Voices in the Wilderness: 'Shrieks, cries and groans'

Remains of trenches occupied by the Union army on May 5-6, 1864, during Battle of Wilderness.

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When you walk by yourself  deep into the woods or fields of the Wilderness battlefield, you're never really alone. On nearly every step, history, tragedy and spirits of the past tug hard. Here are images from my recent visit and words from those who were there in 1864:

SAUNDERS FIELD (CONFEDERATES' VIEW)

On May 5, 1864, the 118th Pennsylvania helped drive Rebels from these entrenchments at the western edge of Saunders Field, bisected by the strategic Orange Turnpike. But the U.S. Army's success was short-lived, and a stalemate resulted. A 118th Pennsylvania regimental historian described the terror the wounded on both sides faced during the battle:

"The business of war is to kill and maim, and the quicker this is accepted as a hard and bitter necessity the better are the soldiers. But the moans and wailings of the Wilderness battle-field stirred the stoutest hearts, and yet they could not be relieved. Wounded men make but little demonstration and rarely utter an outcry. Throughout the night, as the forest fires which had blazed since the early afternoon drew nearer and nearer to the poor unfortunates who lay between the lines, their shrieks, cries and groans, loud, piercing, penetrating, rent the air until death relieved the sufferer or the rattle of musketry that followed the advent of the breaking morn drowned all the other sounds in its dominating roar. There was no hope of rescue -- war's hard rules would not permit it, and there between the lines the men of both sides perished in the flames because there was no helping hand to succor, no yielding of the stern necessities of war."

-- 118th Pennsylvania regimental historian

SOURCE

WHERE VERMONT MADE ITS STAND

If the Confederates had defeated the U.S. Army here, near the vitally important Brock and Orange Plank roads intersection, Ulysses Grant's army could have been crippled. A brigade of Vermont troops desperately held on in these woods on May 5-6, suffering 1,234 casualties, and the Rebels' advance was checked. A path from a small parking area on the Orange Plank Road leads to a massive, granite monument that honors the brigade's sacrifice.

"One engaged in that terrible conflict may well pause to reflect upon the horrors of that night. Officers and men lay down to rest amid the groans of the wounded and dying and the dead bodies of their comrades as they were brought to the rear. One thousand brave officers and men of the Vermont brigade fell on that bloody field. Was the result commensurate to the sacrifice? Whether it was or not, the battle once commenced had to be fought. There was safety only in success."

-- Union Brigadier General Lewis Grant, 1st Vermont Brigade, Aug. 27, 1864

SOURCE

'THE DEAD YANKEES ARE EVERYWHERE'

The woods of the Wildnesss near the Brock and Orange Plank roads intersection..

Like many in both armies, Southern surgeon Spencer White scavenged from the enemy, picking up an "India rubber cloth that is big enough for four men to lie in or make a tent of." At the Wilderness, White also spotted grievously wounded Union General James Wadsworth, who had been shot in the head leading a doomed charge down the Orange Plank Road. As he lay by the roadside, Rebels rifled the pockets of the 56-year-old general.

"As usual on such occasions, groans and cries met me from every side. I found Colonel James Nance, my old schoolmate, and Colonel Gaillard of Fairfield lying side by side in death. Near them lay Warren Peterson with a shattered thigh bone and still others who were my friends. Many of the enemy were there. Not far from these was an old man, a Yankee officer mortally wounded. I learned that he was Brigadier General [James] Wadsworth, once Governor of New York. (Note: Wadsworth actually lost the election for New York governor in 1862.)

"I picked up an excellent Yankee overcoat on the battlefield, but the cape is off. I will have a sack coat made of it. ... I have never before seen a battlefield so strewn with overcoats, knapsacks, India rubber cloths and everything else soldiers carry, except at Chancellorsville. The dead Yankees are everywhere. I have never before seen woods so completely riddled with bullets. At one place the battle raged among chinquapin bushes. All the bark was knocked off, and the bushes are literally torn to pieces."

-- Spencer Glasgow White, 13th South Carolina assistant surgeon, in letter to his wife, May 7, 1864

SOURCE

TRAMPLING PERMELIA HIGGERSON'S FIELD

The Higgerson Farm, one of the few clearings in the Wilderness.

