tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69393026035542931672024-03-12T18:26:59.261-07:00Walking the West WoodsRamblings on the West Woods at Antietam National Battlefield ParkJim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-75187485382854199822024-02-13T14:32:00.000-08:002024-02-13T14:32:15.822-08:00<p><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: large;">"Some men can fight battles over a telegraph wire, but you know I have no talent in that direction:" Reminiscences of Major-Gen. Sumner. <span style="font-family: inherit;">[1]</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"From Our Special Correspondent,<br /></span> Washington, March 23, 1863<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz0cBet-XN6SkiedPsh3jGDSRuQWlczclAHHje8lMFzeJ1AAc7jQVAi_Ui-TjJyz8VBD6RwynXtxWl_jigmDzseiaUwO05wc5sbo1P0nlBPwkWluTkr34nxVV029h5wv0inSMGAyqV1eBKk7Ov94ZO_adk7GGAcfDpjCT_b1m6ILIL8ZBxcb0O6dG3CIQ/s1386/sumner.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="942" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz0cBet-XN6SkiedPsh3jGDSRuQWlczclAHHje8lMFzeJ1AAc7jQVAi_Ui-TjJyz8VBD6RwynXtxWl_jigmDzseiaUwO05wc5sbo1P0nlBPwkWluTkr34nxVV029h5wv0inSMGAyqV1eBKk7Ov94ZO_adk7GGAcfDpjCT_b1m6ILIL8ZBxcb0O6dG3CIQ/w271-h400/sumner.png" width="271" /></a><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> 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?'"</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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 </span>decided the fate of the day; and through the whole Peninsular campaign he was in the hottest, deadliest of the fighting. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> 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 <i>rapture</i> 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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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 </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> This was no unusual scene; it was the way Sumner fought his b</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1jI-Raugow2c4GkL0GwoOgT8lilruKjEGvYftjqXhV0P1-vOGOZntIVO8oUxWlNOox9SuSvoOat7n_W5brDjw4cYGLl5fMjJTmJP2HF5DjAYyqE6s7HhHBpxEE80auPKUZTf2T6hHUc6V_vS074XrZu5xKnRomR-ftCZ8QAdBEcTwGAq8GrgnZaIQtU/s552/Richardson.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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 </span>perilous edge of battle when it raged,"<b>[2] </b>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!"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span> 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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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 </span>unostentatiously, unconsciously. It was the act of a soldier quietly performing a soldiers's duty.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> At Fair Oaks, on Saturday evening, after Casey and Heintzelman had suffered greatly, and had driven three or </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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 </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span> 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 </span>disconcerted by shells.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span> After Antietam came McClellan's most costly and fatal mistake, of not renewing the attack and utterly destroying the </span>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 </span>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> He was a man of high ambition. Once, hearing Gen. Howard remark that he did not aspire to the command of a <i>corps</i>, he exclaimed: "General, you surprise me. <i>I</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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> He was sometimes called </span>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."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> 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.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span> 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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span> 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 </span>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.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span> 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.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span><span> 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."</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span><span><span> 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!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span><span><span><span> A.D.R.</span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span><br /><b>========</b><b><br /></b><b>Notes</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">[1]</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> 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 <i>New York Daily Tribune</i>. The authorship by Richardson suggests that this biography was published in the <i>New York Daily Tribune. </i>Richardson, like Sumner a Massachusetts </span><span style="font-size: medium;">native, spent time in the West prior to the war and may have become acquainted with Sumner at that time.</span> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">[2] This is drawn </span>from John Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Book 1.</p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b><b><br /></b><br /><span> </span></span><p></p>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-87562309374835046232022-07-09T10:20:00.004-07:002022-07-09T10:20:43.279-07:00An Excursion of the Philadelphia Brigade to Antietam, September 17, 1906<p>What follows is an account of the excursion of the Philadelphia Brigade Association to its Antietam Monument on September 17, 1906. </p><p>"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."</p><p>"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." </p><p>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. </p><p>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."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-jh7M8C5_FkVHY3dVyNDKWlEt5W7QPDCIj5LO3LZMjjOpbMob5LZexrTz0SdWB-dPxzxbCXCHwDXxcBk1E9TNe99kEmibcuuDsa8vIaBcfkB225DJ3BeUebgDDt8kN6tlBXDYBBJ4qi4CTvoXDIh_f2XDCKdVx51f6CU4slF3KTL1XT2Ib2_rlScX" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1679" data-original-width="1085" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-jh7M8C5_FkVHY3dVyNDKWlEt5W7QPDCIj5LO3LZMjjOpbMob5LZexrTz0SdWB-dPxzxbCXCHwDXxcBk1E9TNe99kEmibcuuDsa8vIaBcfkB225DJ3BeUebgDDt8kN6tlBXDYBBJ4qi4CTvoXDIh_f2XDCKdVx51f6CU4slF3KTL1XT2Ib2_rlScX=w414-h640" title="Posing at the Philadelphia Brigade Monument" width="414" /></a></div>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."<p></p><p>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.</p><p>"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."</p><p><br /></p><br /><p></p><p><b>Source:</b> John W. Frazier, <i>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), </i>pp. 10, 57, 113-14.</p><p><br /></p>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-41966998422882475662021-06-01T07:37:00.000-07:002021-06-01T07:37:33.226-07:00Memorial Day 2021<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CHN3DFA6mJ8/YLZFj5iuuSI/AAAAAAAACnM/Kj0Xrr7sCKM5eWZLoFY4PvfaGLKq3B15QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1248/Howard%2BOliver%2BO%2B%2B2015.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1248" data-original-width="974" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CHN3DFA6mJ8/YLZFj5iuuSI/AAAAAAAACnM/Kj0Xrr7sCKM5eWZLoFY4PvfaGLKq3B15QCLcBGAsYHQ/w156-h200/Howard%2BOliver%2BO%2B%2B2015.png" width="156" /></a></div><br /> "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, <i>Autobiography</i>, Vol 1, p. 306.<p></p>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-36644991679123648832020-09-16T12:46:00.002-07:002020-09-16T12:50:33.675-07:00Ed Bearss (June 26, 1923 - September 16, 2020)<p> Just two to remember this remarkable man.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5tUZZlYdiNs/X2JpUG9O3JI/AAAAAAAACeQ/gk3r94HcNekamIEfMvwH1IGr8K7Y41CcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/bearrs%2Bwalk%2B029.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="374" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5tUZZlYdiNs/X2JpUG9O3JI/AAAAAAAACeQ/gk3r94HcNekamIEfMvwH1IGr8K7Y41CcwCLcBGAsYHQ/w499-h374/bearrs%2Bwalk%2B029.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Ed in his moment...a sunny spring day, on the field, leading good company, going forward.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_wopY5FCuVU/X2JpY6q0a5I/AAAAAAAACeU/2I-z9vZOvPw2YA_Bu9N7oabPbBzhdEK6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/bearrs%2Bwalk%2B027.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">c</a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_wopY5FCuVU/X2JpY6q0a5I/AAAAAAAACeU/2I-z9vZOvPw2YA_Bu9N7oabPbBzhdEK6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/bearrs%2Bwalk%2B027.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="374" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_wopY5FCuVU/X2JpY6q0a5I/AAAAAAAACeU/2I-z9vZOvPw2YA_Bu9N7oabPbBzhdEK6QCLcBGAsYHQ/w499-h374/bearrs%2Bwalk%2B027.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>On an Ed tour, he would walk up, and inches away, bring history to you.</p></div>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-70721945757893632422020-08-22T14:36:00.003-07:002020-09-16T12:47:51.363-07:00Found<div class="separator"><p style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLFZ0O_3BxE/X0GN0YN-UUI/AAAAAAAACcs/aQZghqodxTM55yLhU1RI2z_Gkk6YcrzsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_6914.JPG" /></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As recorded here <a href="https://walkingthewestwoods.blogspot.com/2010/11/veterans-day-2010.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">previously</span></a>, the West Woods never ceases to surprise those who enter its green confines. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Fellow guide, Laura Marfut, came across this little scene sheltered under a mossy rock ledge deep in the woods.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Long may the mysteries live!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-79706249444314758602020-07-04T18:18:00.000-07:002020-07-04T18:18:52.714-07:00July 4, 2020<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">We have not got credit for what we did. We<b> </b>never do. No matter. History will show, and the Official<b> </b>Accounts will prove all. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">—Lt. Henry Ropes (20th Massachusetts) to his brother John C. Ropes, July 11, 1862. </span></div>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-15104258446711381242020-03-01T18:27:00.008-08:002022-04-07T18:37:05.383-07:00“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.<div dir="rtl" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 16px; text-align: right;">
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William J. Colvill to Antietam Battlefield Board, December 10, 1892<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Antietam Battlefield Board Correspondence, National Archives, Box 1 {Microfilm}</span><br />
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No 403 Masonic Temple,<br />
Duluth, Minn., Dec. 10, 1892<br />
Col. J. C. Stearns and<br />
Gen. H. Heth<br />
Antietam Board.<br />
Washington, D.C. <br /><br />
</span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gentlemen:-</span></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">In response to yours of the 30<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> 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:<br />
My command was Co. F. 1<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>st</sup></span> Minn. Vol. Inf. being the senior Company of the Regiment which was a part of the 1<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>st</sup></span> Brigade<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span><b>,</b> 2<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>nd</sup></span> Division, 2<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>nd</sup></span> Corps.</span></p>
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<p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Illustration 1:</b> William J. Colvill, Jr. Source:<br /><i>U.S. Army Military History Institute, <br /></i><i>Carlisle, </i><i>Pennsylvania</i></span></p><p></p></div>
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On the evening of Sept. 16<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span>, the Division was massed in the order of its Brigades<b>[1]</b><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span> 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—from<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span> Burnside’s Crossing.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span> I do not remember the order by Regiments, but from our marching order of the 17<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> when our Regiment and Brigade lead the Division, the 3<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>rd</sup></span> Brigade<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span> lead it on the 16<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span>.<br /><br />
</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We did not move from this position until after Hooker’s farthest advance on the 17<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> and when there seemed to be a lull in the battle. I have the impression, this was near 9 o’clock A.M.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Division moved—our Regiment leading—northerly to a ford<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7</sup></span> 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 Pike<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8</sup></span> from which, after a brief halt, we advanced, at first square with the Pike, and then — following Gen. Sumner<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>9</sup></span> 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,<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>10</sup></span> about half a mile, I think all the way through large rather open timber,<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>11</sup></span> 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</span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: right;"><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">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.</span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />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. </span></p></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">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 84</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>15th</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> N.Y.,[1] which was next on our left, Col Sully</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>16</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 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 battery</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>17</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> which had hurried up the pasture field and which had been reported by our Pioneers just as we started.</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uWEXtPZSo9c/Xlz5qr1xHaI/AAAAAAAACRQ/X1P7TkC8Iu8jgd6QVHoYOEEpumW9eAgwwCEwYBhgL/s1600/MN3.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1302" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uWEXtPZSo9c/Xlz5qr1xHaI/AAAAAAAACRQ/X1P7TkC8Iu8jgd6QVHoYOEEpumW9eAgwwCEwYBhgL/s320/MN3.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><b>Illustration 3.</b> Detail from the Antietam Battlefield</div><div style="text-align: right;">Board 1030 map. On the western high ground, French and </div><div style="text-align: right;">Branch's Batteries move into position. Raine, D'Aquin and</div><div style="text-align: right;">Poague occupy a series of hills to the south. The unknown</div><div style="text-align: right;">battery associated with the 13th Virginia and some</div><div style="text-align: right;">of Stuarts cavalry advances toward</div><div style="text-align: right;">the Nicodemus Farmstead. </div><p></p><p></p>
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</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">A field and farm house and farm yard, with barn and other out buildings and stacks of grain lay between us and the Pike.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>18</sup></span> 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. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The enemies battery</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>19</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> — 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,</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">which was</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 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,</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>20</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> where we found other troops, I think of Franklyn’s Corps;</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>21</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> and some time after, perhaps at noon or a little after, we rejoined our Division which had been rallied at the Batteries under Kirby</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>22</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> (the same </span><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">which</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 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.</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>23</sup></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PXLzx9WjqeU/Xlz-lNeAtUI/AAAAAAAACRc/B8A5Jl-_XTkAPnPZ50mHqKfPu1wDnyJWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/MN10%2B1730.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="502" height="291" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PXLzx9WjqeU/Xlz-lNeAtUI/AAAAAAAACRc/B8A5Jl-_XTkAPnPZ50mHqKfPu1wDnyJWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/MN10%2B1730.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Illustration 4.</b> The final position of Gorman's Brigade,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
and the First Minnesota on September 17. They are</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
situated in and around Joseph Poffenberger's farmstead</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
and orchard.</span></div>
