"It getting dark and plank scarce:" Philologus H. Loud and the 10th Georgia in the West Woods

Philologus H. Loud[1] to Ezra A. Carman, Williston, South Carolina, Sept 2, 1898

Gen. E.A. Carman | War Dept | Washington D.C.

Dear Sir

For about a year I have been trying to obtain reliable information for you in reply to your request of the position of Genl Paul. J. Semmes Brigade in the battle of Sharpsburg Sept 17^th 1862.

Semmes's (and 10th Georgia) advance
northward across the open fields and rail
fences adjoining the Hauser farmstead.
Cope/Carman Map 1908 edition.
(click on image to enlarge)

I have asked all of the members of my Regiment[2] who I met at the Reunion at Atlanta July 24^th but could not get any information that could indicate our position on the Map sent me.

In Mar[ch] Last Maj. General L. McLaws in whose Division we were, was in Augusta and made me a visit, and I tried to get information from him, but he could not give me any to enable me to indicate it.

But on reflection I think I can give you a clue by which residents there can indicate the ground.

My understanding of the position of our (Semmes) Brigade was the extreme left Brigade (and near the river) of the Confederate line.

Our Brigade left Harpers Ferry on Tuesday about noon and made a forced march reaching the Potomac a little after day on the 17th Sept which we crossed and marched about a mile when the Brigade was halted and cooked breakfast. Just after crossing the river I was ordered to recross the river and order up the Artillery which I did and rejoined my regiment, and while eating my breakfast the Brigade was ordered to fall in and go to the support of Genl Thos Jacksons Corps who were suffering heavily.

We were marched at a rapid pace until we were pretty close to the line of battle then double quicked until we came to a fence running slanting from opposite a farm house to the right of the Brigade in consequence crossed the fence (rail) before the left where our Regiment the 10^th Geo[rgia] was crossed.

There were some Hay Stacks or Straw Stacks about the house or houses we passed who belonged there consequently we could not get names of the owners.[3] Opposite this rail fence some 300 yards was a Stone fence some three to four feet high, back of which were the Federal troops posted who were pouring in a galling fire, as we crossed the rail fence, and so we formed in line, as we crossed and advanced upon them and drove them from behind that wall or fence to another some distance back  and as well as I recollect to the right to another wall or fence and again to another stone fence and from that driving them upon their reserves. Our heaviest loss was from the crossing of the Rail fence to when they were driven from the first Stone wall.[4]

The following information will I think enable you to locate the ground where we fought. In the battle, principally after crossing the Rail fence, we lost 18 killed. On the next day was a truce to bury the dead and alongside of a rail fence not far from where we entered the battle field we buried 15 of our regiment in graves side and side. I cut their names Regt and co[mpany] on their head boards up to a tree near the fence the other three in one grave it getting dark and plank scarce. I wrote their names Regiment and Co in pencil, the best I could do for them. The diagram below will explain the matter more fully viz; 

From the above diagram and description, I think you will be writing to some of the old residents there or their children and neighbors, some would certainly be able to give you the exact locality of these graves.[5] About 100 yards from these graves the land rises with a slight slope^⁠.

After our Brigade drove them from the first stone fence my recollection is, they were driven to the right behind a stone fence[,] a cross fence, and two more to the right of that making in all four stone fences and our Brigade halted in the middle of the field from whence they were recalled.

Trusting this information will subserve your purpose, and enable you to locate the ground over which our Brigade fought as desired I remain

Very respectfully Yours

P. H. Loud^⁠

Col. 10^th Geo. Regt^⁠

Notes======

Letter retrieved from Antietam Studies, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