All that remains of Permelia Higgerson's modest home in the Wilderness.

Permelia Higgerson

On the afternoon of May 5, Pennsylvania troops swept across Permelia Higgerson's field, trampling her garden in the process. Incensed, she predicted the dastardly Yankees' demise. Her prophesy proved spot-on for the 7th Pennsylvania, cut off on Higgerson's farm and forced to surrender. Confederates sent the officers to a POW camp in Macon, Ga., while the enlisted men ended up in the hell of Andersonville. In an account published in 1865, a newspaper reporter recalled the regiment's predicament during the battle:

"The Seventh had advanced into the dense woods with the Second and Eleventh [Pennsylvania], but Colonel [Henry] Bolinger unfortunately could not see the movements of the other regiments and, hence receiving no orders, continued to press steadily forward, driving everything before him until suddenly the enemy closed in upon the rear of the regiment and cut off its retreat in that direction. A desperate attempt was then made to escape by another route, but it failed. Finding his command completely surrounded, Colonel Bolinger was compelled to surrender to save his regiment from being cut to pieces. As it was, many of his brave men were left in the Wilderness, never to be heard from again. The colonel and two hundred and seventy one of the officers and men were made prisoners. Forty escaped through the swamps and woods and returned to the camp."

-- Josiah Rhinehart Sypher, newspaper correspondent and author of 1865 history of the 7th Pennsylvania

SOURCE

'LEE TO THE REAR!'

Apparently intent on leading a charge during a moment of crisis on Widow Tapp's farm, Robert E. Lee was persuaded by soldiers in the Texas Brigade to seek safer ground. "Lee to the rear!" they shouted. The general took their advice, and the Rebels checked the Union Army's advance here on May 6.

"So much has been said about the Lee to the rear incident that, having been a member of the Texas Brigade, I wish to add my testimony to that given heretofore as to the claims of the Texas Brigade. But it will be seen from histories of the Army of Northern Virginia that Gen. Lee on several occasions attempted to lead his troops in battle. At the Wilderness on May 6, he tried to lead the Texas Brigade; later, in the fighting around Spottsylvania, he attempted to lead Howe's Mississippians and the Virginians at the Bloody Angle. In all of these attempts, he was prevented by the men around him as he would have been by any body of soldiers in his army had the same opportunity presented itself."

-- 1904 account of Confederate veteran Richard J. Harding, a captain in the 1st Texas Infantry

SOURCE

WHERE A GENERAL COULD HAVE BEEN CAPTURED

Only a few cleared fields broke up the vast, tangled forests of the Wilderness -- including this one on William Chewning's farm. On May 5, the Federals briefly held this area before they were forced to abandon the position to provide support along the Orange Turnpike. On the morning of May 6, Confederate General A.P. Hill narrowly escaped capture here.

"Before the troops came up, we rode to a house and outbuildings in the lower end of the field and dismounted. We had been there only a short while when we were startled by the breaking down of a fence. Just below and in plain view was a long line of Federal infantry clearing the fence to move forward. General Hill commanded, 'Mount, walk your horses and don t look back.' "

-- William Palmer, Hill's chief of staff,  after the war

SOURCE

STEPS TO HISTORY: ELLWOOD MANOR

When the lady of the estate returned to Ellwood Manor, she found the graves
 of 19 Union soldiers on  the lawn.

A beautifully carved stone step leads into Ellwood Manor, a Union headquarters/hospital.

Union General Gouverneur Warren, commander of the V Corps, used the stately Georgian-style manor of Southern sympathizer J. Horace Lacy as headquarters during the battle. The Union Army also used the house and surrounding grounds as a hospital site for thousands of wounded.  In his parlor office on the first floor, Warren may have received the staggering casualty figures: an estimated 18,400 Federal soldiers were killed, wounded or missing in the Wilderness.

"The appearance of the old place when we first returned was heart rending. All the paneling had been stripped from the walls, every door and window was gone, literally only the bare brick walls were left standing. The trees had been cut down, the yard and garden were a wilderness of weeds and briers, and there were nineteen Federal graves on the lawn. It was not until November that the worst places were sufficiently repaired for us to take possession, and then we had only attempted to restore part of the house."

