"When we got to that fence and laid down a short while...": Callom Jones and the 15th Virginia in the West Woods

Jones' references plotted on the Cope/Carman 1908 map.
9:00 Map. A: "we had to get over a fence;" B: "to our
right front there was a rick of Straw;" C: "[100 yards in
front of the Union line was] "a rock
fence that had been pulled down;" D and F: we "ran the
enemy through these woods...when we came to another
field...there was some stacks of straw, a barn, and dwelling
a little to our left." 

Ashland, Va
Oct 13th 1899

Gen. E A Carman:

Dear Sir,

In reply to your communication,[1] would state, I cannot say positively what direction we were going but it seemed to me to be north. We forded the river about light that morning,[2] at Sheppardstown[3], and stacked arms, and after resting a very short time we fell in, and double-quicked N.E. into a piece of woods, where we threw off what baggage we had, and turned a little to the left, and came out into another field, where Kershaw’s brigade wheeled into line, not the right. Then Barksdale's in the same direct[ion], then our brigade (Semmes)[4] to form line we had to get over a fence, where we were fired into, and we lost the most of our men in our Co E (15th Va) directly after getting over that fence. It was a stubble field, and just to our right front there was a rick of Straw (not a stack). 

I remember distinctly seeing our skirmishers at the end next to us, and the enemy’s at the other end, nearest the woods, and they were captured as we advanced. 

The enemy’s line was in the edge of some oak woods, and about 100 yards in front of it was a rock fence that had been pulled down,[5] when we got to that fence we laid down a short while, we lost some men here also. 

We charged again, and ran the enemy through these woods, going N.E. it seemed to me, when we came to another field, in which, there was some stacks of straw, a barn, and a dwelling a little to our left,[6] at the straw stacks there were right many wounded federal Soldiers, and some dead. 

10:30 Map. F marks the straw stacks south of the
Miller farmstead.

We only went a short distance beyond the stacks, we had lost very heavily, and [our] line was very thin, and scattered at that, she we were ordered back and came back to able where we went in the fight. 

We were relieved by some of Jackson’s men, and we went back to the brigade hospital, about a mile in the rear, where we remained all the next day, and recrossed the River about the same time we had crossed two days before. 

From my description I think you might mark out the course we took better than I could not seeing Shepperdstown on your map.[7] If you could find out the way the 10 Geo were went you could, [find]
the way we went for we were between the 10 Geo and 32nd Va. 

I was only a private in Co. E. 15th Va, and they didn’t know much of anything in the Army. My Cpt J.C. Govers[8] is still living in Washington D.C. where if you could find him he might give you some information worth having. 

I have thought of going over the battlefield since the war, but have never had the time to spare, but I believe I could go over the same ground again, unless they have made many alterations. 

Callom B. Jones (1842-1912).
Picture credit: George Seitz.

If I can at anytime be of any service let me know for I am interest in having correct maps as well as histories of the Civil War, and the only way to get at the facts is from the men who participated in the fights. 

Hoping you may derive such information as you desire.

I remain

Very respectfully

Callom B. Jones, MD[9]

Sources:

Photo: Find-a-Grave researcher George Seitz.

Callom Jones to Ezra A. Carman, October 13, 1899, Antietam Studies, Record Group 92, National Archives.  This is one of three letters written by Callom Jones to Carman. The other two penned on September 30, 1899 and February 5, 1900 are substantially the same if not shorter. Of the three, this letter is the most polished. Any substantive differences between this and the other two are annotated here.

[1] Letter not found.

[2] In his September 30, 1899 letter, Jones states that "we forded the river about daybreak."

[3] Shepherdstown, Va.

[4] All parentheses are those of the the writer.

[5] No maps of the battlefield show a stone fence in this vicinity. What Jones may be referring to is the limestone rock outcroppings on the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead. Farmers, unable to plant along these outcroppings often deposited boulders and other rocks pulled from the plowed field along the length of outcroppings. The outcroppings and field boulders are still visible today on this property.

[6] This was the David Miller farmstead.

