In the field at left during the Battle of Antietam, the 14th Connecticut traded shots with Rebels, who fought from an old country lane and beyond. The field was a planted with corn on Sept. 17, 1862. The Confederates were only occasionally visible through the battle smoke as they blasted away at the Yankees from that old road, later known famously as Bloody Lane.
The 14th Connecticut monument at Antietam marks the regiment's farthest advance during the battle. |
On Oct. 11, 1894, more than 32 years after they fought in this field, veterans of the 14th Connecticut returned to the battlefield to dedicate a monument to their sacrifice. The regiment suffered 38 killed and mortally wounded and 88 wounded at Antietam. Speaker Julius Knowlton, a commissary sergeant in the 14th during the battle, addressed the crowd that included families of the old soldiers. "With reverent hearts we gather here to manifest our gratitude to the living actors of that day, and to mingle our tears with our praises of the dead, who by the sacrifices of their lives did all men could to bring the heritage of peace and unity," he said.
And later Knowlton eloquently added:
"These tons of granite, wrought in graceful lines, with marvelous skill, will stand through varying vicissitudes of storm and sunshine, telling the grim story of men of every clime, and, methinks, that the warm light of every September noon will awaken in this New England stone a soul that will go out and testify to the unmarked dead o'er all these fields that a grateful people has not forgot, and never will forget, the suffering or the valor of those who stood by the Union in those days."
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