[1] Philologus H. Loud (ca. 1824-1905) “[a]ssumed command of the [10th Georgia] Regiment when Major Holt was wounded during the defense of Crampton's Gap on September 14th. He reports that he was 'assisting' Captain William Johnston, of Company F, in commanding the regiment during the battle at Sharpsburg. He also reports that both he and Capt Johnston were wounded and he had to leave the field before the fighting ended on the 17th.” Philogus Loud's family were well known Philadelphia piano makers before the war. In an advertisement, they claimed "superiority for their pianos over any of English or foreign make, and they 'confidently challenge any huckster in the city who has the arrogance to call himself an importer, to disprove the assertion.'" Loud's family settled in Georgia around 1835. On February 13, 1850 Philogus married Sarah Elizabeth Williams, a Georgia native, in Montgomery, Georgia. Antietam Studies, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Brian Downey’s Antietam on the Web under entry for Loud (for Loud's Official Report follow this link);  birth place and date from 1880 U.S. Federal Census Record for P.H. Laud, South Carolina, Barnwell County; marriage data from Jordan Dodd, Georgia Marriages to 1850, database online; John Thomas Scarf, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, (Philadelphia, L.H. Everts & Co., 1884), Vol. 3, p. 2290; Martha Novak Clinkscale, Makers of the Piano, Vol. 2. 1820-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 237. For more on Loud's post-war activities, see Tim Hicks, "History Mystery: Virginia Man Seeks Clues on 19th Century Williston Inventor" The People-Sentinel [Barnwell County, S.C.], November 26, 2008. For more on Bill Waldrop's research, follow this link. Many thanks to William Waldrop and Joseph Belgan for their correspondence on Philologus Loud's pre and post war life. Joseph Belgan is currently completing a manuscript titled Pianos in the Attic that chronicles the Loud family piano business. I will post additional links to Bill and Joe's research articles as they become available.

[2] The 10th Georgia was organized at Jonesboro, GA June 1861 from the counties of Clayton, Chattahoochee, DeKalb, Wilcox, Bibb, Richmond, Fayette and Pulaski. At Antietam, the regiment suffered 56% casualties. Semmes OR; Muster Roll of Company H, 10th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry…retrieved at http://www.wilcoxga.com/10th_reg_roster.htm 


[3] There are three farmsteads west of the West Woods--the Hauser farmstead, the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead, and, further north, the Nicodemus farmstead. The Miller barn and a few outbuildings lay just west of the Hagerstown Pike (See Cope / Carman map above).

[4] There is a stone wall west of the Nicodemus/Poffenberger farm lane that runs roughly east to west (see map at A} for about 50 yards and then skirts north. Another stone wall runs along the east side of the Hagerstown Pike adjacent to the Miller farmstead (see map at B). Loud may be describing the advance of his regiment against remnants of the 1st Minnesota, the 82nd New York, and the right of the 15th Massachusetts. Semmes, in his Official Report, describes taking heavy fire as his brigade advanced northeastward from the Hauser property. The route would have taken them across at least two rail fences (see map).

[5] A possible location is the fence line and grave site is described in the 1869 "Bowie List" of Confederate graves on the field. The list records a line of 10th Georgia "Buried in G. Burgan’s field along the fence line between Burgan and Mrs. Lucker and in a direct line with the fence back of Burgan’s orchard. Some boards still remain, also some unknown Board." The Burgan property is the Hauser farmstead and "Mrs. Lucker" is likely the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead. The location of this site is the subject of a follow on post. The "Bowie List" is available online at the invaluable Western Maryland Historical Library website.

"An erroneous account of the fight I had:" Early, Jackson, and Faulkner and the "Pious Fraud" in the West Woods

As reported on earlier posts, the Ezra Carman Papers at the Library of Congress, containers 15 and 16, include correspondence between Carman and participants of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam.[1] The containers include replies to inquiries by Carman asking individuals to recall their whereabouts on these fields. In a number of instances, writers enclosed marked-up maps--some apparently sent by Carman; others hand drawn--marking positions and movements. One of Carman's earliest correspondents in this collection was Jubal A. Early who wrote to correct "an erroneous account of the fight I had"--the account was contained in the Official Report filed by MGen. Thomas J. Jackson.