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</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">We held the same position that night and on the next morning, the 18<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span>, 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 17<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span>.</div><div style="text-align: left;">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 <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">it</span> first on the side towards Sharpsburg at some distance from and out of sight of the Quaker Church<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>24</sup></span> and came out on the other side of the Church and about as far from it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">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.</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">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. </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I am very respectfully, W. Colvill, </span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">Ex Col 1<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>st</sup></span> Minn</div><div style="text-align: left;">1 Brd Brig General</div><div style="text-align: left;">=====</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">William J. Colvill, Jr. </span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup><span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: medium;">25</span></sup></span></div></span><p></p><p></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"></p><div style="text-align: right;"><b style="font-size: large;">Notes</b></div><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">220 yards.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">This is an unknown reference at this point. Sedgwick’s Division encamped on the 16th due north of the Philip Pry house and orchard.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">This is Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana’s Brigade.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">II Corps Commander Edwin Vose Sumner received orders from McClellan to advance his command at approximately 7:20 a.m.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">This Antietam ford is marked on the Antietam Battlefield Board maps and lies approximately 900 yards downstream from the Upper Bridge.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Hagerstown Pike.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>9 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">II Corps commander Edwin Vose Sumner.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>10 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Colvill is describing the regiment’s advance through Miller’s Cornfield.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>11 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">West Woods.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>12 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">See Illustration 2.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>13 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>14 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">110 yards.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>15 </sup></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Colvill should have stated the 82nd New York.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>16 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Col. Alfred Sully commanded the First Minnesota at Antietam.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>17 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>18 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>19 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">This may have been Capt. William Thomas Poague’s three gun Rockbridge (VA) Artillery. Poague recorded in his Official Report, that “</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">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.”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #4d4d4d; font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>20 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">North Woods.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>21 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>22 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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: </span><i>Cullums Register</i><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>23 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">See Illustration 4.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>24 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Dunker Church.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>25 </sup></span><span style="font-size: medium;">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 </span><a href="http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/61/v61i06p260-271.pdf">http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/61/v61i06p260-271.pdf</a><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">______________________________</div></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><b>Further reading:</b> For regimental histories, see Richard Moe, </span><i>The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"> (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993); Isaac Lyman Taylor, "Campaigning with the First Minnesota: A Civil War Diary," </span><i>Minnesota History,</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"> March 1944, pp. 11-39; John Quinn Imholt, </span><span color="rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.85098)" style="font-family: "arial";"><i>The First Volunters: History of the First Volunteer Regiment</i> (</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span color="rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.85098)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);">Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1963)</span><span color="rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.85098)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);">; </span></span>Wayne D. Jorgenson, <i>Every Man Did His Duty: Pictures and Stories of the First Minnesota</i> (Tasora Books, 2012). Also a very useful site maintained by the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at http://www.1stminnesota.net. </div></span><p></p>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-39482568173469534362019-07-22T15:13:00.000-07:002019-07-28T07:50:17.466-07:00Memorial Day 2019<h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">by Private Carlton McCarthy [1]</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The substance of this paper was delivered in response to a toast at the banquet and reunion of the Richmond Howitzers, November 9th, 1875.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the full paper, see<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.civilwarhome.com/campfires.htm">http://www.civilwarhome.com/campfires.htm</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"The camp fires of the Army of Northern Virginia were not places of revelry and debauchery. They often exhibited gentle scenes of love and humanity, and the purest sentiments and gentlest feelings of man were there admired and loved, while vice and debauch, in any, from highest to lowest, were condemned and punished more severely than they are among those who stay at home and shirk the dangers and toils of the soldier's life. Indeed, the demoralizing effects of the late war were far more visible 'at home' among the skulks, and bombproofs, and suddenly diseased, than in the army."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"And the demoralized men of today are not those who served in the army. The defaulters, the renegades, the bummers and cheats, are the boys who enjoyed fat places and salaries and easy comfort while the solid, respected and reliable men of the community are those who did their duty as soldiers, and having learned to suffer in war have preferred to labor and suffer and earn rather than steal in peace."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"And, strange to say, it is not those who suffered most and lost most, who fought and bled -- who saw friend after friend fall, who wept the dead and buried their hopes -- it is not these who now are bitter and dissatisfied, and quarrelsome and fretful, and growling and complaining -- no, they are the peaceful, submissive, law abiding and order loving of the country, ready to join hands with all good men in every good work, and prove themselves as brave and good in peace as they were stubborn and unconquerable in war."</span></div>
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1. Carlton McCarthy joined the Second Company of the Richmond Howitzers on October 31, 1864; he was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. NARA RG 109 (Virginia) M324/Roll0315. Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers from Virginia units, labeled with each soldier's name, rank, and unit, with links to revealing documents about each soldier.</div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-36318382245598244352019-01-05T09:28:00.000-08:002020-10-10T20:18:16.533-07:00"I will keep this stained letter for them until peace comes back": The Long Journey of Elizabeth Wright's Letter <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: large;">On Sunday, August 29, 2010 I posted an entry regarding a letter picked up on the battlefield by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Holmes had travelled from Boston to Sharpsburg in search of his wounded son, Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 20th Massachusetts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">As he walked the field, Holmes picked up "a bullet or two, a button, a brass plate from a soldier's belt." He also picked up a letter "directed to Richmond, Virginia, its seal unbroken. 'N.C. Cleveland County. E. Wright to J. Wright.' On the other side, 'A few lines from W.L. Vaughn,' who has just been writing for the wife to her husband, and continues on his own account. The postscript [written by Vaughn], 'tell John that nancy's folks are all well and has a very good Little Crop of corn a growing.' I wonder [Holmes wrote], if, by one of those strange chances of which I have seen so many, this number or leaf of the 'Atlantic' [Atlantic Monthly] will not sooner or later find its way to Cleveland County, North Carolina, and E. Wright, widow of James Wright, and Nancy's folks, get from these sentences the last glimpse of husband and friend as he threw up his arms and fell in the bloody cornfield of Antietam? <i>I will keep this stained letter for them until peace comes back</i>, if it comes in my time, and my pleasant North Carolina Rebel of the Middletown Hospital will, perhaps, look these poor people up, and tell them where to send for it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Years later, Jon Hill, a genealogist specializing in Civil War research, read the blog entry. After researching James and Elizabeth Wright mentioned in the letter, Jon contacted Harvard Law Library “to try and restore the letter to James and Elizabeth’s descendants who still live in North Carolina.” After a few months, Jon wrote with an update: “The Harvard Law Library made an exact replica of the letter from their archives and mailed it to me so that I could send it to the descendant of James Wright. I reached out to his descendant who was thrilled! I'm putting the letter in the mail tomorrow and it will finally be returned to the family after 150 years!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jon’s excellent research and his faithful diligence to getting the letter back to the family (as Holmes had hoped it would) is such a compelling story that I asked Jon to give us an account of his efforts. Below, then, please find Jon’s reply. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"When Elizabeth Wright penned a letter to her husband on August 13<sup>th</sup> 1862, I doubt she would have foreseen what the future would hold for her words. However the thing that makes this letter stand out from the thousands of other letters that were sent during the Civil War is the fact that this letter was not delivered. But the letter was never returned as undelivered. At least not for over 150 years."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Elizabeth’s husband, Private James Wright, was serving in the 14</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: large;"> North Carolina Infantry in the Fall of 1862. Soon after the letter was written, James became ill and was sent to General Hospital Number One in Richmond Virginia. Within a few days the 14</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: large;"> North Carolina Infantry fought in the bloodiest single day in American History. Exactly how Elizabeth Wright’s letter ended up loose on the ground after the fighting ended at Antietam will remain a mystery. My theory is that the letter was delivered to James Wrights regiment just before Antietam. The letter probably was dropped in the fighting before it could be forwarded to the Hospital in Richmond where James was recovering."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Meanwhile on the other end of the battlefield, a young Union Officer from Massachusetts was lying in a field hospital gravely wounded. His name was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He was the eldest son of one of the most prominent doctors of the time, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"When Dr. Holmes learned of his son’s injuries, he immediately traveled to the battlefield to be with his son. As he traveled the battlefield looking for his son, he picked up relics off the battlefield. One item found was of particular interested to him. In Volume 8 of the Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. Holmes wrote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"'A letter… directed to Richmond, Virginia, its seal unbroken. N.C. Cleveland County. E. Wright to J. Wright… I will keep this stained letter for them until peace comes back, if it comes in my time, and my pleasant North Carolina Rebel of the Middletown Hospital will, perhaps look these poor people up, and tell them where to send for it.'"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Dr. Holmes never found the Wright Family though. When he died the letter went to his son Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr and upon his death, it was given to the Holmes Collection of Harvard University where it remained in an archive for over 75 years. That was until I heard about it. My name is Jonathan Hill. At the time I was a senior in high school with a passion for Civil War research. I have worked with organizations all over the country doing Civil War research. I happened to stumble across a blog post on this very website about Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr’s search for his son on the Battlefield of Antietam."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"After reading about the letter that he found, I decided to try and carry out the wishes of Dr. Holmes and ensure that the letter was returned to the family of James and Elizabeth Wright. My first step was finding out more information about James and Elizabeth Wright and searched the 1860 Census for any references. Sure enough I found them. There were only two James Wright’s that resided in Cleveland County North Carolina in 1860. One of the two had a wife Elizabeth and a Civil War Record."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Furnished as a substitute, James became part of the 14<sup>th</sup> North Carolina Infantry in June of 1862. After being sent to the hospital, he drops out of the Confederate Army Records. He eventually returns home to North Carolina, appearing in the 1870 and 1880 Census records. He lived out the rest of his life died in the 1880s."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"The couple had quite a few children, and I was able to find a living descendant. I contacted her and she was excited about the possibility of getting the letter returned to her family."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"I reached out to the then President of Harvard University. With her permission, as well as the permission of the Harvard University archivists, an exact replica of the letter was created and mailed to me. I then sent the replica letter to the great great granddaughter of James and Elizabeth Wright."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"It took over 150 years, but a long lost letter from the Battle of Antietam finally found its way back home.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">---Jon Hill</span></div>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-62906082984227443232017-06-10T16:38:00.003-07:002020-10-10T20:18:00.431-07:00"They were making it rather warm for the troops on our right:" The 111th Pennsylvania and "Greene's Salient" at the Dunker Church--Part 1<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Clermont,
Pa, Feb. 4</span><sup><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. 1892.<sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[1]</span></sup></a></span></sup></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Maj. J. M.
Gould,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Portland, Me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Comrade:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In reply to
your letter of inquiry, in regard to our position at Antietam, would say, that
I cannot give you much information as it has been thirty years since the battle
was fought and as I never have visited the field since_ and as I was rather
young_to know much about the organization of the army at that time, and as
Popes army and McClellan had been consolidated only a few days before, I hardly
know what Brigade or Div. I did belong to. So you must not think strange, if I
fail to give you the required information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1mq7AVw_HZE/WTx8dj4t7jI/AAAAAAAABos/_xkAbuozuTUACT4Tdd6Ya7UGDquNC5rJgCEw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-10%2Bat%2B7.04.02%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="527" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1mq7AVw_HZE/WTx8dj4t7jI/AAAAAAAABos/_xkAbuozuTUACT4Tdd6Ya7UGDquNC5rJgCEw/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-10%2Bat%2B7.04.02%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The situation between 1000 and 1030 HRS as shown in the<br />Cope / Carman map. The 3rd Maryland, 111th Pennsylvania, 28th Pennsylvania,<br />and the 5th and 7th Ohio push into the Woods and the 30th Virginia,<br />46th and 48th North Carolina, along with Carlton's Battery give way.<br /><i>Library of Congress.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As near as
I can remember, on the night of the 16</span><sup><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> of Sept.
We were camped in a large field near a piece of woods, directly in front of us
facing the enemy, but another field between us and the woods, and a road to our
right. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[2]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a>I
remember the field that we lay in that night for there had been manure spread
over it and not a very nice place to sleep on. But we were tired enough to
sleep almost anywhere. Early in the morning of the 17</span><sup><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, we were
ordered to pack up before we had time to get any breakfast_ as the battle
having already begun._ and moved to the next field, joining the one we were in
and next to the woods_ and there we halted a few minutes, and were told that we
would have time to get our breakfast, but had barely got a fire started_when we
were ordered ahead[.] We then moved off to the left, perhaps a </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 120%; text-indent: 0.25in;">quarter of a
mile_ towards a farm house and large barn<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[3]</span></sup></sup></a>_ just
before we reached them we formed in line_ and moved to the front, with the 3</span><sup style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 120%; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Md. on our
left_ what regiment was on our right I don’t remember _ but think it was 28</span><sup style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 120%; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Pa. We
moved up in line of battle towards a strip of woods<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[4]</span></sup></sup></a>_ as near
as I can remember about thirty or forty rods wide_ with a strong rail fence at
edge of woods and the Rebs_ in that strip of woods<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[5]</span></sup></sup></a>, we moved
up close to the fence and opened fire_ in meantime, we were under fire from the
time we came out from behind this large piece of woods at our right and formed
in line in front of this strip of woods. And the Captain of Co. B<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[6]</span></sup></sup></a>
was killed before we fired a shot and I don’t know how many more, but I saw him
fall. We fired a few rounds_ and were ordered to charge, and we climbed the
fence, and drove the Rebs out of this strip of woods, and on the other <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zytXhjSuuH0/WTx86FSLVXI/AAAAAAAABow/z7j0XzNagyE1RERcXe2WiGbBeJiTQlqlACEw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-10%2Bat%2B7.04.58%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="811" height="227" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zytXhjSuuH0/WTx86FSLVXI/AAAAAAAABow/z7j0XzNagyE1RERcXe2WiGbBeJiTQlqlACEw/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-10%2Bat%2B7.04.58%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The situation between Noon and 12:15 as the 27th North Carolina and<br />Third Arkansas attack across the Hagerstown Turnpike. The 46th and 49th<br />North Carolina push through just to the north of the Dunker Church.<br /><i>Library of Congress.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
side was
a large plowed field, and a cornfield <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[7]</span></sup></sup></a>at our
left. As we came out of the woods at the other side, there were no Rebs in
sight, or at least only a few_ and they were getting out of sight as fast as
they could. At our left, I think there were some in the cornfield yet, but did
not stay there long. We stopped there a short time and then advanced across the
plowed field, at the other side was a small ravine_ and beyond a rise of ground<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[8]</span></sup></sup></a>,
where a battery<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[9]</span></sup></sup></a>
was brought up and stationed on this hill or knoll. We were behind this
battery, at the foot of the hill. I don’t know what battery it was_but think it
was six brass guns. The Rebs charged <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[10]</span></sup></sup></a>us and
tried to take the guns_ but failed, and moved off in an oblique direction to
the left_ across the road<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[11]</span></sup></sup></a>,
and as our lines were at a right angle or nearly so, they were making it rather
warm for the troops on our right we went to their assistance and joined in
their line, and succeeded in driving them out of there, and we moved ahead
across the road bringing our regt. near a school house or Church<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[12]</span></sup></sup></a>.
