present on that occasion Wil- liam Mckinley, President of the United States, with six of his Cabinet officers; General James Longstreet, General Joseph Wheeler, Geo. B. Mc- Clellan, Jr., Admiral Melville, Gen. Jno. R. Brooke, Senators Daniel, of Virginia and Lodge of Mas- sachusetts, John Walter Smith, Governor of Mary- .land, Henry Kyd Douglas, of Stonewall Jackson's staff, and other distinguished citizens. In his speech accepting the monument presented by the Governor of Maryland, the Secretary of War said: "Over yonder, near the bridge, was the Twen- ty-third Ohio regiment. Miles away at the rcar was the commissary sergeant, a lad of 18 years .. He realized that his regiment would be fainting and weary for want of food, so without orders, compelled by no soldicrly duty, he loaded his wagons and called for volunteer drivers. From the rear to the front they drove, braving death every instant and brought the reinforcement of food which enabled the regiment to go on fighting. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward President of the United States, commanded the regiment and on the field recommended that Commissary Ser- geant for a commission. The commission camne on account of his gallantry in action-to Willianı Mckinley, now President of the United States."
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Another incident has a personal interest. Some days after the battle, as Mrs. Howard Ken- nedy- stood in front of her residence at the corner of Washington and Prospect streets, in Hagers- town, watching soldiers and others passing by to take the train for the North, she observed a young Federal officer, a mere boy, almost staggering along, with his neck bandaged and evidently ex- tremely weak. Mrs. Kennedy's kind heart was touched, and she sent one of her sons to bring the young man into the house. She kept him there for weeks, and nursed him carefully until he was strong enough to travel, and then he re- sumed his journey to the North. The young man proved to be Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and now a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He had gone into the army with the rank of lieutenant, had been desperately wounded at one of the early battles along the Potomac, was pro- moted for bravery, and at Antietam was shot through the neck. Hearing of the young captain's wound, his distinguished father started out on a search for him, hardly hoping to recover more than his dead body. He went by rail to Balti- more, searched the hospitals there, then made his way to Frederick, making inquires as he went. From Frederick he went in a wagon through Middletown to Antietam battlefield, stopping at each hospital and going from cot to cot hoping in each one to find his missing son. Finally, at Keedysville, he got tidings. The wounded cap- tain, he was told, was at the house of Mrs. Line. IIc went there overjoyed, only to learn that the son had just left in an ambulance for Hagers- town. Assuming then that he had gone there to take the cars for Philadelphia, where there was a friend who had nursed him when wounded be- fore, instead of following up his son to Hagers- town, Dr. Holmes returned to Philadelphia through Baltimore to meet disappointment again. Nothing had been heard from him. Then he went to Harrisburg, and after long waiting and tele- graphing learned that his son was safc at Mrs. Kennedy's. Shortly thereafter they met in Harris- burg.
For nearly a month after the battle of An- tietam the army of the Potomac remained inactive. It was not until the 26th of October that Mc- Clellan began his second advance from the Poto- mac into Virginia. In the meantime, while Ha- gerstown was occupied with Federal troops and
people in the southern and southeastern portions of the County were engaged in caring for the sick and wounded who had been left from the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, the loyal people of Washington County and of Southern Pennsylvania were thrown into a panic by Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry raid.
On October 8, Gen. Lee issued from his head- quarters in camp near Winchester an order to this officer to forin a detachment of from twelve hun- dred to fifteen hundred well mounted men, and make an expedition into Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania to destroy railroad bridges, inter- . rupt transportation and inflict all possible dam- age upon the enemy. In pursuance of his orders, Gen. Stuart started the next day, October 9, 1862, with 1,800 men and four pieces of horse artillery, under command of Gen. Wade Hampton and Cols. W. H. F. Lee and Jones. He crossed the Potomac at McCoy's Ferry above Williamsport. The party reached the Western turnpike a short distance north from the Ferry about an hour after six regiments of Ohio troops had passed along, en- route through Cumberland to West Virginia. The Confederates here captured a Federal signal party and several prisoners whom they had taken. From these the Confederates gathered much serviceable information as to the position of their enemies. Gen. Stuart was anxious to reach Hagerstown to get the large government stores which he had been informed were in that town. But the Fed-' eral forces in the town and within easy reach of it, were too strong to make such an attempt pru- dent, and so the Confederates crossed the National road, and went forward to Mercersburg. From there they went to Chambersburg reaching there after dark in the rain. The town was summoned to surrender but all the officials had fled and there was no one with whom to treat. So Chambersburg was occupied and Gen. Hampton made Military Governor. In Chambersburg the railroad and Government property including a large store of small arms were destroyed. Many horses were taken,the quartermaster giving a regular certifi- cate of seizure for each one so that the despoile:1 owner would have evidence of his loss to present to the United States Government. Washington County suffered but little beyond fright, from this raid as the Confederates were in the County only a few hours, returning to Virginia through Frederick County.