On November 19, 1868 Early wrote Carman to correct "errors...which I have noticed" in Jackson's report dated April 23, 1863. Early tells Carman that Jackson's assistant adjutant, Lt. Col. Charles J. Faulkner,[2] drafted the report from "subordinate reports" supplied by Jackson which were "very vague and unintelligible." Early then lays out "very strong evidence" why he believes that Jackson never examined the report furnished by Faulkner which then became the official record of April 23.

Charles James Faulkner
Library of Congress Collection

Jackson was seriously wounded at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863 and died eight days later. On May 22, Lt. Joseph Graham Morrison, Aide-de-Camp to Jackson[3] wrote Lt. Col. Robert Hall Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General, Department of Northern Virginia--

"Colonel: On opening General Jackson's trunk in Lexington, Virginia, we found in it the accompanying report of the operations of his command, from the fifteenth of August to fifth September, 1862. Also an unfinished report embracing operations of his command from fifth of September to the end of the Maryland campaign. The unfinished report Lieutenant Smith, A.D.C., has. He intendeds give it to Colonel Faulkner to finish; it will then be forwarded. I am, Colonel, Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, J.E. Morrison, A.D.C. To Lieutenant-General Jackson."[4]

Early's assertion to Carman and Morrison's note to Chilton appears to suggest that Jackson's Official Report dated April 23, 1863 was not actually filed on that date since Morrison reports finding the unfinished report in Jackson's trunk. If so, it was probably not completed until sometime after May 22 (and after Jackson's death).

Early's official report, completed and filed on January 12, 1863, was as the late Joseph Harsh observed, "although not without minor faults, there is no finer, more accurate contemporary description of the morning's battle."[5]

Below is the full letter to Carman (and his allegations regarding Faulkner). To compare, see Early's official report at Brian Downey's excellent site, Antietam on the Web. Also see, Jubal Early's autobiography now published online at Autobiographical Sketch and Narrative of the War Between the States.

Square brackets are my amendments to the document.

=============

[Early begins with a transcription of Jackson's official report].

"'Early being now directed, in consequence of the disability of General Lawton, to take command of Ewell's division, returned with his brigade (with the exception of the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment, which remained with General Stuart), to the piece of wood where he had left the other brigades of the division when he was separated from them. Here he found that the enemy had advanced his infantry near the wood, in which was the Dunkard Church, and had planted a battery across the turnpike near the edge of the woods and in open field, and that the brigades of Lawton, Hays, and Trimble, had fallen back some distance to the rear, etc.'

Then ensues an erroneous account of the fight I had. There is no explanation of where I had been, and this statement about my finding the enemy's infantry with a battery across the turnpike near the edge of the woods and the field, and my attacking them there, is entirely erroneous. I found neither artillery nor infantry at the point designated, but I rode across the Hagerstown pike at the very spot, to the rear of where Hood was then engaged on the east side of the pike, to find the other brigades of the division, and I found that they had left the field cut to pieces, and been replaced by Hood's division. I did not see or hear anything more of either of these brigades until after all the fighting on this part of the line was over. It was sometime after I returned to the woods, and after Hood had been compelled to fall back to the Dunkard Churrch, that the enemy advanced his infantry and artillery to the point indicated.

The facts were these.

Diagram 2: Map with Early's annotations
showing action in the West Woods. I will
post on Friday, higher resolution images
of these maps.
Library of Congress, Papers of Ezra A. Carman.

I had been sent very early in the morning to support some guns that Stuart had, beyond our extreme left, near the Potomac. A body of the enemy commenced moving between us and the rest of the Army, and we were compelled to move back by a circuitous route, nearer to the main line. We found a large force of the enemy on the west side of the pike moving up towards the northern or left end of the woods in which the Dunkard Church was located--that church being in the Southern or left end.

Just as I was taking position in the rear and of an elbow of the woods, running back from its left or Northern part, in order to confront a body of infantry seen in the fields in front, I received the message from General Jackson to return with my brigade and take command of the division.