I don’t know which, I always supposed it was the Sharpsburg school house, but
it might have been a Church for aught I know. We held them there<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[13]</span></sup></sup></a>
for an hour or so and about four o’clock_ we were reinforced by a new Reg. I
think they must have been fully 800 men strong, and our Reg’t gave way to the
left, and the Reg’t on our right_ gave way to the right, and let them in on our
line, and before they had time to get formed in line and ready for business,
the Rebs charged<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[14]</span></sup></sup></a>
and poured a volley into them_ and they broke and run<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[15]</span></sup></sup></a> like the
d__l. And that left a gap in our line_ that we had not time to close up_ and we
had to retreat over nearly all the ground that we had fought over all day. I
think if they had not come in at all, we could held our line, still there can
be no blame attached to them, as it was the first time they were under fire_
and perhaps any other new regiment would done the same under the same
circumstances, I don’t know what reg’t it was, but think it was a Penna regt
and I heard some say that it was a New York Reg. but it does not matter. That
ended our fighting for the day_ as the reserves<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[16]</span></sup></sup></a> were
brought up and we were relieved. I cannot trace with any degree of accuracy on
your map where we entered the fight, but think it was near where the dead of
the 111</span><sup style="text-indent: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 120%; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Pa were buried, but I am not sure. Such, my old
comrade, is as near a description of our movements at Antietam as I can give
you from memory_ but I will see a member of our reg’t before long_ who lives
but a few miles from here_ and will talk it over with him, and if we can give
you any more information, will gladly do so. Should we both live that long_ I
would be glad to meet you at Washington D.C. Next summer--at the National Encampment
where we can talk it over and perhaps visit the battle field which I would very
much like to do. Hoping to hear from you again, I remain yours in F. C. & L<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title=""><sup><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[17]</span></sup></sup></a>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vVt_Hhk0n7Q/WTx7URh8xUI/AAAAAAAABog/_pHN3TZRkoA1xuGW7yUSN7WnstV3fKgCQCK4B/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-10%2Bat%2B7.04.58%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">J. Porter
Howard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Co. G, 111</span><sup><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Pa. V.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>McKean Post 347 G.A.R.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Smithport, Pa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>P.O. (Clermont Pa.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[1]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> J. Porter Howard to John M. Gould, Februrary 4, 1892,
Gould Papers, Dartmouth College. I’d like to express my thanks to Tom Clemens
for forwarding a copy of the original letter to me. Tom is the editor of the
Ezra Carman manuscript, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Maryland
Campaign of 1862 </i>(New York: Savas Beatie, 2010-17), in 3 Volumes. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notations by Gould in top
margin: “Sent Fair pamphlet; Write me if you go to G.A.R., for a map; Write me
if your comrade knows anything. (His map was returned without marks).”</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">John M. Gould (1839-1930) served as an adjutant with the 10th Maine at Antietam. Following the war, he wrote articles that appeared in the <i>National Tribune</i> recounting his experience on the battlefield. Like Ezra Carman he entered into extended correspondence with battle survivors. Brian Downey's <a href="http://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=1070" target="_blank"><i>Antietam on the Web</i> </a>under Gould.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[2]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Smoketown Road.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[3]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Probably the Middlekauf farmstead.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[4]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The East Woods.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[5]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was probably Evander Law’s 2nd and 11th Mississippi
and the 6th North Carolina. See Carman 07:20 map.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[6]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was Capt. Arthur Corrigan.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[7]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was probably the thin northwestern strip of the East
Woods. A post and rail fence runs through it.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[8]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is the knoll on which the Visitor’s Center now
stands.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[9]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Carman’s 9 am map shows the 111th behind the First RI
Light Battery D under command of Capt. J. Albert Monroe. He had 6 Napoleons
(brass) in his battery.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn10" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[10]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This charge is depicted clearly in the Cope/Carman 900 hrs map.
Kershaw’s 2nd, 7th, and 8th South Carolina made a dash for the guns. The 111th
was directly behind Monroe’s battery’s left guns and took on the 2nd and 7th
South Carolina.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[11]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hagerstown Pike</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn12" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[12]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Dunker Church.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[13]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“there” is the salient south of the Dunker Church</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[14]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There was a charge, at approximately Noon and recorded in
Carman’s Noon map; but no such charge at 4 p.m. Howard seems to have his time
wrong. The Noon Confederate advance consisted of the 46th North Carolina
(Manning) and 49th North Carolina (Ransom) and elements of John Bell Hood’s
Texas Division. This advanced pushed the 111th out of the Dunker Church Woods.
The 111th spent the remainder of the day in the environs of the Samuel
Poffenberger farmstead.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[15]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Howard <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">may</i> have
been referring to the 13th New Jersey which consisted of 630 green troops under
the command of Col. Ezra Carman. They were part of Williams’ Division (not
Greene’s) and positioned themselves to the right of the 111th.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[16]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sixth Corps.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6939302603554293167#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 10.0pt;">[17]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fraternity, comradeship, and loyalty.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-85571276579463333232017-06-10T15:44:00.002-07:002020-10-10T20:17:36.229-07:00Post Script: Henry Ropes<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Headquarters 3d. Brig. 2d. Divn_</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Novr. 5, 1863</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">John C. Ropes Esq.<br /></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Sir<br /><br />I intended long before this to have written you a few lines in accordance with the expressed wish of your late brother Lt. Ropes with whom I was servant as perhaps you are aware, but knowing that the Officers of the 20th must have written you full particulars of the event, and our late rapid movement, I was prevented from fulfilling my desire, and altho’ I may have nothing new or of any additional interest to communicate yet I think it my duty to write in accordance with the wishes of your late Brother. When he died from his wounds at the battle of Gettysburg, Capt. Abbott found in his pocket $128 notes and one dollar in silver and his watch and chain which he handed to me and I afterwards returned him for the purposes of being restored to you. It will satisfactory to me to learn that you received the property all in proper order._<br /><br />When Lt. Ropes sent home his superfluous clothing last Spring from Falmouth, Va. There was also a blue cloth military overcoat belonging to me sent with the rest, if it is not putting you to too much trouble I should feel obliged by your causing it to be expressed to me here as I require it much, and do not fancy the idea of drawing a new one for only one winter’s wear, as they cost considerable $9.56. The envelope covering this was one written by your late Brother and found in his valise, together with one directed to his Father, which if you wish to have I shall send__ I need not here assure you of my sympathy in the loss sustained by your family in the death of Lt. Ropes, he was also my best friend in the army, and on many accounts I deplore his death. <br /><br />With much respect,<br /><br /> I remain<br /><br /> Your Very Obedt. Serve.<br />James Smith<b> [1]</b><br />Head Qrs.<br />3d. Brig.<br />2d Divn.<br />2nd Corps<br />A.P.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">===================</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Camp near Brandy Station <br />Nov. 19, 1863 <br /><br />John Ropes Esq. <br />Dear Sir <br /><br /> Your kind letter of the 19th I received on the 16th and now have pleasure in replying. On the 17th Dr. Wm. Folsom handed me $21 for which I beg you to accept my best thanks, and also for the assurance you give of the interest you express in my future welfare. I enclose the envelope addressed by your late Brother as you request. The overcoat has not yet arrived but no doubt I will receive it when the Express matter comes up. You ask me a question of my own personal knowledge relating to your late Brother which I am happy in having it in my power to answer. Your Brother was reading one of Dickens' Novels in a sitting posture slightly reclining and it is my opinion he could not have possible received the wound he did unless in that position___ The photograph of your late Brother I am truly glad to have in my possession, nothing you have sent me is so valuable in my estimation, and I shall treasure it as a moment of one whom I not only greatly respected, but to whom I was much attached. Should it be my good fortune to reach Boston after the conclusion of my period of service, I shall feel it not only a privelege and a pleasure but also a duty to call for you and have the pleasure of your acquaintance, with much respect <br /><br /> I remain </span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Yours very truly </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
James Smith</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<b>Source Note</b><br /><br />The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Notes</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. </span>This is probably 23 year old James Smith who appears on the Company K, 20th Massachusetts Muster Roll dated August 28, 1861 at Readville, Massachusetts. He is killed at Cold Harbor, June 7, 1864. National Archives Record Group 94, <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d1d1d; line-height: normal;">Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the American Civil War, compiled 1890 - 1912, documenting the period 1861 - 1866 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d1d1d;">(Roll: RG94-CMSR-MA-20INF-Bx1997).</span></span></div>
</div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-46469508517341350852015-06-07T16:11:00.002-07:002015-06-07T16:11:50.748-07:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 15<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This is the fifteenth and final entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 15, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</i></span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6em;"><br /></i>
<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Camp 20th October 15, 1862 </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Wednesday </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">My dear Father. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I am trying to induce John</span><b>[1] </b><span style="font-size: large;">to remain a day or two longer, and have no doubt I shall succeed. He unfortunately left his valise in Washington and ought to wait here till it is sent to him. I have now <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6kki3ByK1Fc/VXTPAUh-JXI/AAAAAAAABaM/VaEHGieUrMk/s1600/bolivarLeft.fw.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6kki3ByK1Fc/VXTPAUh-JXI/AAAAAAAABaM/VaEHGieUrMk/s320/bolivarLeft.fw.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 18px;">Bolivar Heights (detail). </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Cochin; font-size: xx-small;">Library of Congress, </span></span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 18px;">Prints and Photographs Division (click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
returned to the Regiment, as Lt. Milton</span><b>[2]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">of the Staff (whose place I took) has got home from Boston, and I can make John perfectly comfortable here. I think he really owes me a visit of 2 weeks at least, and hope he will stay. His eyes will be much benefitted by the rest and change of occupation &c. We went day before yesterday to Antietam, and saw the whole field. We passed the night at Keedysville very comfortably. Robby Lee went with us, and he and John have secured quantities of bullets, shells, &c for relics. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">You asked me about letters miscarrying. A thief has been discovered here, at Genl. Howard’s</span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> Head Quarters, who has for some time robbed the mails. I hope all letters will in future go safely. Best love to all. Have received no letters for 2 days. John will probably visit John Gray</span><b>[4]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and the 2d. Regiment </span><b>[5]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> to-day. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Your affectionate son </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> Henry.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Source Note</b></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence that constitutes this and the following items in this series is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the centerpiece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three hand-written transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.<br /><br /><b>Notes</b></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b><b>1</b> John C. Ropes, his brother.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2</b> Lt. William F. Milton.</span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>3</b> Brig. Gen. Oliver O. Howard. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>4 </b>This was probably John Chipman Gray (1839-1915). A graduate of Harvard Law School and friend of the Ropes family, he would enlist in the 41st Massachusetts on October 7, 1862. After the war, Gray would form with John C. Ropes the law firm of Ropes & Gray. Roland Gray, <i>John Chipman Gray</i> (Boston: privately printed, 1907), p. 8. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>5 </b>Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Gordon’s Brigade, Williams’ Division, XII Corps.</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-28264891147721590242015-06-06T18:50:00.000-07:002015-06-06T18:51:36.351-07:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 14<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.6em;">This is the fourteenth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 15, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</i><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 25.600000381469727px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Head Quarters, 3d Brigade</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Bolivar Heights, Va.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">October 6, 1862.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">My dear Father</span><b>[1]</b><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I received last night by Express the two boxes you sent on by Lt. Abbot</span><b>[2]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> to Harrison’s Landing, and the bundle of fly netting. The damage to the contents of the boxes was less than I had expected, considering they had been so long on the way and had been carried <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FRskMnGxTNw/VXOiA4oIGiI/AAAAAAAABZ0/sHsqP4Wyc-Q/s1600/bolivar%2Bheights%2Bdetail%2B5.red%2Bfw.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FRskMnGxTNw/VXOiA4oIGiI/AAAAAAAABZ0/sHsqP4Wyc-Q/s320/bolivar%2Bheights%2Bdetail%2B5.red%2Bfw.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 18px;">Bolivar Heights (detail): "The heights covered with</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">tents and troops." Thaddeus Lowe's balloon in the</span></span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">distance. Library of Congress, </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 18px;">Prints and Photographs Division (click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
once to Harrison’s Landing and then back, and been exposed to so great heat. The box of Ale was broken, and two bottles taken out and one broken, but I thought it very fortunate that I got 9 bottles safe out of 12. In the other box the Lemons of course were rotten. One bottle of Cherry Cordial was broken, and the top of the Ginger preserve was loos, so the liquid part of the contents of the jar had soaked into about everything that would absorb it. The shirts can easily be washed, and nothing was spoiled but the Sedulity Powders, which I do not now need. The ginger bread was quite dry, but of course rather stale. The rest of the Cordial, the Brandy, Bitters, Syrup, Sugar, Tea, Figs &c. &c. were all safe and in good condition and are most acceptable. I assure you I shall use them all most carefully and shall greatly enjoy them. I expect the other things by Express in a day or two.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Mrs. Lee</span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">is here now at Head Quarters with the Colonel</span><span style="font-size: large;">,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>[4]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and to-day is to dine here at the Mess.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is cool to-day, and windy, and seems quite like Autumn. There is nothing stirring, and no prospect of a move, and everybody is getting settled down into as comfortable quarters as they can get.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />I enclose a note for Mrs. Dr. Jeffries,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>[5]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> thanking her for her kind present of Ginger preserve. It is in perfect condition, very nice indeed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Your affectionate son</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">