-- Betty Churchill Lacy, second wife of J. Horace Lacy, in 1903.

SOURCE

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Paying respects to teenager William Hall, killed at Antietam

Lonnie Schorer cleans the marker of her ancestor, 11th Connecticut Private William Hall, 
in Chaplin, Conn. (Photos courtesy of Lonnie Schorer)

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At the Battle of Antietam, scores of teenagers on both sides became casualties.

Shot through the side, George Crosby died of his wounds at his parents' house in Middle Haddam, Conn. The 14th Connecticut lieutenant, a student at Wesleyan University, was only 19. Marvin Wait, a 19-year-old lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut, was riddled with bullets and killed near Harpers Ferry Road. "His death brings a peculiar and poignant sorrow," noted his hometown newspaper, The Norwich (Conn.) Daily Bulletin.

Somehow Dwight Carey of Canterbury, Conn. — killed at Antietam — persuaded his parents to allow him to join the Union Army. He was 15. Wrote his local newspaper:

"In September, 1861, while yet but fifteen years of age he entered the service of the United States, as a private, in the Eighth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers. This act originated in no rash, impulsive enthusiasm, impatient of restraint and headstrong for excitement and novelty, but was the result of calm discussion with his parents and friends, who unwillingly gave their assent on account of his extreme youth."

The 11th Connecticut suffered 139 casualties during
its attack at Burnsde Bridge on the
morning of Sept. 17, 1862.
(Library of Congress collection)

A private in the 11th Connecticut, Daniel Tarbox suffered a wound through the abdomen at Burnside Bridge. The 18-year-old died the next day.

William H. Hall, Daniel's comrade in the 11th Connecticut, was also killed at Antietam, almost certainly in the attack at Burnside Bridge. It's unclear if his body, like the remains of Tarbox, made it back to Connecticut or if the 17-year-old rests in the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md., or elsewhere. Years ago, I found a marker for Hall in Bedlam Road Cemetery in rural Chaplin, Conn. Tree branches, weeds, briars and grime covered his slate-gray, state-issued stone. 

In 2016, Antietam guide William Sagle told me about a battlefield tour with a descendant of a soldier from Connecticut. He wondered if I knew the soldier's name.

"Ever hear of William Hall?

"He was killed at Antietam. His descendant really wants to find his grave."

"There," I said, "is your William Hall." I pointed to a post on my iPhone.

And so I started corresponding via e-mail and over the phone with Hall's descendant, former Connecticut resident Lonnie Schorer, who lives in Virginia. It was a  moving experience for her to stand by the 11th Connecticut monument, near Burnside Bridge, and see Hall's name etched on the granite marker among others killed there. I explained that William may not be buried in Chaplin and told what little I knew of her ancestor. No image of the private or wartime correspondence from Hall are known to exist.

On a trip to Connecticut in 2016, Schorer and her husband Dave stopped at Bedlam Road Cemetery. Using toothbrushes, water and determination, they cleaned Hall's out-of-the-way marker. Swarms of mosquitoes couldn't spoil the moment or the view of the cemetery grounds dotted with wildflowers. .

"We had our own Memorial Day service when we finished," Schorer told me, "thanking William for his courage and his life — and letting him know that his family remembers."

A close-up of William Hall's marker in Bedlam Road Cemetery in Chaplin, Conn.

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A soldier's death in Mrs. Cross' yard in Harpers Ferry

A Union sharpshooter killed Lewis Branscomb of the Third Alabama in the front yard of
 this house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
 (Lewis' photo courtesy Frank Chappell)

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Shortly after war erupted, four sons of  Bennett and Eliza Branscomb enlisted in the Third Alabama Infantry, causing great angst in their household in Union Springs, 45 miles southeast of Montgomery.

A little more than a year into the fighting, tragedy hit home when word arrived of the death from measles of 31-year-old William Branscomb in a military hospital in Richmond. 

"Don't grieve Ma," Private James Branscomb wrote to his mother on June 25, 1862, 10 days after William's death. "He is better off though tis hard to lose him. You may have more to grieve for than him before this war ends."