[7] In his February 5, 1900 letter to Carman, Jones states "I don't think we could have gone more than three courts of a mile if that in the charge and pursuit together."

[8] Captain John C. Govers, then 29, resided in Richmond, Virginia before the war. He was promoted from 1st Lieutenant to company captain on July 1, 1862. Govers was captured at Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia and committed to the Old Capitol Prison, Washington, D.C. on April 3, 1865. On April 9th he was forwarded to Johnson’s Island, Ohio prisoner of war camp. He swore an oath of allegiance there on June 18, 1865. His camp papers show him to be 5’11” with black hair, fair complexion, and hazel eyes. National Archives, Record Group 109. Publication number M324. 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. Roll 0562.

[9] Callom Bohannan Jones, Jr., was a student at the Ashland Male Academy at the outbreak of the war when its headmaster, St. George Tucker, closed the school and formed the Ashland Grays. Jones, along with several classmates followed Tucker into service and first appeared on the company muster roll on April 23, 1861. The Ashland Grays were designated Company E, 15th Virginia. Jones served with the regiment through the end of the war and was paroled on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House. While Jones survived, Tucker did not and died of a respiratory infection, possibly tuberculosis, in Charlottesville, Va. on January 24, 1863. Jones was born May 15, 1842 in the West District, Hanover, Virginia. His physician father, Callom B. Jones, Sr., headed the household of three daughters and his son after Callom’s mother, Mary Wingfield, died between 1841 and 1849. After the war, Jones followed his father into the medical profession, graduated from the Medical College of Virginia in 1869, and established a practice in Ashland. During this time he married Sallie Newman (1855-1935). Jones and his wife are buried in Woodland Cemetery in Ashland, Hanover, Virginia. Hanover County Chancery Wills and Notes (Columbia, Virginia, 1940), p. 170; Ashland During the Civil War, 1861-65, Ashland Museum; National Archives, Record Group 109. Publication number M324. 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. Rolls 0564 and 0568; "The Virginia Medical Semi-Monthly," (Volume 17, June 21, 1912), page 156; U.S. Federal Census for Virginia, 1840, 1850, and 1860; see also, researcher report in Find-a-Grave Memorial 19240335.

"My men were behaving beautifully:" E.M. Morrison and 15th Virginia advance on the West Woods

Captain Emmet Masalon Morrison (1841-1932) led Company C of the 15th Virginia Regiment into the West Woods as part of Brigadier General Paul Jones Semmes brigade's attack against the middle of Sedgwick's division (see previous entry under Paul Jones Semmes). A sketch of Morrison and a description of his actions that day can be found at Brian Downey's definitive Antietam Web Site at http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=575.

Below is a transcription of an account of the 15th's action in the West Woods written by Morrison in 1905. Excerpts of this account have been widely published. Here it is in its entirely save one elision on my part (it is noted). This particular transcription was made by S. Calvin Mumma around 1935 as part of the New Deal WPA records project and resides in the Antietam National Battlefield Library.

"Behold Sharpsburg, now the historical as the Federals put it, the 'Antietam' battlefield. Up to that moment I do not believe we knew the battle was on in our immediate front. The field that we fought over was enclosed by a chestnut rail fence, and near its corner a gate, and near the gate a small but beautiful tree. The head of the regiment filed through the gate on the run, rapidly swung into position as best we could, forming on the regiment to our right and firing as we came into line. As we got close to them, one hundred to two hundred yards, I should say, we could see individual men, officers, I suppose, running backward and forward through the smoke.

As we got into line and commenced firing with much precision, I heard the greatest cheering a little to me right, and recognized General Semmes (gallant old Paul Semmes, brother of Raphael, both born fighters) standing on a pile of rocks, swinging his hat and cheering 'to beat the band.' I rushed up to him. 'General, are they retreating?' says I. 'No," says he. I rushed back, naming myself a fool, but that brave old man and two officers or orderlies with him kept making so much fuss, I was compelled to see what was the matter.

