Tuesday, February 13, 2024

"Some men can fight battles over a telegraph wire, but you know I have no talent in that direction:" Reminiscences of Major-Gen. Sumner. [1]

"From Our Special Correspondent,
     Washington, March 23, 1863

  Ten days ago Gen. Sumner was here, apparently in vigorous health. Yesterday, intelligence of his death sent through the capital a thrill of surprise and regret. Surprise that one who had braved the hardships of campaigning and the perils of battle for more than 40 years, until he seemed to bear a charmed life, should be cut off abruptly by disease. Regret at the loss of one so loved and honored.


    Major-Gen. Sumner was eligible for the retired list, having belonged to the army of the United States for 48 years; but he was never one to eat the bread of idleness. He entered the service from civil life, and was free from West Point traditions and narrowness. Senator Ben. Wade once asked him, "General, how long were you at West Point?" "I was never there in my life, Sir," replied Sumner. The bluff Ohioan sprang up and shook him fervidly by the hand, exclaiming, "Thank Good for one General of the regular army, 'who was never at West Point?'"

    During the Kansas troubles, Col. Sumner was stationed in the Territory with his regiment of dragoons. Utterly unscrupulous as the Administrations of Pierce and Buchanan were in their efforts to force Slavery upon Kansas--embittered as the people were against the troops, mere tools of Missouri ruffians, their feelings toward Sumner were always kindly and grateful. They knew he was a just man, who would not willingly harass or oppress them, and that he sympathized with them in their fiery trial. No State will tour him more deeply than youg Kansas--worthy of the precious blood which baptized here--who, in this greater struggle, bears away the palm from all her sisters; who has already contributed to the war 3,000 more men than the Government ever asked of her, and who tolerates no treason at home.

    When the history of this war is faithfully written, Sumner's name will be one of the brightest in that noble army which has illustrated the discipline and valor of Northern troops on so many bloody fields, but which, through a leader infirm of purpose, never yet gathered the ripe fruits of victory. At Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill he decided the fate of the day; and through the whole Peninsular campaign he was in the hottest, deadliest of the fighting. 

    He had the true soldierly temperament. Not only was his whole heart in the ar, but if it is possible for any man to love fighting, to feel what the ancients called "the rapture of the strife," Sumner was that man. He snuffed the battle afar off. He went into it with a boyish enthusiasm. Our Generals usually exposed themselves not too little but too much. If they participated less in the peril, they might often economize the lives of their men more, and yet achieve the same realists. But in this soldierly imprudence Sumner eclipsed them all. The chronic wonder of his friends was that he ever came out of battle alive; but at last they began to believe, with him, that he was invincible. He would get bullets in his hat, his coat, his boots, his saddle, his horse, sometimes have his person scratched, but always escaped without serious injury. HIs soldiers used to tell, with great relish, the story that in the Mexican war a bullet which struck him square in the forehead fell flattened to the rough without breaking the skin, as the hunter's ball glances from the forehead of the buffalo. It was this anecdote which won him the sobriquet of "Old Bull Sumner." I think he desired, when his time should come, to fall in battle; but it illustrates the fortunes of war that the officer who for forty years had thus courted death should at last die peacefully in his bed, sounded by his family. 

    At Fair Oaks, when his troops were staggering under a pitiless storm of bullets, Sumner came galloping along up and down the advance line, more exposed than any private in the ranks. "What regiment is this?" he asked. "The 15th Massachusetts," replied a hundred voices. "I, too, am from Massachusetts; three cheers for our old Bay State!" And swinging his hat, the General led off, and every soldier joined in three thundering cheers. The enemy look on in wonder at the strange episode, but was driven back by the fierce charge which followed.

    This was no unusual scene; it was the way Sumner fought his b


attles. Staff officers will tell you, by the hour, how, when the guns began to pound, his mild eye would light up with flashes of fire; how he would take out his artificial tee, which became troublesome during the excitement of battle, and place them carefully in his pocket; raise his spectacles from his eyes and rest them upon the forehead, had he might see clearly objects at a distance; give his orders to his subordinates, and then gallop headlong into the thick of the fight.