<b><span style="font-size: medium;">Source Note</span></b></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">
<b><span style="font-size: medium;">Notes:</span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1 William Ropes resided at 92 Beacon Street, Boston. His son, John C. Ropes also resided here. <i>Boston Directory Embracing the City Record, General Directory of the Citizens and A Business Directory</i> (Boston: Adams, Sampson & Co., 1861), p. 383.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2 Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3 Helen Maria Armory Lee (1812-1893).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891) commanded the 20th Massachusetts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">5 Ann Jeffries (b. 1802), wife of Dr. John Jeffries, Jr. (1796-1876) , a physician residing at 15 Chestnut Street in Boston’s Sixth Ward (Suffolk). U.S. Census, Massachusetts, 1860); <i>Boston Directory Embracing the City Record, General Directory of the Citizens and A Business Directory </i>(Boston: Adams, Sampson & Co., 1861), p. 241.</span>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-91925244975250109932015-05-25T13:50:00.003-07:002015-05-25T13:55:07.271-07:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 13<i style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the thirteenth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<i style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.6em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-align: right; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Headquarters Bolivar Heights, Va.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-align: right; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">October 1, 1862.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">My dear Father.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I received yesterday your two letters of September 26<sup>th</sup> and one from Mother of the 25<sup>th</sup>. Thank you very much for again sending me so many comforts and luxuries.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I have not yet received the two boxes sent on with Lt. Abbott<sup>1</sup>, the parcel of fly netting you sent nor the box by Lt. Grafton<sup>2</sup>. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FX-gRPPuDD8/VWOKebKVKFI/AAAAAAAABZA/4YlVKrWE-c4/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-05-25%2Bat%2B4.47.22%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FX-gRPPuDD8/VWOKebKVKFI/AAAAAAAABZA/4YlVKrWE-c4/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-05-25%2Bat%2B4.47.22%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bolivar Heights (detail): "The heights covered with<br />tents and troops." Library of Congress, <br />Prints and Photographs Division (click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The two first were sent last July or August and probably went to Harrison’s Landg. In a very few days the Express Company<sup>3</sup> expect to open a depot here and then I shall probably receive all. When we were at Harrison’s Landing you wrote to me that you had sent through Mr. Alford,<sup>4</sup> Agent of the American Tract Society $10.00 worth of “Goodies.” Perhaps they were for the sick, I am not not sure, but at any rate I never got them. Mr. Alford brought some tracts to the Regiment, and gave some Jams, Crackers &c. To the Hospital of the Regiment, but if I remember correctly your donation was after this.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">You say you fear letters miscarry. Please tell me if you received lately a letter from me containing $4.00 in Mass. Banks to be changed for U.S. notes? I sent such a letter. I believe I am right about the boxes &c. I give the list as I expect to get them. Please tell me if it is right.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Boxes &c. sent to me.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1 box Ale &c. by Adams Express</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1 box Ginger (Mrs. Dr. Jeffries, &c) “ “ “</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1 parcel Netting<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> “ “ “</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1 supply Goodies<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> American Tract Society</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">1 box Brandy &c.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Lt. Grafton.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">These I have received notice of an expect.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Please tell Mother that I long ago sent my thanks to Cousin Kitty for the sermons. I have written for some letter stamps. They are very scarce here now.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I think you underestimate our loss. Our Brigade lost most heavily of all. The day after the battle Col. Lee took command, and it then numbered 960 men, for 5 Regiments. He reported officially a loss in all of almost 900 men. Our Corps of about 13,000 or 14,000 men lost between 5000 and 6000. I think our entire loss must be 12,000 to 14,000.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We are all quiet here and no news.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-align: right; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Your affectionate son</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; text-align: right; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 21px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Source Note</span></b></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 16px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>1 </sup></span>Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864), Harvard College, 1860 would be killed at the Battle of the Wilderness.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>2 </sup>1st Lt. James Ingersoll Grafton (1841-1865), Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He had left Harvard College at the outbreak of the war. He had been wounded in the head at Cedar Mountain and had returned to the regiment on October 1, 1862. Alonzo Hall Quint, <i>Record of Second Massachusetts Infantry: 1861-1865</i> (Boston: James P. Walker, 1867), pp. 497-98.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>3 </sup>Adams Express Company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>4 </sup>Probably John W. Alvord of the American Tract Society. For more on John W. Alford and his work with the American Tract Society, <i>see</i> <a href="http://tb.history.pcusa.org/resources/exhibits/civil_war/section_003_005.cfm">http://tb.history.pcusa.org/resources/exhibits/civil_war/section_003_005.cfm</a>; <i>see also,</i> James M. Schmidt, “A Balm from Gilead,” posted at the <i>Civil War Medicine (and Writing)</i> blog at <a href="http://civilwarmed.blogspot.com/2009/12/medical-department-32-religious-tracts.html">http://civilwarmed.blogspot.com/2009/12/medical-department-32-religious-tracts.html</a>.</span></div>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-32913998702772749842015-04-04T07:59:00.000-07:002015-05-25T13:54:06.588-07:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 12<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This is the twelfth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Head Quarters, 3d. Brigade,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bolivar Heights, Va. September 27th 1862.</span></div>
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<br />My dear John.<br /><br />I received your letter (written by Mary Ann<b>[1]</b>) last evening. I am very sorry your eyes are so weak. I know what a hopeless feeling <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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Detail from "View of the camps of the Army of the Potomac,</div>
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on Bolivar Heights, near Harper's Ferry, after the </div>
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battle of Antietam." Edwin Forbes (1839-1895). </div>
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Wagons and encampments in the near and far distance. </div>
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Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.</div>
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one has, when one begins to find out that there is a settled weakness of the eyes. It seems as if everything was doubtful, and you are not sure what you are able to do. I hope you are able to read this letter. If anybody reads it to you, let it be only Mary Ann, for I shall write to you on the next page what I do not wish every one to know. I am now with the Colonel,<b>[2]</b> and while he is here, I shall stay and do everything for him I can. But he ought to resign immediately. The fact he is completely broken down and is not fit for duty.<b>[3]</b> He has now got the chills and fever (not badly) the diarrhea, and a cough. It is beautiful weather, but cold at night, and I know he suffers from it, yet he still keeps about an generally is in good spirits. Should we have one week of active service, I know he would completely break down. You know he is pretty old and not of a very strong constitution. He will not hear of getting a leave of absence, and says if he cannot do full duty, he had better do none and leave the service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now we are quiet and no immediate prospect of an advance. We have just been through a short but active campaign, and have done well, and this is exactly the time for Col. Lee to resign. There would be time to fill his place and arrange things before we are again called into the field. He has done his duty well by the Regmnt. He has been in every battle and escaped unhurt. He would retire now most honorably. If he stays, and breaks down when we are in active service, it may not be so well for him or for us. I write this of course for your private eye or ear.<br /><br />Capt. Leach<b>[4]</b> of Dana’s staff, a very able, clear headed man, is here, and Col. Lee places great trust in him, and he manages Brigade matters almost entirely. He has told me privately that he </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Capt. William B. Leach (1834-1903).<br /> Photo: Minnesota Historical Society<br /> Retrieved from First Minnesota<br /> Volunteer Infantry Regiment site at</span><br />
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p</span><span style="font-size: large;">robably will soon get an order to report to Genl. Dana, in Washington, and wishes someone to get into the harness here before he leaves. He first asked Herbert,<b>[5] </b>but he could not leave his Company, and then (at the Colonel’s request) he asked me to come to Headquarters.<br /><br />Do not let all this go far. I write in confidence to you. I think Col. Lee will resign before a month has passed. This is only my opinion.<br /><br />Well, to answer your letter. Lieut. Beckwith<b>[6]</b> was formerly a Sergeant, and was promoted 2d. Lieutenant, a few months ago. He is of the kind Capt. Shepard<b>[7]</b> describes as a “wet rag.” No relation to Capt. Beckwith, as far as I know.<br /><br />As to the Strategy: Everyone thinks and I think that old Sumner made a great mistake in dashing Sedgwick’s Division so recklessly against the key of the enemy’s position. We never should have gone down into that ravine,<b>[8] </b>where the dead were piled closer than in the Orchard at Waterloo.<b>[9] </b>We lost between 2 and 3000 men there out of about 6000,<b>[10]</b> all in 2 hours or so.<b>[11] </b>It was a slaughter pen. I think that our 3d line<b>[12]</b> should have been held far back, our first<b>[13]</b> advanced to the edge of the valley and skirmishers sent down, and our 2d line<b>[14]</b> taken to the left to hold that part of the field until a connection could be made with French on the left. Then batteries should have been advanced and used against the enemy in the Cornfield, house, barn, &c.<b>[15]</b> Had this been done and we gained the elevated land beyond the house,<b>[16]</b> then Sumner’s whole Corps could have advanced and driven everything before them, as they did on the open land this side of the ravine. Then the whole of the enemy’s left would have been turned and our guns could have been place on a hill sweeping the whole right of the enemy, and Burnside would have had an easy victory, and I do not see how the Rebel Army could have beens saved. Sumner was too impetuous and too sure of victory. However, you underestimate our success. With the exception of this ravine or valley we gained possession of the whole field, and it was a most decided a[d]vantage to us. It forced the enemy to retreat. Then non of you see to appreciate what a tremendous battle it was. Fair Oaks, White Oak swamp, Malvern Hill, and the others, do not compare with it. It was from daylight till dark, and most obstinately fought, and at very close quarters. As you see, the comparative loss in our Corps, Division, Brigade, and Regiment greatly exceeds that of the British at Waterloo, or the Almor, or of the French at Magenta and Solferimo. <br /><br />It was the first time I ever appreciated what I have often read of “men mowed down in rows like corn,” but it was so. When they came in on our left and rear the fire was awful. I was once covered with stones and dirt cast up by a shell striking close to me, and the trees of the wood were crackling as if on fire. Then, when the New-York and Pennsylvania troops were rushing by us and through us like sheep, our Regiment showed its discipline, and my Company did not take one step at double quick, but marked out at shouldered arms without the loss of one man, except those left dead an wounded on the field.<br /><br />If you want to know more of the battle, you must ask questions, and I will try to answer them. I think McClellan was right in keeping troops near Washington, How did he know the whole rebel force was here? The day after the battle he got a despatch from Hillock, telling him this fact. It would have been wrong to leave Washington in the slightest danger. That should be protected at every cost. <br /><br />I am sorry you found so much trouble with the tents. Please also send me from my trunk the pair of dark blue pants I sent back, also 1 pair woolen ribbed drawers. Let stoups (for riding) be put on the pants, to unbutton, of course. Probably the Express<b>[17] </b>will soon run to Harper’s Ferry. Grafton’s Regiment (the 2d Mass.) is not with ours, but at Sandy Hook, 6 miles off. I can send there easily, however. Please send me $1._ worth letter stamps. I have none at all now. I hear poor Abbott is very ill indeed. <b>[18]</b> I am exceedingly sorry for him. Glad you are well, Mary Ann must not be sickly. Make her ride on horseback, and walk &c. Love to all.<br /><br />Your affectionate brother<br /><br />Henry.<br /><br />P.S. Direct in future “Lieut. Ropes, Head Quarters, Dana’s Brigade.<br /><br />H.R.<br /><br /><b>Source Note</b><br /><br />The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.<br /><br />Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b><br /><br />1 Ropes’ sister Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842)<br /><br />2 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891) commanded the 20th Massachusetts.<br /><br />3 For more on the state of Col. Lee, see Henry Ropes to Mother, September 21, 1862, footnote 7 and posted on this blog.<br /><br />4 Captain William B. Leach (1834-1903), served as Brig. Gen. Dana’s aid. <i>OR</i>, Dana’s Report, September 30, 1862. For more on Leach, see the excellent First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment site at <a href="http://www.1stminnesota.net/" target="_blank">http://www.1stminnesota.net </a>website, see Roster for Leach’s biographical entry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">5 Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862.<br /><br />6 Scottish born Robert Beckwith, 22, an ironworker before the war, will be killed at Marye’s Heights. Richard F. Miller,<i> </i><i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i><i> </i>(Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 183, 212.<br /><br />7 Capt. Alan Shepard headed Company K. He will be wounded at Fredericksburg and end the war in the Invalid Corps. Miller, pp. 22, 206.<br /><br />8 As the 20th Massachusetts moved across the Hagerstown Pike, it traversed an open field and then, at the eastern edge of the West Woods descended on a gradual 200 yard downslope ending at the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead. A number of accounts from those engaged in the West Woods describe this part of the field as a valley or ravine.<br /><br />9 Ropes is referring to the action in and around the Hougoumont farmstead, 5 km south of the village of Waterloo. For an excellent source on Waterloo, see <i>Napoleon, His Army and Enemies</i> at <a href="http://www.napolun.com/">www.napolun.com</a>.<br /><br />10 Casualty counts in the West Woods vary as they do in nearly all engagements. As of October 2013, the National Park Service numbers for the West Woods is 5,400 Federal troops engaged with 2,200 casualties and 9,000 Confederate troops engaged with 1,850 casualties.<br /><br />11 One of the enduring misconceptions of the fighting in the West Woods is that action took place over a 15 to 20 minute span. Primary sources, however, strongly suggest that elements of Sedgwick’s Division engaged in a running battle from </span><span style="font-size: large;">the Dunkard Church northward to the David R. Miller farmstead. This conflict lasted </span><span style="font-size: large;">from approximately 9:15 a.m. to approximately 10:30 a.m.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />12 The third line was Oliver O. Howard’s Philadelphia Brigade.<br /><br />13 The first line was Willis Gorman’s brigade.<br /><br />14 The second line was Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana’s brigade.<br /><br />15 The Alfred Poffenberger farmstead included a two-bay cabin, some outbuildings, and a bank barn. A small orchard grew on the east side of the cabin while corn was planted in the fields west and north of the farmstead.<br /><br />16 Hauser’s Ridge.<br /><br />17 Adams Express Agency. See Henry Ropes to John Ropes, September 3, 1862 and posted here on December 22, 2014.<br /><br />18 Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864), suffering from typhoid, had been left in Frederick on September 14. Miller, p. 165.</span></div>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-56396067637008696812015-02-22T07:53:00.001-08:002015-02-22T08:10:10.400-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 11<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This is the eleventh entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My dear John.<br /><br />I answered your two last letters and have only to tell you that we marched here yesterday and forded the river. Sumner’s Corps is here and he in command.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I enclose a letter for Mary Ann </span><b>[1]</b><span style="font-size: large;">. I have sent home by Mr. Folsom</span><b>[2]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> who was kind enough to take charge of it, a bundle cont</span><span style="font-size: large;">aining my heavy revolver, cartridge boxes, ammunition &c., some books I have done with, some private papers, a knife, &c. Please have “Barchester Towers”</span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> bound, if you think it is worth it, and “Bleak House”</span><b>[4]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> too, when I send home the other volumes which Herbert </span><b>[5]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is now-reading.</span></div>
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Detail from "View of the camps of the Army of the Potomac,</div>