Just here I must digress only briefly to say a word for General Paul Semmes, our gallant old brigadier. General M.D. Corse[2] became our brigadier when General George E. Pickett's division was formed. Paul Semmes was the brother of Raphael Semmes, the Confederacy's great sea fighter. All survivors of the "Old Fifteenth" well remember General Paul Semmes, our first brigadier. He fell at Gettysburg and, like Marmion---'With dying hand above his head, He shook the fragment of his blade.' and died like the bravest of the brave for his beloved Southland.

My men were behaving beautifully, loading and firing as deliberately as if on drill, but the 'old rebel yell' they were putting up in their intense excitement.

Men never battled and lost in a nobler cause in and the 'tide of time.' As we continue to grow older in years and reminiscenses, the memory of the past becomes dearer and more sacred.

I should say the regiment carried in about 114 men, and, although they were not in action very long, perhaps some three or four hours, they suffered a loss of 58, or 58 per cent. Their names ought to be on record somewhere. 'Marse Robert' had no braver or more devoted band of gallant men than they who composed the Fifteenth Virginia Infantry. Its old commander often dwells in fondest memory of the dear 'old boys,' and their many deeds of true heroism in those memorable days of trial and suffering. Many times in the past two-score years his heart has melted and his eyes dimmed with kindly tears in sad and tender recollection, and now he most earnestly and lovingly wishes he had the capacity to portray for their posterity their patriotic devotion to duty and the suffering and sacrifices they endured to uphold a cause they knew to be right. Ah! surely it was right, time has only the more firmly grounded us in our convictions; nothing has occurred in the past two-score years in anyway calculated to change our views and opinions about our 'Lost Cause' with every idea and principle it involved and embraced, and for which we contended and suffered; it ever remains with us a sweet and sacred memory. It is true to-day we are all American citizens, living under one flag, and giving hearty allegiance to one government; but we are still very human, and while we may forgive many wrong and cruel things, we can never forget the old, old days, for then it was we willingly, bravely, risked our all in a common cause in the hopeful lusty days of our youth. It will never enter our minds and hearts in our mature years that our cause was anything but right and just and so we will continue to believe as our shadows lengthen in the sunset of life ere we join our dear old comrades who have gone hence. ...[1]

The writer is fully aware he has written in a rambling, discursive, reminiscent manner, and for such offense he pleads in extenuation the natural and time-honored privilege that is kindly granted to age and the reminiscent period. When two-score years are added to youth, forebearance and indulgence are quite in order, then it becomes every chivalrous nature to reckon kindly with old friends and comrades.

E. M. Morrison
Lieut.-Col. 15th Va. Inf.
Smithfield, Va., November 1905"

Notes:

Signed and transcribed by S. Calvin Mumma, ca. 1935.

1. Morrison writes a long paragraph "About Our Artillery and 'The Boy Battery' of Parker." This will be included in a future post on artillery in the West Woods.

2. Montgomery Dent Corse, at Antietam was Colonel of the 17th Virginia, Jones Division, Kemper's Brigade.

Images

First. From the Cope/Carman map--Semmes' advance across the then (and now) open ground leading to the West Woods.

Second. What Morrison and the 15th Virginians saw as they advanced towards the West Woods. The tree line of the West Woods is on the horizon; the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead is in the near distance with the foundation of the barn visible.

The Advance of Paul Jones Semmes' Brigade

On Sunday, I tried to retrace the steps of Paul Jones Semmes' Brigade as they went into action in the West Woods. Most of the route is now within the NPS boundary but is separated by a bypass highway built in the 60s that connects Sharpsburg and Hagerstown. The highway pretty much runs between the battle lines of Gorman's Brigades (certainly the 15th Massachusetts and the 82nd New York) and Semmes' Brigade and elements of Jackson's Division. If I had all the money in the world, I would pay to have the bypass made into an underpass. That it was built in the first place to run right through the heart of the West Woods action tells us more about how we have viewed the significance of the conflict in this part of the field. What about a highway along the Sunken Road? Anyway, back to Semmes.