    How many soldiers, as they read and talk of his death in their camps to-day, recall the erect form, the snowy hair streaming in the wind, the frank face of that wonderful old man, who, "In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge of battle when it raged,"[2] would ride along their front lines, when they were falling like grass before the mower, encouraging the fearful, and shouting through the smoke, "Steady, men, steady! Don't be excited. When you have been soldiers as long as I, you will learn that this is nothing. Stand firm and do your duty!"

     For a man of 64, his health was marvelous. His long, temperate life in the pure air of the great plains and the mountains--a region of which he was enthusiastically fond--retained in his vigorous frame the elasticity of boyhood. Upon a march he usually quite for out his staff with hard riding. When he left the field during the last days of January there were few officers of 25 as nimble and agile as he; few who could spring upon a horse more easily, or ride with more grace and endurance.

    There was no straining for dramatic effect about Sumner. He never advertised his exploits, or attempted Napoleonic proclamations and reports. He sometimes displayed heroism which would illustrate the brighter pages of history; but he did it unostentatiously, unconsciously. It was the act of a soldier quietly performing a soldiers's duty.

    At Fair Oaks, on Saturday evening, after Casey and Heintzelman had suffered greatly, and had driven three or four miles, Sumner crossed the Chickahominy at an unexpected point, and attacking the enemy vigorously in flank and rear, turned the tide of battle. On Sunday morning the fight was renewed; many gallant officers fell. Gen. Howard lost his arm at the head of his brigade, and our triumph was gained at a heavy cost; but Sumner held his advantage. During a lull in the battle, McClellan crossed the river, remained long enough to write his famous dispatch censuring Casey's men, and then succeeded in returning upon a log over the swelling stream. Our bridges were swept away; our army was thus cut in twain; and Sumner, with his three shattered corps, was left without hope of reinforcements. The weakened half of our army was at the mercy of the enemy's entire force.

    On that Sunday night, after making his dispositions to receive an attack, Sumner sent for Gen. Sedgwick, who commanded his Second Division--one of his special friends and most trusty soldiers. "Sedgwick," said he, "you perceive the situation. The enemy will probably precipitate himself upon us at daylight. Reenforcements are impossible; he can overwhelm and destroy us. But at this most critical period the country cannot afford to have us defeated. The enemy may win a victory; but we must make it a victory that shall ruin him. There is just one thing for us to do: we must stand here and die like men! Impress it upon your officers that we must do this to the last man--to the last man! We may not meet again; but we will at least die like soldiers."

    And so Sumner wrung the hand of his lieutenant [Sedgwick] and bade him farewell. Morning came; the enemy failing to discover our perilous condition, did not renew the attack; in a day or two new bridges were built, and the sacrifice was averted. But Sumner was the man to carry out his resolution to the letter.

    After Fair Oaks, he retained possession of a house on our old line of battle; and the headquarters tents were brought up and pitched there. They were within range of a Rebel battery which awoke the General and his staff every morning, by dropping shot and shell all about them for two or three hours. Sumner implored permission to capture or drive away that battery, but was refused, on the ground that it might bring on a general engagement. He chafed and stormed: "It is the most disgraceful thing of my life," he said, "that this should be permitted;" but McClellan, whose prudence never forsook him, was inexorable. Sumner was begged to remove his headquarters to a safe position, but he persisted in staying there for fourteen days, and a last only withdrew upon a peremptory order from his superior.

    The experience of that fortnight shows how much iron and lead my fly about men's ears without harming them. During the whole bombardment only two persons at the headquarters were injured. The surgeon of a Rhode Island battery was slightly wounded in the head by a piece of shell which flew into his tent; and a private, who laid down behind a log for protection, was instantly killed by a shell knocking a splinter from the log, which fractured his skull. There were many hairbreadth 'scapes; but not another man received a scratch.