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battle of Antietam." Edwin Forbes (1839-1895)</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please have new plates put in the knife and send it to me when you have a chance. Let the pistol be cleaned, oiled and put away and the fixed ammunition kept for it. Give the private letters to Mary Ann to put in my box. As I know you like to keep some relics of a battle field, I send a piece of shell, and grape shot I picked up. It will give you some idea of what sort of a buzzing we had about our ears. Please tell me if you ever got my Buffalo skin I sent home last spring. I have forgotten whether or not it went safely.</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-size: large;">Please send me by mail $6._ in U.S. Ones, and $4._ in postage stamp change. I have nothing smaller than $5._ and find great trouble in making change. Charge the $10._ to my account. By the way, can you not tell me roughly about how much you have charged to me? I feel sure I must have a considerable balance on hand, but would very much like to know how much.</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-size: large;">We ought to be paid every day now, and when we are, I shall send home another $100._ Herbert is very much obliged to you for attending to a tent for him. I advised him to wait till mine came, and see how he liked it, but he read my description and felt sure it would answer. I hope it is of white Rubber, that is if both are equally strong. Very likely you will find some light lantern all made which will be quite as light and compact as the one I described. If so, buy it instead.</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-size: large;">If the tent is what I expect it will be, it will be invaluable. Especially at this season, it is important to keep dry at night. The rubber coat will be very useful, I know. I hope the boots will not give you trouble. If Rice has saved my measure, it is all right. Do not let the soles be of extravagant thickness, as was formerly the fashion for “Army Shoes.”</span><b>[6]</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have not seen the 2d. Mass. since we were at Rockland</span><span style="font-size: large;">,</span></span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[7]</b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> but hope, if we are near them again, to get acquainted with Capt. Morse.</span><b>[8]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> The 2d. Is now at Sandy Hook, about 6 miles from here, across the river.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I am at present quite lame from a boil which has selected a very unfortunate position. It is exactly on the cord or tendon which connects the extremity of the heel with the calf of the leg. It is very small, however, and will no doubt be well in a couple of days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">You never tell me how business matters and the estates are getting on, and whether the general affairs of the family are in a flourishing state. Please do tell me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I suppose you no have quite an income from law. Write soon.<br /><br />Your affectionate brother<br />Henry.<br /><br />P.S. The Colonel’s man, George, desires respects.</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>[9]</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Source Note</b><br /><br />The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>1 </b>Ropes’ sister Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2 </b>This is probably Charles Walker Folsom, Quartermaster of the 20th Massachusetts. Richard F. Miller, Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 11-12.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>3 </b>Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>4 </b>Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852-53).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5 </b>Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>6 </b></span><span style="font-size: large;">See Henry Ropes to John C. Ropes, September 3, 1862 posted on this blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>7</b> Probably Rockville, Maryland.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>8</b> Lt. Charles Fessenden Morse (1839-1926), Harvard (1858) served as Captain of Company B, 2nd Massachusetts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>9</b> Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891). “George” is probably an aide to Lee.</span></div>
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-61513750589031256862015-02-16T05:26:00.000-08:002015-02-16T05:26:32.869-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 10<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This is the tenth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </span></i></div>
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Bolivar Heights, Va. September 26th 1862.</div>
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Friday.</div>
<br />My dear Father.<br /><br />I have received no letters from home since I wrote last to you from this Camp. We are still quietly recruiting ourselves, drilling our new men and getting things generally to rights.<br /><br />Col. Lee [1] is, as you know, in command of the Brigade, and to-day he detailed me to act as Aide-de-Camp. Lieut’s. Hallowell [2] and Milton [3], the two regular Aides of Genl. Dana [4] being away ill. I am to remain “during the absence of Lt. Milton.” The Colonel asked me to share his tent, and I am now with him. He has quite a cold yet and is not well, but <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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I hope he will soon improve. I of course get a horse by this arrangement, and many other comforts. It is of course only temporary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We are camped on the brow of the hill, the air is very pure and healthy, and I think I never saw a better place for one’s health. If you can find a recruit or Officer coming on, I should be very glad if you would send me my buffalo skin. By the time it gets here the nights will be cold enough for it.<br /><br />I am perfectly well. Best love to Mother. Please thank Sister Mary or her letter and say I intend to write very soon.<br /><br />By the way, I believe I have not acknowledged yours of the 20th. Enclosing Sister Mary’s letter.<br /><br />You seem to overestimate the battle of Sunday [5] </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">compared with that of Wednesday the 17th. Sunday’s fight was a decided victory, but the battle of the 17th was the greatest battle ever fought on this continent and the loss fearful. Our Corps of about 15,000 men lost between 5000 and 6000, our Division more in proportion and our Brigade the most of any in the Division although it is the smallest. Col. Lee says except at Ball’s Bluff he never was under such a fire. It seems to me an awful responsibility rests somewhere. The 2d and 3d lines were advanced under the heaviest fire for no purpose, and the left flank left entirely exposed. Had the 3d line covered the left, the 2d been placed on the open field and ordered to lie down and the first kept the enemy at bay by skirmishers till a battery could have been brought to bear on the enemy’s position, I think things might have resulted differently, and lives saved.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />However it is easy to criticise after all is over.<br /><br />Col. Lee sends his respects.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">
Your ever affectionate Son</div>
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Henry.</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Source Note</b><br /><br />The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.<br />Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.<br /><br /><br /><b>Notes</b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />1 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891).<br /><br />2 Capt. Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914), Harvard College, 1861 was severely wounded in the arm in the West Woods.<br /><br />3 Lt. William F. Milton, Harvard (1858).<br /><br />4 Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822-1905).<br /><br />5 The Battle of South Mountain was fought on Sunday, September 14, 1862.</span></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-90181173286507413692015-02-15T18:34:00.001-08:002015-02-16T05:28:41.861-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 9.<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This is the ninth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><br /></i>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My dear Mother.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have not written to you for a long time, but I knew it was the same thing to write to Father, and I have kept him as well informed of my movements as possible. Ever since we left Harrison's Landing, August 16th, I have not had a day or even an hour when I could be sure we were not to get immediate orders to start. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have written fully to the others about the late battle, and have no more to say. You have no doubt seen full lists of the killed and wounded. I am entirely ignorant of the movements of the Rebels and even of our own troops. I hear however two reports, one that Genl. Sumner's Corps is not to cross into Virginia, but be left to protect Maryland, probably to stay near the Potomac; the other that Dana's Brigade is reported <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. William Raymond Lee<br /><i>Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society</i></td></tr>
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unfit for service. As you know Genl. Dana </span><b>[1]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is wounded; and of our Regiments the 7th. Michigan is almost destroyed, the 42d New York (Tammany) dispersed and almost broken up, and the 19th and 20th suffered heavily. Col. Hinks </span><b>[2]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> mortally wounded, Lt. Colonel Devereaux </span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and the 1st Captain</span><b> [4]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> wounded, the Lieut. Colonel of the 59th killed </span><b>[5]</b><span style="font-size: large;">, and we have lost Col. Palfrey </span><b>[6]</b><span style="font-size: large;">. Col. Lee </span><b style="font-size: x-large;"></b><b>[7]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is quite broken down and ill. Do not of course needlessly alarm his family, but it is the opinion of all here, that he is quite incapable of enduring the hardships of a camp life longer. He ought to go home and be attended to and nursed. He does not take care of himself at all, and gets wet through, and sleeps without a tent on the wet ground &c, when he could just as well be comfortable and leave such rough duty to younger men. Then you know he is by no means a young man, and, as far as I have observed, an old man cannot endure hardship like a young one. Cold and wet and exposure use up an old man, when a young one gets over anything after a few hours of sleep and a good breakfast. The reason why some old men do flourish so out here is that they take things easily and take great care of themselves, like old Sumner </span><b>[8]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> for instance. So as we are very short of Officers, and the Regiments greatly reduced in the number of men, we shall probably be left to lie still and recruit for a time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I am delighted to find Mr Willard </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[9]</b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> is Major. I have tried to see him but have been as yet unable. Capt. Macy </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[10]</b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> saw him, and he enquired particularly for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you have an opportunity please send me 2 pairs of my blue woolen socks. I like them rather better than the Government socks, and they wear better.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are now camped on a part of the battlefield, and the trees are marked with shot and often split by balls and shells. Most of the dead are now buried, but large numbers of horses still remain and pollute the air. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The farmers about here have shown the greatest patriotism and kindness. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">They came on the field the day after the battle and took great quantities of wounded to their own houses to nurse and attend to them. I hear that in the midst of the battle a farmer brought 5 horses to one of our batteries from his own barn, and generously gave them to supply the places of those killed. Herbert Mason</span><b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b><b>[11]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> was particularly exposed, as he was on the left. He lost all his non-commissioned Officers, and half of his men. Our Division lost about one half.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A very good man of my Company, named Riley </span><b>[12]</b><span style="font-size: large;">, was killed instantly. He was poor and worked in a foundry in Chelsea, where he has a wife and 7 children. They may possibly be in want. Perhaps you could visit them when you make your charitable rounds.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">James</span><b> [13]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> does very well now, and I shall no doubt keep him. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Love to Mary Ann</span><b> [14]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and all. I shall try to write to her next.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Your affectionate Son</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Henry.</span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Source Note</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 </b>Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822-1905), West Point (1842), commanded the Third Brigade of John Sedgwick’s Second Division, II Corps (second brigade in line in the West Woods). He was seriously wounded in the leg. See further, biographical entry in <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1139*.html">Cullum’s Register.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 </b>Colonel Edward Winslow Hinks (Hincks) (1830-1894) commanded the 19th Massachusetts, Third Brigade (Dana’s), Second Division (Sedgwick), II Corps. He was seriously wounded, but not killed, in the West Woods.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>3 </b>Lt. Col. Arthur Forrester Devereux (1838-1906), 19th Massachusetts.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>4</b> Probably Captain Edmund Rice (1842-1906). For more on Rice, see Brian Downey’s <a href="http://antietam.aotw.org/">Antietam on the Web</a> under Edmund Rice.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>5 </b>This is John Lemuel Stetson (1834-1862). For more on Stetson, <i>see</i> blog entry for November 11, 2009.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>6</b> Col. Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831-1889), Harvard College, 1851, Harvard Law School, 1853. He would be hit with grapeshot in his shoulder in the West Woods on September 17.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>7 </b>Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891) led the 20th Massachusetts from its inception at the outbreak of the war through Antietam. He was captured at the Battle of Ball's Bluff (Virginia, October 1861) and spent four months in close confinement in bad conditions at a Richmond POW camp. Once paroled in late February 1862, he returned to Boston to recuperate. A family member was struck by the changes to Lee and other returning officers: "They were worn and old-looking, with the strange expression those carry who have been in confinement, or under a great pressure of care. [Y]outh had gone out of them...[replaced by] silence and listlessness, and dull lines about the face that were sad to see." After convalescing in Boston, Lee rejoined the regiment and took them through the punishing Peninsula Campaign of the spring/summer 1862 where he was left severely wounded and unable to walk. A commentator wrote of the regiment that at the end of the campaign, "they look used up." Returning to the regiment in early September 1862, Lee led the 20th into the West Woods on September 17th. Of the 400 that entered the woods that morning, 137, or 34%, were left dead or wounded on the field. Some went missing and have never been found. Nearly all regimental officers were counted as casualties including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Francis Palfrey, and Edward Revere. The action left Lee broken. Two days after the battle, Capt. George Macy found Lee in a stable not far from the field, he was "drunk, broke, and hungry, and his uniform soiled with his own diarrhea...he was just like a little child wandering away from home." He resigned his commission shortly afterwards and he remained "frail and shaky" for the remainder of his life. Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 116-119, 127-28, 154, 161, 170-183, 218; John C. Ropes, “William Raymond Lee,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28 (May, 1892-May, 1893), pp. 346-348.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>8 </b>Edwin Vose Sumner (1797-1863) commanded II Corps, Army of the Potomac.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>9 </b>Major Sidney Willard (1831-1863), a Harvard graduate (1852) and Boston lawyer, served as a Major in the 35th Massachusetts, IX Corps. He would be killed at Fredericksburg on December 13. C.A. Bartol, <i>A Nation’s Hour: A Tribute to Major Sidney Willard</i> (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1862), pp. 14, 30-31.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>10 </b>Lt. George Nelson Macy (1837-1875) from one of Nantucket’s oldest families would rise to General by war’s end.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>11</b> Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862, was severely wounded in the West Woods.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>12 </b>Irish born Private John Riley (1824-1862) served in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts. A resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts he was an “iron puddler” at the time of his enlistment on August 26, 1861. The 1860 Massachusetts Census found him residing in Worcester with his wife Fanny, also born in Ireland, and six children ages 15 to 1 years old. Fanny</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> filed for widow’s and minors' pensions on May 11, 1863. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John Riley is buried at Antietam National Cemetery, Section 17, Lot A, Grave 15. U.S. Census, Massachusetts, 1860; Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, The Adjutant General, compiler (Norwood, MA: Norwood Press, 1931), p. 585; NARA, RG 15, Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, compiled 1949 - 1949, documenting the period 1861 - 1942.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>13</b> James Smith (1842-1864) was a “case maker” from Northampton before the war. He wrote to John C. Ropes on November 5, 1863 “a few lines in accordance with the expressed wish of your late Brother Lt. Ropes with whom I was a servant…” He signed his letter “James Smith, Head Qrs, 3d Brig., 2d Div., 2nd Corps, A.P.” He would be killed on June 9, 1864 at Cold Harbor. Ropes Manuscript, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library; <i>Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War</i>, The Adjutant General, compiler (Norwood, MA: Norwood Press, 1931), p. 586.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>14 </b>Ropes’ sister, Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842).</span></span><br />