Those words proved prophetic.

On May 19, 1864, James fell at the Battle of Harris Farm, near Spotsylvania Courthouse, Va. He was only 25.

Private James Branscomb of the 3rd Alabama
was killed at the Battle of Harris Farm
on May 19, 1864.
(Photo courtesy Frank Chappell)

During a break in brutal fighting near Richmond in early June 1864, probably at Cold Harbor, Va., Private Lewis Branscomb wrote a short note to his sister, Lucinda. Apparently unaware of his brother's death in battle, the Third Alabama sharpshooter poured out his feelings about a war that had claimed several of his friends and messmates.

"My mess is all gone but me," the 21-year-old soldier wrote on June 5, 1864. "... I know I have a few good christians far away praying for me. The fighting still continues. No more. Give my love to all and write soon. I have not received but one letter since the first of May. If you all knew how much comfort it would give me to get a letter from home you would write.

"Excuse this note," Lewis concluded, "as I have almost lost my mind."

Less than a month later, on July 4, 1864, a United States sharpshooter killed Lewis in the yard of a house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, Va., (now West Virginia). The owner of the house recovered Lewis' Bible, and nearly three months after the war had ended, she wrote a letter to his mother in Alabama:

Harpers Ferry, Va.,
July the 2nd, 1865

Mrs. Branscomb 
Dear Madam

On the 4 of July will be one year since the Confederate soldiers was here and there was a young man killed in my yard by a sharpshooter. At the place he died I picked up a Bible and written on the fly leaf was his name 'L.S. Branscomb, Co. D, 3d regiment of Alabama.' On the next leaf was written.'If found on my person please send to my mother Mrs. B.H. Branscomb at Union Springs, Alabama. Do so and oblige (friend) who ever you be.' I should have done so sooner but not knowen that the way was open between here and there and as I have just heard that I could send a letter through embrace the first opportunity. If you wish for the book you can [write me]. I will send it by mail immediately and if you wish to know any thing more I will then write you all that I know concerning your son. If you wish to write address Mrs. 

Margarett Cross, 
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, 
In care of Cathrin Shillings

Lewis' Bible has been lost to history, but nearly 100 of the Branscomb brothers' wartime letters remarkably survived. They surfaced in 1991 in an old BVD underwear box marked "War Letters" in the family's possession. In 2012, Branscomb descendant Frank Chappell edited the letters for publication in an excellent book, Dear Sister. The Third Alabama was one of the hard-fighting regiments in the Southern army, seeing action at Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and elsewhere.

During a visit to Harpers Ferry, Chappell guided me over the phone from Alabama to Mrs. Cross' house on Washington Street. The two-story red-brick house stands a short distance from the Appalachian Trail Conervancy headquarters.

Postscript: A fourth Branscomb brother, John, survived a wound at Antietam and the war. William Branscomb was buried in the Confederate section of Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. Despite efforts by Chappell and other Branscomb descendants, the gravesites of Lewis and James are unknown,

SOURCE

• Chappell, Frank Anderson, Dear Sister: Civil War Letters to a Sister in Alabama, Branch Springs Publishing, Hunstville, Ala., 2012. (To obtain a copy of the book, Chappell may be contacted at fchap10220@comcast.net).

Margarett Cross' wartime house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

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Antietam: Where General Longstreet, staff manned cannons

Confederate artillery position on Henry Piper farm, near Bloody Lane.

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After the Confederates were finally forced from the Sunken Road at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, a wave of Yankees threatened the Rebels' thinly held center on Henry Piper's farm. A battery of Miller's artillery (above interactive panorama) had been positioned near the Sunken Road at about 10:30 a.m. to support the infantry in the lane. Later, one of the battery's caissons was hit by a Union artillery shell, and Confederate artillerymen were killed or injured, leaving the gun crews short during a critical juncture in the battle for the Rebels.

Confederate General James Longstreet
(Library of Congress collection)

Among the soldiers to come to the rescue was General James Longstreet himself, wearing carpet slippers instead of boots because of a sore heel. He held the bridles of  horses of some of his staff, who went into action as artillerymen in Piper's apple orchard.