    During the artillery fighting, the day before Antietam, I saw Sumner lying upon the grass under the shade trees, in front of the brick house which served for General Headquarters. A few yards distant, in an open field, a party of staff officers and civilians were suddenly startled by a stray shell from the enemy, which dropped about a hundred feet from them. It was followed by another which fell still nearer, and the group broke up and scattered with great alacrity. "Why," remarked Sumner, with a peculiar smile, "the shells excite a good deal of commotion among those young gentlemen!" The idea which seemed to amuse him was that anybody should be disconcerted by shells.

    After Antietam came McClellan's most costly and fatal mistake, of not renewing the attack and utterly destroying the enemy. His ever-swift apologists explained it by saying that all his corps commanders protested against a new attack and urged that their troops were unfit to go into battle again. Upon hearing this report, I asked Gen. Sumner if it was true of him. He replied with emphasis: "No, Sir. My advice was not asked at all; and I did not volunteer it. But I was certainly in favor of renewing the attack. Much as my troops had suffered, they were good for another day's fighting, especially when the enemy had that river in his rear, and a defeat would have ruined him forever." and yet Sumner's single corps (only one out of the five engaged) had suffered almost half of our entire casualties. Of our total loss (12,352) 5,208 cases were in his corps.

    At Fredericksburg, by the express order of Burnside, Sumner remained on this side of the river during the fighting. The precaution probably saved his life. He'd he ridden with his usual rashness out on that fiery front, he had never returned to tell what he saw. Still, he chafed sadly under the restriction. As the sun wen down on that day of glorious but fruitless endeavor, he paced to and from in front of the Lacey House with one arm thrown around the neck of his son, his face haggard with sorrow and anxiety, and his eyes straining eagerly for the arrival of each successive messenger.

    He was a man of high ambition. Once, hearing Gen. Howard remark that he did not aspire to the command of a corps, he exclaimed: "General, you surprise me. I would command the world, if I could!" But it was the ambition of a soldier and a patriot. He gave to his superiors not merely lip service, but jealous, hearty, untiring co-operation. It was a point of honor with him, even when he believed them mistaken or incompetent, never to breath a word to their disparagement.

    He was sometimes called arbitrary; but he had great love for his soldiers, especially his old companions in arms. I heard one of his officers tell a laughable story of applying to him for a ten days' furlough, when the rule against them was imperative. Sumner peremptorily refused it. But the officer sat down beside him, and began to talk about the Peninsula campaign, the battles in which he had done his duty, immediately under Sumner's eye; and it was not many minutes before the General granted his petition. "If he had only waited," said the narrator, "until I reminded him of some scenes at Antietam, I am sure he would have given me twenty days instead of ten."

    He was charged with rashness, especially at Antietam--an accusation of the justness of which I had no opportunity of judging. But I know it was the mode, about McClellan's headquarters, to say of our most gallant officers--Hooker, Kearney, and others--"O yes, he fights well; but then he isn't discreet; he has not the head to manage a battle." And veterans of the Army of the Potomac--men on whose judgment I have learned to rely--testify that it was Sumner who saved the field at Fair Oaks, who fought an won the battle of Malvern Hill, and who would have pursued the stricken enemy from the field straight into Richmond, had not orders from headquarters restrained him.

    He possessed great kindness of heart; he was intrinsically a gentleman--an example which some of our Major=Generals might study to advantage. His intercourse with women and children was characterized by peculiar chivalry and gentleness. There was much about him to revive the old ideal of the soldier--terrible in battle, but with a heart open and tender as a child's.

    To his youngest son--a Captain upon his staff--he was bound by ties of unusual affection. "Sammy" was his constant companion; in private he leaned upon him caressed him, and consulted him upon the most trivial matters. It was a touching bond which untied the gray, war-worn veteran to the child of his old age. He leaves another son in the service--Capt. E.V. Sumner, of Gen. Stoneman's staff--and the son-in-law, at whose house he died--Liet. Col. W. W. Teall, of the Commissary Department. He leaves also two sons=in=law--both native Virginians--in the Rebel army.

    The order assigning Gen. Sumner to succeed Gen. in command of the Department of the West was written before the battle of Fredericksburg, but postponed at the special request of Gen. Burnside. On Saturday, the 14th inst.--just a week before his death--he had received his final orders and left Washington for Syracuse, to spend a few days at home preparatory to starting for St. Louis.