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Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-46381221624536140022015-01-18T16:32:00.003-08:002015-05-25T12:36:12.278-07:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 8.<i>This is the eighth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps.</i><div style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Saturday, 20th September 1862.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My dear Father.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I wrote to you a pencil note yesterday just to tell you of my safety &c. We have had a really terrific battle. Our Division was formed in three lines, the first line Gorman's Brigade,</span><sup>1</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the second ours,</span><sup>2</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the third Burn's.</span><sup>3</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The principal musketry firing was done of course by the first line. We were under a heavy fire, however, and suffered from Artillery while advancing.</span><sup>4</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> We drove the enemy before us with tremendous loss on both sides. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">The slaughter was horrible, especially close to the Hagerstown turnpike where the <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SzB3b1_RER4/VLxIgEY3F1I/AAAAAAAABVA/vqvz8M6tz2w/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-18%2Bat%2B6.21.01%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SzB3b1_RER4/VLxIgEY3F1I/AAAAAAAABVA/vqvz8M6tz2w/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-18%2Bat%2B6.21.01%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of photograph of the west side of Hagerstown Pike.<br />
Alexander Gardner, September 20, 1862. <i>Library of Congress.</i></td></tr>
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enemy made a stand by the fences.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">5</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> We finally advanced down a slope, beyond which the enemy held a cornfield and farmhouse with barn and outbuildings, all on an opposite slope.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">6</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> The enemy had Cannon planted on the top and constantly swept us down with grape and Shrapnell shell.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">7</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Our line was advanced close to the first, exposing us to an equal fire, while we could not fire at all because of our first line. </span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">8</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">The third line was finally advanced close to the second; all this time we stood up and were shot down without being able to reply. Sedgwick</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>9</sup></span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> and Dana</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>10</sup></span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> were shot, and we had no one to command the Division.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>11</sup></span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> The enemy in the meantime came round on our left and rear, and poured in a terrible crossfire. Sumner</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">12</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> came up in time to save the Division and ordered us to march off by the right flank. We did so, but the left Regiments gave way in confusion, the enemy poured in upon our rear, and now the <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Edwin Vose Sumner <span style="text-align: start;"> (1797-1863)<br /><i>Library of Congress.</i></span></span></td></tr>
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slaughter was worse than anything I have ever seen before. Sumner walked his horse quietly along waving his hand and keeping all steady near him. Although the Regiments in rear of us were rushing by us and through our ranks in the greatest confusion, we kept our Company perfectly steady, did not take a single step faster than the regular marching order, and brought off every man except those killed and wounded, who of course were left.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;"></sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Rickett's regular Battery</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">14</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> and some Regiments drawn up at angles to us stayed the enemy, and the broken Regiments reformed in the rear. Our Brigade suffered awfully, the 7th Michigan has only four Officers left.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">15</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> The 42nd and 59th New York Regiments broke and gave way most disgracefully</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">16</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">, our Regiment fell into perfect order as soon as we halted, and was immediately advanced to the front, and our Company and Company I sent out on picket. We staid on picket till yesterday morning when, we were advanced as skirmishers and found the enemy had evacuated. We had heard them moving all night and had given constant information of it, and were sure they were retreating.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">17</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Now we are camped on a part of the battlefield. I hear that McClellan is pursuing the enemy </span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">18</sup><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">and that Sumner's Corps is left behind here. We are all quiet and are burying the dead &c.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A Pioneer of our Regiment, by name Bean,</span><sup>19</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> wishes me to send word of his safety and good health to a Miss Hill who is at the same water cure that Louisa is at.</span><sup>20</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Will you please ask Louisa to do so?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of our Regiment Dr. Revere was shot dead on the field while dressing a wounded man's leg.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>21</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> His body was immediately rifled of everything of the least value. Col. Palfrey badly wounded in the shoulder, taken prisoner and released, or rather left behind.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>22</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Capt. Holmes shot through the neck,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>23</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and Capt. Hallowell in the arm;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>24</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Milton slightly in three places;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>25</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Lt. Col. Revere in the arm.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>26</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The losses of other Regiments of the Division are enormous.</span><sup>27</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Shall try to write again soon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Love to Mother.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Your affectionate son</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Henry.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Source Note</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.<br /><br />Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Notes</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>1 </sup>Willis Gorman (1816-1876), led the first line of Sedgwick’s Division. The 1st Minnesota anchored the right, and moving to the left, the 82nd New York, 15th Massachusetts. The 34th New York had followed the Smoketown Road during the advance and were situated further south at the Dunker Church. For more on the advance of Sedgwick’s Division, <i>see,</i> <span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0px;">Ezra A. Carman, <i>The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. II: Antietam</i>. Thomas G. Clemens, ed. (California: Savas Beatie, 2012), pp. 202-215.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>2 </sup>Brig. Gen. Napoleon Dana (1822-1905), <span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">West Point (1842), </span>situated part of the second line close behind Gorman’s Brigade. The 19th Massachusetts, 20th Massachusetts, and the 59th New York were brought up behind Dana’s Brigade. At the same time, and on the left of the line, Dana attempted to get the 42nd New York and the 7th Michigan to change front in order to meet the advance of the brigades of Jubal Early, William Barksdale, and G.T. Anderson moving in from the south part of the West Woods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>3 </sup>Col. William Wallace Burns (1825-1892), West Point (1847), led the Philadelphia Brigade until a wound received at Savage Station on June 29 forced him to take sick leave from July 10 to October 8. Brigadier Gen. Oliver O. Howard (1830-1909), West Point (1854), commanded the brigade at Antietam and formed the<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"> 71st Pennsylvania on the right, then the 106th and 69th Pennsylvania, and the 72nd on the left. While the 71st, 69th, and 106th maintained a fairly contiguous front, the 72nd Pennsylvania had drifted further south and were to the left of the 7th Michigan from Dana’s brigade. The 72nd’s left came in a few yards north of the Dunker Church and closer to the 34th New York of Gorman’s Brigade. See <i>Cullum’s Register</i> for biographies of Burns and Howard. For more on the Philadelphia Brigade in the West Woods see </span><span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ezra A. Carman, <i>The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. II: Antietam</i>. Thomas G. Clemens, ed. (California: Savas Beatie, 2012), pp. 202-215.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>4 </sup>Brigade and divisional reports from diaries and letters mention taking artillery fire while advancing across open fields from the East to the West Woods. Some recent research suggests that Hardaway’s, Carter’s and Boyce’s batteries operating at that time in the vicinity of the Sunken Road may have been responsible.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup style="font-family: inherit;">5 </sup><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ropes is referring to the post and rail fences along either side of the Hagerstown Pike. See </span>illustration<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 1. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>6 </sup>This was the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>7 </sup>While in the West Woods, Confederate artillery situated on Hauser’s Ridge 600 yards from the regiment’s front threw grape and case shot at the division.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>8 </sup>The 59th New York volleyed into the rear of the 15th Massachusetts. Carman wrote about this incident: “<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;">By this fire many of the Massachusetts men were killed and wounded, and the most strenuous exertions were of no avail either in stopping this murderous fire, or in causing the second line to advance to the front.” </span>The 15th Massachusetts entered the West Woods 606 in the ranks; their losses there tallied 65 killed and 255 wounded, or, 52.8%. <span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><i> </i></span><span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ezra A. Carman, <i>The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. II: Antietam</i>. Thomas G. Clemens, ed. (California: Savas Beatie, 2012), p. 615.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>9 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Major General John Sedgwick (1813-1864), West Point (1837), commanded the Second Division of the II Corps (Sumner). Shot in the wrist, leg, and shoulder in the West Woods on September 17, he survived, but lost his life at Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864. See further, biographical entry in <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/914*.html"><span style="color: #5588aa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Cullum’s Register.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>10 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dana was seriously wounded in the leg. See further, biographical entry in <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1139*.html"><span style="color: #5588aa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Cullum’s Register.</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>11 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Howard took command of the division vice the wounded John Sedgwick. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1634*.html"><span style="color: #5588aa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Cullum’s Register</span></a>.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>12 </sup>Edwin Vose Sumner (1797-1863) commanded II Corps, Army of the Potomac.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>14 </sup>The Noon to 12:15 Cope/Carman map shows Howard’s and Dana’s brigades 40 yards due east of the Joseph Poffenberger farmstead. Rickett’s two batteries, Thompson and Matthews were to their right and left respectively. Gorman’s brigade is deployed on the Poffenberger farmstead with Dunbar Ransom’s artillery to their left rear. <i>Map of the Battlefield of Antietam Prepared Under the Direction of the Antietam Battlefield Board, … Surveyed by Lieut. Col. E.B. Cope…Position of Troops by E.A. Carman, </i>(Washington, D.C.,<i> </i>1904).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>15 </sup>Of the 402 men of the 7th Michigan in the West Woods, 39 were killed, 178 wounded, and 3 went missing. Twenty of the twenty-three regimental officers were either killed or wounded. For an excellent account of the 7th Michigan in the West Woods, see Tom Nank’s blog entry titled “The Seventh Michigan Infantry at Antietam” posted at <a href="http://antietamjournal.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-7th-michigan-infantry-at-antietam.html">Antietam Journal</a>. <i>See also</i> a list of 7th Michigan casualties at Brian Downey’s encyclopedic website <a href="http://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?unit_id=426&from=results">Antietam on the Web.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>16 </sup>The 42nd New York lost 181 officers and men or 52% casualties. The 59th New York suffered nearly 53% casualties in the West Woods. Carman, pp. 204-206; 615.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>17 </sup>The Army of Northern Virginia left the field for Virginia during the night of September 18.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>18 </sup>This is a reference to the Battle of Shepherdstown fought on September 20, 1862.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>19 </sup>This was either Private Ansel Bean or Private Albert C. Bean. Both served in Company I, 20th Massachusetts. NARA, RG 94, I<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ndexes to the Carded Records of Soldiers Who Served in Volunteer Organizations During the Civil War, compiled 1899 - 1927, documenting the period 1861 - 1866, Roll 0003; George A. Bruce, The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1906), p. 500.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>20 </sup>This is probably a water cure spa at Lenox, Massachusetts mentioned in Ropes’ correspondence to his brother on September 3, 1862 (see post here).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>21 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dr. Edward Hutchinson Robbins Revere, was the older brother of Major Paul Revere. A graduate of Harvard Medical School (1849), maintained a practice in Greenfield, Massachusetts at the outbreak of the war. He was "performing field surgery when he suddenly found himself in front. He remained and calmly finished the operation before he was shot and killed." Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts </i>(Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 25-26, 177.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>22 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Col. Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831-1889), Harvard College, 1851, Harvard Law School, 1853, was hit with grapeshot in his shoulder in the West Woods.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>23 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935). For more on Holmes in the West Woods, <i>see</i> blog posts here of July 21, August 13, August 29, and October 29, and November 11, 2010.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>24 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Capt. Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914), Harvard College, 1861 was severely wounded in the arm.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>25 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lt. William F. Milton, Harvard (1858). Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts </i>(Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005), p. 54.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>26 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lt. Col. Paul Joseph Revere, grandson of Paul Revere and Harvard graduate (1862). He will be killed at Gettysburg.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><sup>27 </sup>Sedgwick went into the West Woods with 5,437 infantry. Of these 369 were killed and 1,572 wounded--producing an aggregate of 1,941 or 35% casualties. <span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0px;">Ezra A. Carman, <i>The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. II: Antietam</i>. Thomas G. Clemens, ed. (California: Savas Beatie, 2012), </span>p. 351.</span></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-31792741372477685972015-01-11T19:09:00.002-08:002015-01-11T19:12:25.685-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 7<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This is the seventh entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Camp on Battlefield near Sharpsburg</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Md. September 20, 1862.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My dear John.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have written to Father giving an account of the late battle. I have received 2 letters from you of the 12th one from Mother of the 8th and one from Mary Ann, and one from Father of the 9th inst. Which I have not yet acknowledged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yesterday I went over the field, and it was really a most awful sight. The dead were really piled up and lay in rows. The slaughter was more awful than anything I ever read of, for it is not a small field on which the dead lay thickly scattered as if there was a separate fight at that one place, but a vast extent of country several times as large as the Commons[</span><b>1]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> where there is no place which you can stand and not see the field black with dead bodies as far [as] the eye can reach. Then the wounded gathered into barns &c. are an awful sight. The Rebels let them lay for 2 days without care, and would not allow our men to either take them off, or dress their wounds, as they lay, although their own men robbed them of everything and often stripped their clothes from their bodies. No description I ever <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Location of the 20th Massachusetts in the West Woods.<br />
Detail from Cope/Carman Map, 1904. Library of Congress.</td></tr>