On getting to the point where I had spent the night, I found that the enemy had penetrated the woods with his skirmishers at the Northern end, between the position I had just left and the pike, and I found Colonels Griggsby [6] and Stafford, who had rallied a part of Jackson's division, which had been entirely broken and forced back, skirmishing with the enemy's skirmishers in the woods, the latter being followed by heavy masses of infantry in the open fields beyond the woods on the West of the pike.

My brigade was at once advanced to the support of Griggsby and Stafford, until it came to  a low ledge or ridge running through the woods, nearly at right angles with the pike, which was here separated from the pike by a field or plateau higher than the woods.

Diagram 1: Early's movements "on the
extreme left." Higher resolution
image of this map will be posted on
Friday.
Library of Congress, Papers of Ezra A. Carman.

The brigade was halted there in line and Griggsby's  and Stafford's men formed on the left of it. The line as there established was at right angles with the pike, and was so thrown back to protect our rear from the enemy's advancing columns. The latter were checked and I then rode across the pike in rear of the position thus opened, to find the other brigades, and ascertaining that they had been cut to pieces and gone to the rear, and seeing that Hood was very heavily pressed and his men giving way, I rode to see General Jackson on the heights in rear of and a little to the right of the Dunkard Church, where I informed him of the condition of things, and the necessity for reinforcements, and he promised to get and send them as soon as possible.

I then rode to my brigade, and found the enemy massing a very heavy force in the fields in its front, all on the west of the pike.

The enemy now commenced pressing into the woods, checked to some extent by my skirmishers. I sent Major Hale to General Jackson to inform him of the urgency of the case, and just as he returned with the assurance that aid should be sent immediately, the enemy's artillery and a heavy column of infantry appeared at the point designated in the above extract.

Hood having then fallen back I did not attack the enemy at that point, was was to the rear of my right flank, but held my position, throwing back my right a little, being concealed from the enemy, and hoping that the reinforcements would come in time to meet the fire while I confronted the other enemy up in my front.

The column in rear of my right, which proved to be Grant's [Greene's] division of Mansfield's corps, hurried around into the woods between me and the Dunkard Church, and then I filed to the rear by the right, and moved to over take it, concealed from its view by some ledges of rock, while Griggsby and Stafford fell back in line confronting the other force, which proved to be Sedgwick's division of Sumner's corps supported by the rest of Mansfield's under Williams.

In getting up with Green's division I faced to the front, attacked it, and drove it out of the woods to the pike. Just then Barksdale's and Sumner's brigades of McLaw's division and Anderson's brigade of D.R. Jone's division came up, and we turned on Sedwick and the force supporting him, driving the whole in confusion out of the woods into the fields beyond, and clearing the west side of the pike for a long distance of the enemy.

In this movement Barksdale's brigade or the greater part of it went after Green's division, while Semmes' Anderson's, mine and Griggsby's and Stafford's men attacked the other force. When I made my report I thought Anderson's brigade belonged to McLaw's division and so stated, but it belonged to D.R. Jones.

Generals Walker and Ransom both state that they met parts of Hood's and my commands retiring before the enemy, and that they attacked the force following them. This statement so far as concerns my command arose from the fact that a part of Hays' brigade which had gone back joined Hood at the Dunkard Church and Hays was under my command next day.

I commanded nothing but my own brigade in the fight, and that did not fall back at all, except under my orders when Barksdale's brigade was coming up on its right as my brigade was pursuing Green, and I then drew it back to avoid Barksdale's fire in the one hand, and a fire in flank from the enemy on the left, wheeling the brigade to the left, after it had got out of Barksdale's way, and moving against Sedgwick. No troops to my assistance but the ones stated, and Walker's and Ransom's brigade met the enemy pursuing Hood's division.