    While the carriage was waiting at the door to take him to the train, I went into his room to bind him adieu. Allusion was made to the charges of speculation brought against his predecessor, in the new department. "I trust," said he, "they are untrue. No General has a right to make one dollar out of his official position, beyond the salary which his Government pays him." He talked somewhat in detail of his plans, and remarked, "For the present, I shall remain in St. Louis; but whenever there is a prospect of meeting the enemy, I shall take the field, and lead my troops in person. Some men can fight battles over a telegraph wire, but you know I have no talent in that direction."

    With his friendly grasp of the hand, and his old, kindly smile he started for home. It has proved to him Home indeed. We may have greater Generals left, but we have not better soldiers or purer patriots. May his memory be green forever in the hearts of his countrymen!

    A.D.R.

========
Notes

[1] Source: Norwood Penrose Hallowell Papers, 1784-1914, Scrapbook Vol. 5, 1861-1875 Massachusetts Historical Society. The transcript is that of a newspaper article without date or publication and signed by A.D.R. who was Albert Dean Richardson (1833-1869) a journalist for the New York Daily Tribune. The authorship by Richardson suggests that this biography was published in the New York Daily Tribune. Richardson, like Sumner a Massachusetts  native, spent time in the West prior to the war and may have become acquainted with Sumner at that time. 

[2] This is drawn from John Milton's Paradise Lost, Book 1.




    

Saturday, July 9, 2022

An Excursion of the Philadelphia Brigade to Antietam, September 17, 1906

What follows is an account of the excursion of the Philadelphia Brigade Association to its Antietam Monument on September 17, 1906. 

"At a meeting of the Philadelphia Brigade Association, held at Grand Army headquarters, Fifth and Chestnut streets, on Tuesday evening June 12, 1906, upon motion of Comrade John W. Frazier, it was unanimously agreed that the Brigade Association make a visit to Gettysburg and Antietam, on September 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th, and that a Committee of Seven, with Commander John D. Worman, as chairman, be appointed to make all arrangements for such a trip."

"On the following day Adjutant Frazier wrote to Comrade Chas. T. Loehr, Secretary Pickett's Division Association, informing him of the action taken by the Brigade Association, and suggesting that the survivors of the Philadelphia Brigade would like to meet the comrades of Pickett's Division upon this occasion." 

Soon, the Pickett's Division Association accepted the invitation and the Reunion of the Blue and Gray took shape and dates established. The two former foes would devote September 15-16 to memorializing Gettysburg. On the 17th, the Philadelphia Brigade Association embarked on a day trip to Antietam "to honor by our presence the memory of 545 of our Brigade, who fell in that one day's battle." Things did not go well.  

The itinerary laid out, they would leave Gettysburg, "on Monday morning, at 8.30 o'clock, take a special train for Antietam. Drive to Philadelphia Brigade Park, where dinner will be served, after which a drive over the Antietam battle-field, returning to Gettysburg in time for supper."

And so, "on Monday morning at 8.30 o'clock, the whole party took the special train for Antietam, and although the promise of the Railroad Company was to put us at the Antietam Station at 11 o'clock--a run of about 40 miles in 2 1/2 hours--it was half past one o'clock when the train reached Antietam, full two hours and a half behind time, thus making our trip to Antietam one of vexation, instead of pleasure, inasmuch as dinner had been provided for 150 persons at the Philadelphia Brigade Park at 11.30 o'clock, remaining cooked and uneaten until two o'clock, and depriving us of our anticipated trip over the Antietam battle-field, as we were scheduled to return to Gettysburg at 4 o'clock."

While their dinner must have been a hurried affair, the brigade did have time for a memorial photograph during  their less than two hour visit to the field.

"Starting from Antietam at 4 o'clock, we reached Gettysburg at 6:15, in time for supper, making the return trip in 2 1/4 hours--just half the time it took to make the trip to Antietam from Gettysburg."



Source: John W. Frazier, Reunion of the Blue and Gray: Philadelphia Brigade and Pickett's Division, July 2, 3, 4 1887 and September 15, 16, 17, 1906 (Philadelphia, Ware Bros. Company, Printers, 1906), pp. 10, 57, 113-14.


Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Memorial Day 2021


 "While with a view to avoid their mistakes in the future, we may study the faults and omissions of the brave men who here contended for the life of the Republic, let us not blame them, for there were often cogent reasons, hindrances, and drawbacks with after many years no one can remember." -- Oliver O. Howard, Autobiography, Vol 1, p. 306.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Ed Bearss (June 26, 1923 - September 16, 2020)

 Just two to remember this remarkable man.























Ed in his moment...a sunny spring day, on the field, leading good company, going forward.














On an Ed tour, he would walk up, and inches away, bring history to you.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Found






As recorded here previously, the West Woods never ceases to surprise those who enter its green confines. 

Fellow guide, Laura Marfut, came across this little scene sheltered under a mossy rock ledge deep in the woods.

Long may the mysteries live!


Saturday, July 4, 2020

July 4, 2020


We have not got credit for what we did. We never do. No matter. History will show, and the Official Accounts will prove all. 
—Lt. Henry Ropes (20th Massachusetts) to his brother John C. Ropes, July 11, 1862. 

Sunday, March 1, 2020

“The whole Division except our Regiment was broken into a mob, madly pressing to the rear followed closely by the enemies lines:” William J. Colvill and the First Minnesota in the West Woods.

William J. Colvill to Antietam Battlefield Board, December 10, 1892
Antietam Battlefield Board Correspondence, National Archives, Box 1 {Microfilm}
_____________________________________________________

No 403 Masonic Temple,
Duluth, Minn., Dec. 10, 1892
Col. J. C. Stearns and
Gen. H. Heth
Antietam Board.
Washington, D.C. 

Gentlemen:-

In response to yours of the 30th inst. requesting certain data as to position of my command in the battle of Antietam, etc.: I have the honor to make the statement following:
My command was Co. F. 1st Minn. Vol. Inf. being the senior Company of the Regiment which was a part of the 1st Brigade⁠1, 2nd Division, 2nd Corps.

Illustration 1: William J. Colvill, Jr. Source:
U.S. Army Military History Institute, 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania

On the evening of Sept. 16th, the Division was massed in the order of its Brigades[1]⁠2 as they came in on the march of that day, at a point in the valley of the creek on the east side, not far—I judge about forty rods—from⁠3 Burnside’s Crossing.⁠4 I do not remember the order by Regiments, but from our marching order of the 17th when our Regiment and Brigade lead the Division, the 3rd Brigade⁠5 lead it on the 16th.

We did not move from this position until after Hooker’s farthest advance on the 17th and when there seemed to be a lull in the battle. I have the impression, this was near 9 o’clock A.M.⁠6 

I have no maps and have never revisited the field and can only give you an idea of the point of our farthest advance by a recital of our movements, which I will make as brief as possible.

The Division moved—our Regiment leading—northerly to a ford⁠7 on the creek and across that and beyond on a line nearly parallel with the Hagerstown Pike to a good Division distance, then faced to the left and marched Brigade front, the other Brigades following in order, to the Pike⁠8 from which, after a brief halt, we advanced, at first square with the Pike, and then — following Gen. Sumner⁠9 who rode rapidly near our right—obliquely to the right, over and beyond the dead and wounded of Hooker’s Corps and of the enemy,⁠10 about half a mile, I think all the way through large rather open timber,⁠11 and came square against a ravine, with a cornfield on the opposite side, on the extreme right, where was our Regiment which just about covered the width of this field. 12


The field was long and was lost to sight towards the river, I suppose owing to the undulating character of the ground. It was bounded on the left by the same timber through which we had passed, and on the right by a narrow skirt of same, separating the cornfield from a long pasture field which apparently extended from the River bluffs back to the Pike. On the opposite side of this pasture field dense timber grew along its whole length. We were received at the ravine by a sharp fire of small arms from the timber in and on the opposite side of the ravine and from the cornfield, and returned it with vigor.⁠13 In a few minutes the fire from the cornfield almost ceased and we could see the enemy fleeing down through the corn in numbers. In this brief time we lost heavily, I think at that point over a hundred men out of six hundred, killed and wounded.