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read begins to give one an idea of the slaughter and the horrible sights of this battle-field. We drove them for about 1/2 miles, and they then repulsed us from the ravine into which we were too hastily advanced.</span><b>[</b><b>2]</b><b> </b><span style="font-size: large;">The Artillery was by far the heaviest we have ever yet heard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The 20th has lost about 150 about of about 400, and it never acted better or better supported its reputation for perfect steadiness. The advance of our Division was a splendid sight. I had 2 very narrow escapes. The spent ball made a hole in my coat and only scraped up the shirt a little and made me lame for a day. The Cannon ball I saw distinctly. It first hit the branch of a tree, glanced, passed between my legs slightly burning my knee and leaving a black mark on my pants. It struck the ground behind me and again glanced up and smashed the shoulder of Corporal Campion</span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> of my Company. A great many of our men were killed by the grape shot they piled into us from the top of the hill</span><b>[</b><b>4]</b><b> </b><span style="font-size: large;">about as far off as from our house to Charles St.</span><b>[</b><b>5]<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, it is over, and we may not see another such battle for many months.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Much obliged to you for your attention to my things. Your recruit has not yet come. James is doing better of late and [seems] capable of improvement. I should not take an enlisted man for a servant. Col. Lee</span>[<b>6]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is well and in command of the Brigade, Genl. Howard</span>[<b>7]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> of the Division; Capt. Dreher</span>[<b>8]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> of the Regiment. Herbert</span><b>[9]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is all right and unhurt. So are all other friends except those I mentioned as wounded. We have beaten the enemy badly and they acknowledge it. I should not wonder if the war was now brought to a speedy end.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I have heard that our left was unprotected in consequence of Genl. French taking a wrong road. He should have been there. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I have received the pistol &c. And have determined to keep John Bradlee</span>[<b>10]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and send home the heavy one. Have not seen Lieut. Morse</span>[<b>11]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> of the 2d. They were out near us for 2 days. Saw Caspar</span>[<b>12]</b><b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b><span style="font-size: large;">and Forbes</span>[<b>13]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> of the Cavalry the other day. Murphy</span>[<b>14]</b><b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b><span style="font-size: large;">and Abbot</span>[<b>15]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> were left sick at Frederick and were not in the battle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Your affectionate brother,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Source Note</b></span><span style="font-size: large;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Notes</b><br /><br />1 The Boston Commons.<br /><br />2 The location of the 20th Massachusetts in the West Woods placed them in a broad depression between two limestone ridges. See, illustration.<br /><br />3 This was Irish-born Corporal Edward J. Campion. He and his brother, Sgt. Patrick J. Campion, served in Company K, 20th Massachusetts. The medical history of Corporal Campion follows: “Campion, Edward J., Corporal, Co. K, 20th Massachusetts, aged 31 years. Antietam, September 17th 1862. Shell fracture of right temporal bone. Baltimore hospitals. Removal of spicular of bone. Discharged March 10, 1863. Examiner David Choate, M.D., reports, November 27th, 1863, that the patient is subject to vertigo, palpitation, and morbid wakefulness. He was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at Togus, Maine on September 20, 1887 where he lived until his death on December 26, 1910. <i>The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion</i> (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870), p. 238; <i>62d Congress, 2d Session (December 4, 1911-August 26, 1912) House Documents, Vol. 121 </i>(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1912), p. 287; National Archives, Record Group 94, (M544, Roll 0006). Alphabetical card index to the compiled service records of volunteer Union soldiers belonging to units from the State of Massachusetts.<br /><br />4 This would be Hauser’s Ridge.<br /><br />5 The 9:00 to 9:30 location of the 20th Massachusetts is marked on the Antietam Battlefield Board Atlas a little less than 600 yards from Brockenbrough’s and D’Aquin batteries located on Hauser Ridge. The distance from the family residence on 92 Beacon Street and Charles Street is 500 feet. Cope/Carman Map 1904; <i>Boston Directory… for the Year Commencing, July 1, 1862</i> (Boston: Adams, Sampson, & Co., 1862); Mitchell’s New General Atlas, Plan of Boston (Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1866).<br /><br />6 Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891), attended West Point but dropped out in 1829. John C. Ropes, “William Raymond Lee,” <i>Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28</i> (May, 1892-May, 1893), pp. 346-348.<br /><br />7 General Oliver O. Howard (1830-1909), took command of the division vice the wounded John Sedgwick. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1634*.html">Cullum’s Register</a>.<br /><br />8 Captain Ferdinand Dreher (1822-1863) commissioned as Major on September 5, 1862 will be wounded at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862 and die in Boston on April 30, 1863. <i>Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with reports from the Quartermaster-General, Surgeon-General, and Master of Ordnance for the Year Ending December 31, 1862 </i>(Boston: Wright & Potter, 1863), pp. 676-77; NARA, RG 15, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Veterans of the Army and Navy Who Served Mainly in the Civil War and the War With Spain, compiled 1861 - 1934, Application Number WC8673.<br /><br />9 Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862, will be severely wounded in the West Woods.<br /><br />10 Unknown reference.<br /><br />11 Lt. Charles Fessenden Morse (1839-1926), Harvard (1858) served as Captain of Company B, 2nd Massachusetts.<br /><br />12 Caspar Crowinshield (1837-1897), Harvard (1860), originally with the 20th Massachusetts, was a captain in the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry. The regiment, deployed across the Middle Bridge and finding some refuge in the hollows and banks adjacent to Antietam Creek as the “air was full of shot and shell.” Ezra A. Carman, <i>The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Vol. II: Antietam</i>. Thomas G. Clemens, ed. (California: Savas Beatie, 2012), p. 363.<br /><br />13 William Hathaway Forbes (1840-1897), Harvard (1861), served in the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry. Obituary, The <i>Harvard Crimson</i>, October 31, 1897.<br /><br />14 Lt. James Murphy would resign his commission on August 28, 1863 due to wounds received at Chancellorsville. He will serve as one of Henry Ropes’ pallbearers.<br /><br />15 Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864), Harvard College, 1860 will be killed at the Battle of the Wilderness.</span></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-45276771794236637262015-01-04T06:26:00.000-08:002015-01-04T06:34:47.951-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 6<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">This is the sixth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Field near Sharpsburg, Va. </span><b>[1]</b></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Friday, September 19th 1862.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My dear Father.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We have had a tremendous battle and again I have been mercifully preserved from all harm. It began at 6 a.m. On Wednesday, day before yesterday, and we have been on picket ever since the fight.</span><b>[2]</b> <span style="font-size: large;">Last night the enemy left and have probably crossed the river. We are drawn back, our forces in pursuit. Col: Palfrey </span><b>[3]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is wounded in shoulder, and I believe missing; Capt. Holmes </span><b>[4]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> in neck; Capt. Hallowell </span><b>[5]</b> <span style="font-size: large;">in arm; Lt. Milton</span> <b>[6]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> slightly in three places; Lt. Col: Revere </span><b>[7]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> in arm; Col: Lee </span><b>[8]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> safe and well; Genl. Richardson </span><b>[9]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> mortally; Genl. Sedgwick </span><b>[10]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> badly; Genl. Dana </span><b>[11] </b><span style="font-size: large;">in leg; Col: Hinks </span><b>[12]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> killed. Our Division suffered awfully. I was bruised slightly twice, once by a spent ball in the shoulder, and once by a cannon shot which passed between my legs, just grazing my Knee. Herbert </span><b>[13]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and all the rest safe. Abbott </span><b>[14]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> and Macy </span><b>[15]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> not there.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Most affectionate son</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">P.S. Have just heard that Dr. Revere </span><b>[16]</b><span style="font-size: large;"> is killed, may not be true.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Source Note</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Notes</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>1</b> Maryland. This is probably an error in transcription.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2 </b>Cope Carman Map location of the 20th Massachusetts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>3</b> Col. Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831-1889), Harvard College, 1851, Harvard Law School, 1853. He would be hit with grapeshot in his shoulder in the West Woods on September 17.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>4</b> Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935). For more on Holmes in the West Woods, see posts on this blog entered on July 21, August 13, August 29, and October 29, November 11, 2010.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5</b> Capt. Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914), Harvard College, 1861 was severely wounded in the arm in the West Woods</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>6 </b>Lt. William F. Milton, Harvard (1858). </span><span style="font-size: large;">Richard F. Miller, </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts </span></i><span style="font-size: large;">(Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005)</span><span style="font-size: large;">, p. 54.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>7</b> Lt. Col. Paul Joseph Revere, grandson of Paul Revere and Harvard graduate (1862). He will be killed at Gettysburg.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>8</b> Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891), attended West Point but dropped out in 1829. John C. Ropes, “William Raymond Lee,” <i>Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28 </i>(May, 1892-May, 1893), pp. 346-348.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">9</span></b><span style="font-size: large;"> Maj. Gen. Israel Richardson (1815-1862), West Point (1841), commanded the First Division, II Corps. He would die of his wound at Pry House on November 3. See further, biographical entry in</span> <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1096*.html">Cullum’s Register.</a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>10</b> Major General John Sedgwick (1813-1864), West Point (1837), commanded the Second Division of the II Corps (Sumner). Shot in the wrist, leg, and shoulder in the West Woods on September 17, he survived, but lost his life at Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864. See further, biographical entry in </span><a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/914*.html">Cullum’s Register.</a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>11 </b>Brig. Gen. Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822-1905), West Point (1842), commanded the Third Brigade of John Sedgwick’s Second Division, II Corps. He was seriously wounded in the leg. See further, biographical entry in </span><a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1139*.html">Cullum’s Register.</a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>12</b> Colonel Edward Winslow Hinks (Hincks) (1830-1894) commanded the 19th Massachusetts, Third Brigade (Dana’s), Second Division (Sedgwick), II Corps. He was seriously wounded, but not killed, in the West Woods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>13</b> Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862, was severely wounded in the West Woods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>14 </b>Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864), Harvard (1860).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>15 </b>Lt. George Nelson Macy (1837-1875) from one of Nantucket’s oldest families would rise to General by war’s end.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>16</b> Dr. Edward Hutchinson Robbins Revere, was the older brother of Major Paul Revere. A graduate of Harvard Medical School (1849), maintained a practice in Greenfield, Massachusetts at the outbreak of the war. He was "performing field surgery when he suddenly found himself in front. He remained and calmly finished the operation before he was shot and killed." Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard's Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts </i>(Lebanon, N.H., University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 25-26, 177.</span>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-31160930737638393712014-12-30T09:38:00.002-08:002015-01-04T05:35:51.211-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 5<div style="text-align: left;">
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">This is the fifth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Camp 20th Regiment near </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Middletown, Md. Monday September 15th 1862</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6 A.M.</span></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My dear Father.</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We came here late last night, having marched very far to the North during the day. We marched from Rockville to Frederick City via Clarksburg and Middlebrook</span><sup>1</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, and camped day before yesterday close to Frederick. The people show every sign of joy at our arrival. There was a severe battle</span><sup>2</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> here yesterday before we came up, about which I have not yet heard much, but we drove the Rebels at last. All quiet as yet this morning, so I suppose they have retreated in the night. I hear the 35th Mass.</span><sup>3</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> was <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gv5KnGLjtJU/VKLhlJDBu5I/AAAAAAAABUY/M2qz9Qv8o20/s1600/RenoJ_main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gv5KnGLjtJU/VKLhlJDBu5I/AAAAAAAABUY/M2qz9Qv8o20/s1600/RenoJ_main.jpg" height="320" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Major General Jesse Reno (1823-1862)<br />
<i>Tenleytown Historical Society, Washington, D.C.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
engaged. Genl. Reno</span><sup>4</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> is killed_ his body was carried by us. The houses were filled with wounded when we passed up. We are about 2 miles from the position the Rebels occupied last night. My foot is well. All the Regiment safe and well, except Lieutenants Abbott</span><sup>5</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, Murphy</span><sup>6</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and Beckwith</span><sup>7</sup><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> who are ill and left at Frederick. I do not think Abbott is much ill, but it would have hurt him to march and we persuaded him to stay behind for a day or two. </span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Received letter from mother of the 8th. No other letters. Please do not send on the pistol if there is no fixed Ammunition to fill it. Love to Mother and all. Shall try to write soon. Our force here is very large and we are in reserve and in all probability shall not be engaged in case another battle takes place in a few days.</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In great haste</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Your affectionate Son</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Henry.</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Source.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry </i>(Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Notes.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>1 </sup>Middlebrook Post Office was located along the Frederick Road just west of Great Seneca Creek. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>2 </sup>The Battle of South Mountain, September 14, 1862.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>3 </sup>The 35th Massachusetts was organized at Worcester, Massachusetts on August 1, 1862. They joined the 2nd Brigade (Ferrero), 2nd Division (Sturgis), of the IX Corps for the advance into Maryland. They participated at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14th. Ropes’ interest in the regiment probably is his family relationship with Major Sidney Willard (1831-1863) who served as a Major in the 35th Massachusetts. See previous post, December 29, 2014. Bartol, <i>A Nation’s Hour: A Tribute to Major Sidney Willard</i> (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1862), pp. 14, 30-31; The Civil War in the East <a href="http://www.civilwarintheeast.com/USA/MA/MA35.php">website</a>; Union Order of Battle, <i>Official Records</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>4 </sup>Major General Jesse Reno (1823-1862), a Virginian by birth, headed the Union IX Corps. He was mortally wounded at Fox Gap, South Mountain while directing troop positions toward the end of the battle. See further, John Hoptak,<i> The Battle of South Mountain</i>, (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011), pp. 82-85.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>5 </sup>Lt. Henry Livermore Abbott (1842-1864), Harvard College, (1860), will be killed at the Battle of the Wilderness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>6 </sup>Lt. James Murphy will resign his commission on August 28, 1863 due to wounds received at Chancellorsville, Murphy will serve as one of Henry Ropes’ pallbearers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><sup>7 </sup>Sgt. Robert Beckwith (1840-1862) a Scottish-born ironworker will be commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant following Antietam. He will be killed on the assault on Mayre’s Heights, Fredericksburg on December 13th. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Richard F. Miller, </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry </i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">(Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005), pp. 183, 212.</span>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-46354094341644181272014-12-28T17:39:00.000-08:002015-01-04T05:33:12.144-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 4<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 0px;">This is the fourth entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Camp Defiance<sup>1</sup> near Rockville</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Md. Monday September 8<sup>th</sup> 1862.</span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My dear Father.</span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We marched from Tenallytown<sup>2</sup> on Saturday last and drew up here in line of battle in support of batteries and sent out pickets. We had heard of the invasion of the Rebels, and we quite expected a battle, as their pickets occupied Darnestown<sup>3</sup> a few miles before us. However, they have not molested us, and now we have an immense force here. Banks<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>4</sup></span> is on our left, and the 2d. Mass.<sup>5</sup> is close to us in the 2d line. I was really very much astonished to hear that the Rebels had crossed, but I think it will be their ruin, that is if they are here in force. I do not think they will attack us here, for we are in a very strong position, and they seem to me making to the North. Perhaps after all they will retire after supplying themselves with what food and clothing they can get.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr. John Gray<sup>6</sup> has just been here and is getting a good idea of military matters. We are in a most </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">be</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">autiful and healthy Camp, and as Genl. Sumner</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">7</sup><span style="font-family: inherit;"> has to_day given it a name “Defiance” and as our baggage had just come up, I think we may be some time here. My feet is much better. I enclose 2 bills of $2. Each of N.E. Banks.</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">8</sup><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I understand both are good but they will not often take N.E. bills here. If they are good, will you please send me back the $4 in U.S. $1, or better still, postage stamps and small change?</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YmlpGln4Ea4/VKCrXF_BAEI/AAAAAAAABUI/C7tE9-3h3Zo/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-28%2Bat%2B6.46.50%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YmlpGln4Ea4/VKCrXF_BAEI/AAAAAAAABUI/C7tE9-3h3Zo/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-28%2Bat%2B6.46.50%2BPM.png" height="132" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bank note issued by the White Mountain Bank,<br />