Semmes' route runs northeasterly between the Hauser farmstead and the buildings that made up the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead.

The Hauser farmstead was (and is) arrayed on a ridge by the same name. According to the 1860 Federal Census, the Hauser family consisted of Jacob Hauser, 36; his wife, Harriett, 30; and their eight children ranging from 10 years to 8 months. Also listed is Samuel Piper, a 20 year old "farm hand." Hauser listed his the value of his real estate as $5,000 and personal property at $400.

Less than a mile to the East is the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead. These buildings included a barn and the early 19th Century structure known as the Mary Locher cabin. The 1860 census shows Alfred Poffenberger, then 26, resided in the cabin along with his 22 year old wife Harriett, and one-year-old William. Also there were Emma Ziah, a 10 year old, and Peter Krutzer, who is listed as a 28 year old "farm hand." Poffenberger listed the value of his real estate at $3,000 and personal property at $500.

On the 17th, Semmes, a brigade in McLaw's Division, arrives at Sharpsburg sometime after 7 a.m. having marched all night from Harper's Ferry. Ezra Carman writes that the brigade as it came on the field "was ordered by McLaws to move forward in line to the support of Stuart's cavalry and artillery on the extreme left. The brigade was then on the high ground near the Hauser house, numbered 709 officers and men, and from right to left was thus formed: the 32nd Virginia, 10th Georgia, 15th Virginia, and 53rd Georgia. " (Carman, 263).

Hauser farmstead and ridge in the middle distance. Foundation of the Poffenberger barn in the foreground.

Again from Carman: "Semmes says, 'Immediately the order was given, 'by company into line,' followed by 'forward into line,' both of which movements were executed, in the presence of the enemy, under a fire occasioning severe loss in killed and wounded.' It advanced steadily two hundred yards, the left passing through the Hauser apple orchard under a severe fire from the 15th Massachusetts and the 82nd New York, when orders were given to commence firing (as Semmes says, at long range for most of the arms in the brigade) for the purpose of encouraging the men and disconcerting the enemy, and the effect was visible in the diminished number of killed and wounded."



Carman continues: "Crossing the fence which ran nearly north and south just east of the Hauser house, the brigade--under murderous fire--charged across a stubble field, men falling at every step,

and was brought to a halt, the right at a rocky knoll very near the Alfred Poffenberger barn (which gave some protection from the galling fire(fn1) of the 15th Massachusetts on the hillside 130 yards distant) and the skirmishers at the barn and in the old wood road."

[Left. Looking south and west from the stone foundation of the Poffenberger barn to the Hauser farmstead and ridge in distance and the "stubble field" lying between.]

(fn1) Captain P.H. Loud reported that during this advance his 10th Georgia suffered "a most galling fire from the enemy's sharpshooters." {Loud's Official Report, Sept. 23rd}. The sharpshooters were probably the First Company, Massachusetts Sharpshooters (Andrew's Sharpshooters) who were attached to the 15th Mass.


Carman: "The center and left of the brigade were under partial cover of the many projecting rock ledges. The conflict here was at close quarters and very severe, the entire brigade suffering heavily from the fire of the 15th Massachusetts, 130 to 190 yards in front, and an enfilading fire from the right. In advancing to this position and holding it a very few minutes, nearly one-half the brigade was killed and wounded...."


[Left. A farm lane ran from the direction of the Dunker Church northwesterly through the West Woods and then through the Poffenberger farmstead crossing between the barn and the cabin. This is the trace of the original farm lane. In the far distance is the Locher cabin (under cover for preservation) and the foreground a storage cellar. The 15th Mass. is arrayed to the right of this photo.














Right. An outcropping of rock approximately 12 feet high rises just north of the barn, this is likely the "rocky knoll very near the Alfred Poffenberger barn."














Right. The view of the 15th Mass. of the Poffenberger barn just visible through the trees and Hauser's Ridge in the far distance--and the "stubble field." The Locher Cabin is out of the picture, just to the right. The offending bypass runs right through history.





Walking the West Woods...in mud.



To be continued....