During the fire, being uneasy about our right, I placed the Regimental Pioneers—which were with my company, and on the extreme right—at a point about 20 rods⁠14 in advance, in the skirt of timber between the cornfield and long pasture field I have mentioned. This was the farthest advance that day. The ravine mentioned must be well known, for along it from left to right ‘till it reached our Regiment, the Brigade with the 2nd and 3rd Brigades, which latter had been halted to the left rear on raising ground with intervals too short, and had suffered from this fact equally with ourselves from the enemies fire—was “rolled up”  by a furious charge from the left. 


As I saw it[,] the whole Division except our Regiment was broken into a mob, madly pressing to the rear followed closely by the enemies lines. Instantly on the breaking up of the 84⁠15th N.Y.,[1] which was next on our left, Col Sully⁠16 of our Regiment gave the order to about face and march to the rear, which we did double quickly, accompanied with a shower of cannister from a battery⁠17 which had hurried up the pasture field and which had been reported by our Pioneers just as we started.

Illustration 3. Detail from the Antietam Battlefield
Board 1030 map. On the western high ground, French and 
Branch's Batteries move into position. Raine, D'Aquin and
Poague occupy a series of hills to the south. The unknown
battery associated with the 13th Virginia and some
of Stuarts cavalry advances toward
the Nicodemus Farmstead. 


A field and farm house and farm yard, with barn and other out buildings and stacks of grain lay between us and the Pike.⁠18 We passed over this field in line with and almost in contact with the enemy, facing about twice to repulse those following us, and rushing through the farm yard under a shower of cannister, tumbled over the stone fence in front and in less than 20 seconds formed on our colors in the road, every man in his place, and then immediately moved double quick by the right flank to the corner of the dense wood, which I have described as bounding the long pasture field on our right. Here a Battery of ours was quickly placed a short distance out in the field and we formed in support on its left. 


The enemies battery⁠19 — the same which had been following us—was quickly silenced and for about 20 minutes we exchanged fire with sharp shooters, the support of the battery, which was in the dense wood and had us at an advantage on that account; but after considerable loss to ourselves, we silenced them and were then withdrawn to the Pike at a point in rear of the same wood,⁠20 where we found other troops, I think of Franklyn’s Corps;⁠21 and some time after, perhaps at noon or a little after, we rejoined our Division which had been rallied at the Batteries under Kirby⁠22 (the same which that had repulsed the enemies charging column with such frightful loss). We took position on the extreme right of the Division immediately at the guns. This position was on high land immediately back of the Pike. A few rods to our right was an orchard in which that afternoon we buried some of our dead and more the next morning.⁠23 
Illustration 4. The final position of Gorman's Brigade,
and the First Minnesota on September 17. They are
situated in and around Joseph Poffenberger's farmstead
and orchard.
We held the same position that night and on the next morning, the 18th, I was assigned—not mustered—as Major of the Regiment, and at night fall took command of the Division picketts—a very strong guard in the wood from which we had been driven the day before, with instructions to advance them as skirmishers at earliest dawn, moving till we should strike the enemy. During the night I reported constant movements of the enemies trains and artillery, and at the first break of day, advanced the picketts rapidly until we reached the River; soon after which I had occasion to cross the same pasture field along its lower end to the edge of the dense wood before spoken of, and noted near that corner the ruins of an old mill, or what appeared to be such. This may aid in locating our position on the 17th.
I have have referred to the Hagarstown Pike as the points of “departure and arrival” but I may have been misled; the distance between is so great that perhaps the farmyard I have mentioned is on some other road coming obliquely into the Pike. We crossed it first on the side towards Sharpsburg at some distance from and out of sight of the Quaker Church⁠24 and came out on the other side of the Church and about as far from it.

I suppose from your knowledge of the field and of the movements of the different Divisions, you can, from what I have stated, locate the Regiment and my command exactly.

I hope you will not find this too tedious. But for fear of becoming so, I should have made a fuller statement, and given some interesting incidents which I have not seen in print, but the collection of which may not come with the purposes of your Board. 