New Hampshire, 1862. <i>See further, note 8 below.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I received yesterday yours of the 4<sup>th</sup> and Mother’s of August 28<sup>th</sup> enclosing a letter from Frank at Berlin<sup>9</sup> and Lizzy at Lewisham.<sup>10 </sup>Please thank all and say I hope to answer soon. I am delighted you gave such a handsome present to Mr. Willard.<sup>11</sup> I know he will value it exceedingly. All friends here well. The Colonel <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><sup>12 </sup></span>as brisk and active as ever. He already looks much better than when he came, for he is sunburnt and ruddy. Very much obliged to you for attending to my little matters, and for sending to their owners the contents of the trunk.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Letter for Mary Ann<sup>13</sup> enclosed.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Your affectionate Son</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Henry.</span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Source Note.</b></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 0px;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence that constitutes this and the following items in this series is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the centerpiece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three hand-written transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, </span><i style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 0px;">Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; text-indent: 0px;"> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="min-height: 17px; text-indent: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Notes.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Cochin; font-size: 14px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>1 </sup>Camp Defiance was two miles north of Rockville, Maryland. Henry P. Goddard, <i>The Good Fight that Didn’t End: Henry P. Goddard’s Accounts of Civil War and Peace</i> Calvin Goddard Zon, ed. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2008), p. 51.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>2 </sup>Tennallytown, District of Columbia.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>3 </sup>Darnestown, Maryland.</span><br />
<div style="color: #323333;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>4 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bank’s Corps, II Corps of the Army of Virginia. Banks would be relieved from command on September 7 and five days later General Order 129 would change its designation to the XII Corps, Army of the Potomac, under command of Major General Joseph F. Mansfield.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>5 </sup>Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade, XII Corps.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>6 </sup>This was probably John Chipman Gray (1839-1915). A graduate of Harvard Law School and friend of the Ropes family, he would enlist in the 41st Massachusetts on October 7, 1862. After the war, Gray would form with John C. Ropes the law firm of Ropes & Gray. Roland Gray, <i>John Chipman Gray</i> (Boston: privately printed, 1907), p. 8.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>7 </sup>Edward Vose Sumner, headed II Corps, Army of the Potomac.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>8 </sup>During this time, private banks issued bank notes in various denominations. The image here is of a two dollar note issued by the White Mountain Bank in New Hampshire. Image from auction.archivesinternational.com.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>9 </sup>This is probably Frank Ropes (b. 1838), Henry’s brother, from Berlin, Germany.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>10 </sup>This is probably Elizabeth Ropes (b. 1825), Henry’s sister, at Lewisham, London, England.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>11 </sup>This is probably Major Sidney Willard (1831-1863) a Harvard graduate (1852) and Boston lawyer who served as a Major in the 35th Massachusetts, IX Corps. The “handsome present” may have been “a military sash and a handsome silver platter” presented to him by the Washington Home Guard, Cambridge on his departure “for the seat of war on Friday, August 22.” On September 3 he would be appointed to Major of the regiment. He would be killed at Fredericksburg on December 13. C.A. Bartol, <i>A Nation’s Hour: A Tribute to Major Sidney Willard</i> (Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1862), pp. 14, 30-31.</span><br />
<div style="color: #323333;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><sup>12 </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891) commanded the 20th Massachusetts.</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>13 </sup>This is probably Ropes’ sister Mary Ann Ropes (b 1842). 1850 U.S. Census Record for Massachusetts.</span>Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-24922510107437242962014-12-26T16:01:00.003-08:002014-12-30T09:42:55.194-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 3<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">This is the third entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i><br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Camp 20th Regiment<br />
Tennallytown near Washington, D.C.<br />
<br />
September 5th 1862.<br />
<br />
My dear Father.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pzH86oLKeE0/VJ373JRokpI/AAAAAAAABT4/ojADBOH66XI/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-26%2Bat%2B7.22.12%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pzH86oLKeE0/VJ373JRokpI/AAAAAAAABT4/ojADBOH66XI/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-26%2Bat%2B7.22.12%2BPM.png" height="204" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battery Martin Scott in the District<br />
of Columbia overlooking Chain Bridge.<br />
<i>Harper's Weekly</i>, August 24, 1861.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I wrote to you last from Alexandria, day before yesterday, telling you of our heavy marches to and <b> [1]</b> I was unable to march yesterday and came in an ambulance with Col. Hinks <b>[2]</b> of the 19th Regiment, a very pleasant man. He told me that we marched 30 miles on Sunday, from 2 A.M. till 12 P.M., and that taking the 3 days together we marched 65 miles in 64 consecutive hours. This march quite used up my foot, and I found yesterday that I was quite unable to march, but to-day it is much better and I have no doubt a few day’s rest will quite restore it.<br />
from Fairfax Court House. Yesterday the Brigade (under Col. Lee) marched to this place crossing at Chain Bridge. Our Corps, and Banks’ is here, and I understand Banks is to-day to move up the river to Poolesville.<br />
<br />
We are now on very high land and shall probably be very comfortable.<b>[3]</b> I have written to Poolesville 2and ordered my two boxes there to be sent home to you by Adams’ Express. I enclose the keys. They are filled with Camp equipage which, I could not carry with me from Poolesville. Please open the boxes and make any use of the contents. Some of the things I may need and if so will send for them.<br />
<br />
[Notation in pencil: “For close see close of letter 26 September /62_” The “close” from September 26th is amended below. Someone has added a notation in pencil to this amendment that “This is probably the close of a letter dated Sept. 5, 1862 “].<br />
<br />
From all I hear, McDowell <b>[4]</b> made a bad job of his retreat and our loss was heavy, and a great deal of valuable Stores and many wagons fell into the enemy’s hands. I can see no excuse for this. A good firm rear guard can stop almost any pursuit. We have now twice covered a retreat, and both times with success.<br />
<br />
Jackson seems to strike terror everywhere. I hope Sumner <b>[5]</b> will meet him some day and turn the tables. We expect to be here several weeks. I am perfectly well as usual. Herbert <b>[6]</b> is quite strong and well, and stood the hard marching perfectly. I have written to John<b> [7]</b> to get me a number of things, and I have no doubt it will take up much of his time to see to them, be he is very kind in attending to everything, and I think I have now found out exactly what I need.<br />
<br />
Best love to Mother and all. I shall write soon and answer all letters when I can get a tent up. <br />
<br />
Ever your affectionate Son<br />
<br />
Henry.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Sources</b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence that constitutes this and the following items in this series is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the centerpiece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three hand-written transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"> (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Notes</b><br />
<br />
[1] Poolesville, Montgomery County, Maryland.<br />
<br />
[2] Colonel Edward Winslow Hinks (Hincks) (1830-1894) commanded the 19th Massachusetts. He would be seriously wounded in the West Woods.<br />
<br />
[3] Tennallytown, District of Columbia, at 500 feet elevation, is on one of the highest points of the District.<br />
<br />
[4] Gen. Irwin McDowell led the III Corps of the Army of Virginia under John Pope.<br />
<br />
[5] Edwin Vose Sumner commanded the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac.<br />
<br />
[6] <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Lt. Herbert Cowpland Mason (1840-1884), Harvard College, 1862, would be severely wounded in the West Woods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[7] John C. Ropes, his brother.</span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6939302603554293167.post-12539891557977673102014-12-26T12:04:00.001-08:002015-01-04T05:32:05.187-08:00To the West Woods: The Correspondence of Henry Ropes, 20th Massachusetts, Entry 2<i>This is the second entry in the correspondence of Lieutenant Henry Ropes to his family between September 3 and October 5, 1862. Ropes was a Second Lieutenant in Company K of the 20th Massachusetts, Dana’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, II Corps. </i><br />
<br />
Camp 20th Regiment, Mass.<br />
Near Alexandria, Va. September 3rd 1862.<br />
<br />
My dear Father.<br />
<br />
After 4 days of tiresome marching and picket duty, we are brought to the same place which we left on Saturday last. I wrote you from Chain Bridge that we were to occupy some forts permanently.<b>[1] </b>Then orders were changed and we crossed the Chain Bridge and went to some hills N.W. of Washington. Here we heard all day Saturday the heavy Canonading, and we knew a great battle was going on.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lx1mtNQnQhU/VJ17WXGhcpI/AAAAAAAABTo/cFbM7GdfiIY/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-26%2Bat%2B10.03.37%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lx1mtNQnQhU/VJ17WXGhcpI/AAAAAAAABTo/cFbM7GdfiIY/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-12-26%2Bat%2B10.03.37%2BAM.png" height="228" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map showing detail of Washington defenses.<br />
The regiment moved across Chain Bridge to Tennallytown<br />
and Ft. Pennsylvania (later renamed Fort Reno).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We marched again at 3 a.m. On Sunday; passed through Georgetown, crossed the river and marched through a heavy rain to Fairfax Court House, Va. Where we arrived at 12 m. after a march of 22 hours. We had several long halts however, and the march was well conducted and not very trying.<br />
<br />
As we expected fully to go to the front and be engaged with the enemy very soon, I kept with the Regiment although my foot was very lame. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We lay down for a few hours at Fairfax my Company<b>[2] </b>and Co. I being advanced and pickets thrown out, for a body of Rebel Cavalry &c. had appeared in rear of our main Army. Monday morning we advanced about 5 miles and occupied a road and rested all day. Our pickets were thrown out, and met a few of the enemy, and we had one man of Company C wounded. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We found a large body of Cavalry had got in between us and the main body of the Army at Centreville. In the afternoon Hooker advanced, and attacked them, and we formed part of the 2d line, behind a hastily built breast work. I hear he drove them off. A rain storm made the night very uncomfortable, but Tuesday was a very fine day, and very cool.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our Army now fell back, leaving us as the extreme Infantry advance. Casey<b>[3]</b> & Slocum<b>[4]</b> formed line of battle behind us and the Cavalry were a little in front of us. At about 5 P.M. We fell back, and afterwards halted and let all the other troops go by, and our Brigade covered the retreat. We were still detached from our Division and were now under Hooker. The enemy pressed us, but a section of horse Artillery was ordered to the rear and kept them back. I at first rode with the Regiment on the Adjutant’s horse, but before long got a chance to ride on a Caisson of a Regiment of Artillery in Bank’s Corps,<b>[5] </b>and thus reached Alexandria soon after midnight. The Artillery went much farther than the Regiment without my knowledge, and I could not find the Regiment in the darkness and therefor got in at a house and slept till this morning when I found the Regiment. I am now with it here. I rode because my foot was very lame after my long march. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This morning I have seen Col. Lee and Major Revere,<b>[6]</b> and they both look very well, and we are delighted to see them again here. We shall no doubt have a season of rest here. The Army needs a month to recruit and refit, and then I hope we shall make our last advance. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am in perfect health, and have, no doubt a few days rest will restore my foot. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I have received from Col. Lee’s servant the shoulder straps, pail &c. And thus I see you must have got my trunk and keys. I hope to write again very soon. Excuse this letter written under great difficulties.<br />
<br />
All well in the Regiment.<br />
<br />
Your affectionate Son<br />
<br />
Henry.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Source.</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The source for Henry Ropes’ correspondence is the three volume transcription of Ropes outbound correspondence to his father, mother, and his brother, John C. Ropes. The original transcription can be found at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><br />
<div style="min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Henry Ropes was killed at Gettysburg on July 3 and from that point on, John C. Ropes undertook a life-long pursuit to memorialize his brother’s life and the regiment’s history. The transcription volumes are the center piece of John C. Ropes work and his legacy. Each of the three transcribed volumes are organized chronologically: Volume 1 is Henry Ropes’ correspondence to his father and mother, and Volume 2 and 3 to his brother, John C. Ropes. </span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For more on the Ropes correspondence, see Richard F. Miller’s excellent essay on historical bibliography at pages 495-499 in his superlative study on the 20th Massachusetts in Richard F. Miller, <i>Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry </i>(Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2005). Any errors in transcribing and annotating the selected correspondence are mine.</span></span></div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<b>Notes</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b>[1] </b>Probably Fort Ethan Allen or Fort Marcy (see map above), that guarded the western approach to the Chain Bridge. </div>
<div>
<b>[2] </b>Company K.</div>
</div>
</div>
<b>[3]</b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> So far, I am unsure what this reference is to. Brigadier General Silas Casey’s Division had been detached from the Army of the Potomac after Seven Pines and sent to operations at Suffolk,Virginia and later the coast of North Carolina.</span><br />
<div>
<b>[4] </b>Major General Henry W. Slocum, commanded the 1st Division of the VI Corps. See further, <i>David A. Welker's Tempest at Ox Hill: The Battle of Chantilly</i> (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002).</div>
<b>[5]</b> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bank’s Corps was the II Corps of the Army of Virginia. Banks would be relieved from command </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on September 7 and five days later General Order 129 would change its designation to the XII Corps, Army of the Potomac, under command of Major General Joseph F. Mansfield. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>[6]</b> </span>Colonel William Raymond Lee (1807-1891), attended West Point but dropped out in 1829<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">; </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Major Paul Joseph Revere, grandson of Paul Revere and Harvard graduate (1862).</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Jim Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615039163638513296noreply@blogger.com0