While this expedition was in progress, the
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Confederates destroyed the track of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad from Harper's Ferry almost to North Mountain, a distance of 35 miles. On the morning after the battle of Antietam, the Mary- land brigade under command of Gen. John K. Kenly, left Baltimore for Hagerstown, which it reached on October 20. It marched at once to- ward Williamsport, to reinforce the . Pennsylvania militia who were stationed near that town. After a skirmish with Confederate cavalry which re- treated across the river, Gen. Kenly occupied Wil- liamsport the next day. The Confederate cavalry had crossed the river at Williamsport on Sep tember 19, and had advanced almost half way to Hagerstown where there were large Government stores. The Pennsylvanians, who alone interposed between these stores and the Confederates were raw militia and but for the timely arrival of the Marylanders under Kenly the stores would prob- ably have been destroyed either by the Confed- erates or by the Federals to prevent their falling into the hands of the invaders.
One of the storm centres in Washington County during the war was the College of St. James. This institution had been founded a doz- en years before the war broke out at Fountain Rock, the old Manor House of Conococheague Manor. It was the Diocesan School of the Episco- pal Church in Maryland. It was at once success- ful. But at that time Hagerstown was inacces- sible, except for one railroad, and that from the North; while almost the entire patronage of the college was from Baltimore and the South. It had therefore been determined to remove the school to Baltimore County. A considerable sum of money had been gathered, and the erection of a fine building had begun. The war ended this plan and ended the school as a college.
While nearly all the students were from the South, the President, the Rev. John B. Kerfoot, and nearly all the teachers, were from the North. But Dr. Kerfoot, while uncompromising in his loyalty to the Union, was a man of generous dispo sition and infinite tact, and he so managed the young Southerners as to retain their love and re- spect and to keep them from dangerous indiscre- tions, to which all were prone in those exciting times. It was remarked that most of the South- ern boys were at first opposed to secession, but that did not in any way diminish their loyalty to their several States after secession had taken place. Dr. Kerfoot declared that the most extreme se-
cessionists among the students were those from Maryland, and he marveled at this because he knew that the parents of nearly all of them were loyal to the Union.
The matron at the College at the time was Mrs. Porter, mother of the distinguished Federal officer, Fitz-John Porter, then a major in the regular army. Mrs. Porter's grandson, Lucian Porter Waddell was a member of the corps of instructors in the college. Gen. Porter was in the neighborhood when the first troops arrived at thic college and he was frequently there to visit lis mother. His presence was a great advantage and protection to the place. Two months after the nineteenth of April riot in Baltimore, namely on June 15, 4,000 Pennsylvania volunteers under Gen. Williams arrived at the College and encamp- ed in the field below the spring. Gen. Porter had promised that the encampment should not be so close and later, he came and had the camp re- moved. While it was there, the grounds had been overrun with soldiers who were rough fellows from mines and furnaces, but they respected the rights of property, and were guilty of no single act of lawlessness except that they compelled the college authorities to display a flag, which they were en- tirely willing to do. While the soldiers were at the college it was a time of great anxiety to Dr. Kerfoot, fearing that the Southern boys would get in trouble by indiscreet talk. But nothing untoward occurred.
When the college closed in June, 1861, there were about 175 students. At the beginning of the next session, October 1861 only sixteen returned. Later, the number increased to between forty and fifty. Most of those who failed to return had entered the Southern Army, and many of that number had fought their last battle long before the war closed.
An incident that occurred in the College Chapel during this session serves to illustrate a matter which gave trouble to the Episcopal Church in Maryland all through the war. The Bishop of the Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Wm. R. Whittingham, was a Northern man. He believed that the at- titude of the South was rebellion, and that re- bellion was a moral as well as a political crime. The great body of his clergy were opposed to this view and were secessionists. With them, there- fore, he was constantly at odds. He appointed days of fasting which many of his flock refused to observe. He sent out prayers which some of his
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clergy denounced as political prayers, and refused to use. The use of the prayer for "the President of the United States and all others in authority," was general although many members of the var- ious congregations would solemnly arise from their knees while it was being said. One Sunday, be- fore the Antietam battle when Hagerstown was occupied by the Confederate Army, a large nuni- ber of the officers and men attended the services at St. John's Episcopal Church. While the church was full of gray uniforms, the Rector, the Rev. Henry Edwards, a Northerner and a strong Union man prayed for the President of the United States as earnestly as aforetime. Some thought he would omit the prayer that Sunday, but these did not know the man. A majority of the congregation of this church were secessionists, and the politics of the Rector led to serious differ- ences between them, which finally culminaicd when the church bell was rung upon the coming of the news of Lee's surrender. The people jump- ed to the conclusion that it was rung by the order of the Rector, but it was afterwards shown that he knew nothing of it.
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