I am very respectfully, W. Colvill, 
Ex Col 1st Minn
1 Brd Brig General
=====
William J. Colvill, Jr. 25

Notes
1 Willis A. Gorman’s First Brigade of Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps, comprised the 34th New York, 15th Massachusetts, 82nd New York, and the 1st Minnesota.
2 The order of brigades of Sedgwick’s Division as it advanced to the West Woods were: Willis A. Gorman, Napoleon J.T. Dana, and Oliver O. Howard.
3 220 yards.
4 This is an unknown reference at this point. Sedgwick’s Division encamped on the 16th due north of the Philip Pry house and orchard.
5 This is Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana’s Brigade.
6 II Corps Commander Edwin Vose Sumner received orders from McClellan to advance his command at approximately 7:20 a.m.
7 This Antietam ford is marked on the Antietam Battlefield Board maps and lies approximately 900 yards downstream from the Upper Bridge.
8 Hagerstown Pike.
9 II Corps commander Edwin Vose Sumner.
10 Colvill is describing the regiment’s advance through Miller’s Cornfield.
11 West Woods.
12 See Illustration 2.
13 This small arms fire came from the 13th Virginia of Jubal Early’s command that was protecting the left flank of the Confederate artillery arrayed on Hauser’s Ridge. See Illustration 2.
14 110 yards.
15 Colvill should have stated the 82nd New York.
16 Col. Alfred Sully commanded the First Minnesota at Antietam.
17 This may have been D’Aquin’s Battery. The Antietam Battlefield Board 9:00-9:30 map shows it moving to the far left of the Confederate artillery line.
18 This was the Nicodemus farmstead directly north of their 1030 position. The Antietam Battlefield Board 1030 map shows the regiment retreating north along a farm road parallel to the Hagerstown Pike and running just to the East of the Nicodemus farmstead. A stone fence bordered the west side of the farm road.
19 This may have been Capt. William Thomas Poague’s three gun Rockbridge (VA) Artillery. Poague recorded in his Official Report, that “when the enemy was forced to fall back, I was directed to report to General Stuart on the extreme left, and with other guns kept up an advancing fire on the retreating enemy until he found shelter under a number of reserve batteries.” Five Confederate batteries rushed to the support of Semmes Brigade’s breakout to the  D.R. Miller farmstead. The “other guns” that Poague mentioned were batteries commanded by Raine, D’Aquin, French, and Branch. See Illustration 3, showing their locations. OR, Series 1, Vol. 19, Part 1, pages 1009-1010.
20 North Woods.
21 By Noon, Gorman’s Brigade, resting in the “rear” of the North Woods, were very near John Gibbon’s brigade. The rest of Sedgwick’s Division were holding about 200 yards due east of Gorman’s left flank.
22 This was Lt. George A. Woodruff’s Battery or the 1st United States, Battery I. It was previously known as Kirby’s battery for its commander Lt. Edmund Kirby. Kirby was on sick leave from Sept. 1-24 during the Maryland Campaign. Source: Cullums Register.
23 See Illustration 4.
24 Dunker Church.
25 Captain William J. Colvill, Jr. (1830-1905), Company F, First Minnesota. Although seriously wounded at Gettysburg, Colvill survived the war and went on to serve in the state legislature and as Minnesota’s Attorney General before returning to his law practice in Red Wing. See further, Al Zdon's excellent biography, "Colvill of Minnesota," published in Summer 2009 by the Minnesota Historical Society, pages 260-71 at http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/61/v61i06p260-271.pdf.
______________________________
Further reading: For regimental histories, see Richard Moe, The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993); Isaac Lyman Taylor, "Campaigning with the First Minnesota: A Civil War Diary," Minnesota History, March 1944, pp. 11-39; John Quinn Imholt, The First Volunters: History of the First Volunteer Regiment (Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1963)Wayne D. Jorgenson, Every Man Did His Duty: Pictures and Stories of the First Minnesota (Tasora Books, 2012). Also a very useful site maintained by the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at http://www.1stminnesota.net.