General Jackson is made to say in the report: "At the close of the day my troops held the ground which they had occupied in the morning." This is an entire mistake. In the morning General Jackson had three brigades, Lawton's, Trimble's and Hays' on the east of the pike occupying the position Hood had held at the close oft he 16th, connecting D. H. Hill's left. At the close of the day he did not have a man on the east side of the pike. My brigade and 100 men of Lawton's which were brought in the evening after the battle was over constituted all the men he had in the line on the left, and they were on the west side of the road in the edge of the of the woods parallel to the pike, and facing it with skirmishers thrown up to the road. The remnants of Hays' and Trimble's brigades did not come up till next day, the enemy occupied all the east side of the road on this part of the line and the ground held there in the morning by General Jackson's troops.

It is true my left extended beyond where the left had rested in the morning, but the direction of the line was changed. I held the extreme left with Barksdale's brigade on my right, and two brigades of McLaw's division and Armistead on a line thrown back from about my center to the rear as show by diagram 1.[7] What of General Jackson's own division had been rallied was (after the fighting) supporting Stuart's guns near the Potomac. The two diagrams will explain the movements of my own brigade before and during the fight in which it was engaged.

I don't think General Jackson could have examined the report furnished by Faulkner. I know that the latter wrote it for I saw him at it, and he asked some explanation bout the battle of me, stating the most of the subordinate reports were very vague and unintelligible as they were. Lawton was absent and made no report. Starke commanding Jackson's division in the fight had been killed, and there was not one present in the battle to report the operations of that division.

General Jackson gave Faulkner the reports to draw up his from, and I don't think he (Faulkner) ever understood how the battle was really fought. He says in his certificate that the report was revised by General Jackson and was directed to be copied for his signature. He notices the fact of the omission of the usual notice of his staff. This is very strong evidence to my mind that General Jackson had not revised the report and directed it to be copied for his signature, for that was the time when he would have directed the notice to be inserted in order that it might all be compiled at the same time. Faulkner was very capable of committing a sort of pious froud [fraud] in order to complete the list [last?] of General Jackson's reports. I do not believe General Jackson would have sanctioned the statement that at the close of the 17th his troops held the same ground they did in the morning, nor do I believe he understood so little of the operations on the left as to have sanctioned the account given of my operations. I fully believe he never saw the report. However that may be, these are the errors in it which I have noticed, and they are not unimportant ones.

(Signed) J.A. Early
November 19, 1868."

========== 
Notes


[1] Jubal Early to Ezra Carman, November 19, 1868, Papers of Ezra Carman, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Container 16. Maps, Container 16.
[2] Charles James Faulkner, a Representative from Virginia and from West Virginia; born in Martinsburg, Va. (now West Virginia), July 6, 1806; was graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., in 1822; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1829 and practiced; member of the Virginia house of delegates 1829-1834, 1848, and 1849; commissioner of Virginia on the disputed boundaries between that State and Maryland; member of the State senate from 1838 to 1842, when he resigned; member of the State constitutional convention in 1850; elected from Virginia as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress and as a Democrat to the Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth, and Thirty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1859); chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Thirty-fifth Congress); appointed United States Minister to France by President Buchanan in 1859; returned to the United States in August 1861 and was detained as a prisoner of state on charges of negotiating arms sales for the Confederacy while in Paris; released in December 1861 and negotiated his own exchange for Alfred Ely, a Congressman from New York who had been taken prisoner by the Confederates at Bull Run; during the Civil War entered the Confederate Army and was assistant adjutant general on the staff of Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson; engaged in railroad enterprises; member of the State constitutional convention of West Virginia in 1872; elected as a Democrat from West Virginia to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877); resumed the practice of law; died on the family estate, “Boydville,” near Martinsburg, W.Va., November 1, 1884; interment in the family lot on the estate. Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000044 
[3] Joseph Graham Morrison (1842-1906) served as aide-de-camp to his brother in law, Thomas J. Jackson. See further, entry for Morrison in Brian Downey's Antietam on the Web.
[4] Italics are in the original.  The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, edited by Frank Moore, Vol. 9. (New York, D. Van Nostrand, 1866), p 575.
[5] Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999), p . 570, note 31.
[6] Early spells Grigsby as Griggsby.  
[7] See illustrations in this post.