As the Yankees drew near, Colonel John Rogers Cooke of the 3rd Arkansas reported he had run out of ammunition. Longstreet ordered him to hold his position -- by bayonet, if necessary. The officer replied that he " 'would 'hold till ice forms in regions where it was never known,' or words to that effect," Longstreet wrote decades after the war.

Moxley Sorrel, a member of the general's staff, described the desperate scene in his memoirs:

"The gunners had fallen by their places, which were temporarily without cannoneers. Longstreet was with us. [John] Fairfax, [Thomas] Goree, [Van] Manning, [James] Walton, myself and perhaps some others took our horses bridles as we leaped from them to the guns. The position was most important and it would never do for those 'barkers' to be dumb, even for a minute; so at it we went, the improvised gunners, and were afterwards cheered by being told we did it well and could always get a gunner's berth when we might want it. I had the rammer, No 1 I think it is. in the drill. Our fire was really strong and effective until some reliefs from the Washington Artillery came up ventre a terre and with hearty shouts took their guns in hand. The enemy opened a severe fire on us, but fortunately none of our party was hurt. We mounted again with cheerful grins at our sudden adventure and Longstreet, much pleased, turned his attention to other imperiled points."

The Confederates' center held that afternoon, and a disaster was averted for General Robert E. Lee.

Longstreet and Confederate General Daniel Harvey Hill established a headquarters at Piper's farmhouse, seen below in another interactive panorama. The barn, greatly enlarged from its war-time appearance, was used by the Rebels as a hospital.

More than a decade ago, when the Piper farmhouse was open as a bed & breakfast, I stayed there for two nights. On my last evening, I sat on the porch and watched the fireflies light up over the fields. "We like to think the souls who fought here are still among us," the B&B owner said.

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Sign here: Soldiers' graffiti in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Polk D. Norvell of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry made his mark here,  probably in the summer of 1863.

The old Farmers' Bank of Fredericksburg at the intersection of Princess Anne and George streets.

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The terrific National Park Service's  Mysteries & Conundrums blog was my guide for finding the names of two Confederate soldiers scrawled on bricks of the former Farmers' Bank of Fredericksburg (Va.). Used as a headquarters and hospital by the Union army during its occupation. the beautiful, early 19th-century building at the corner of Princess Anne and George streets was sold early last year.

During my recent Civil War Power Tour, I stopped to check out for myself the Civil War-era graffiti. It was fairly easy to find amid more recent scrawlings. Kudos to Eric Mink of the NPS, who dug up details on the lives of the soldiers who left their marks -- Polk D. Norvell, a teenager in the 2nd Virginia Cavalry, and Lewis B. Ellis of the 39th Virginia Cavalry. Ellis wrote his name on the George Street side of the building. Norvell, who left his mark on the Princess Anne Street side, did not survive the war, dying in a Richmond hospital in July 1864.

If you are really into Civil War graffiti, check out this post on my blog on Graffiti House near the Brandy Station battlefield.

Look carefully on a brick below the window on George Street to find ...

... the name of Lewis B. Ellis, who served in the 39th Virginia Cavalry..

Antietam soldier snapshots: 'What desolation fill'd our home'

A figure of color sergeant George Simpson,  killed in the West Woods at Antietam, 
tops the 125th Pennsylvania's monument on the battlefield.

               125th Pennsylvania entered the West Woods behind the Dunker Church.

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After the bullet tore through his bowels at the Battle of Antietam, 125th Pennsylvania Private John Rose of Company D was carried to a barnyard-turned-field hospital, where he died the next morning, Sept. 18, 1862. Two wounded comrades observed the 21-year-old soldier's pockets being emptied after his death, the contents turned over to a lieutenant in the regiment for delivery to friends, before the son of  John and Sarah Rose was buried in a makeshift grave nearby.

An iron worker in Altoona, Pa., John lived with his parents and was the "main and almost only support" for his mother and sickly father, whom he gave most of his $6 weekly wages. "Another family circle mourns a loved one lost," reported the Altoona Tribune a little more than three weeks after the death of Rose, whose remains lie in an unknown grave. The private's hometown newspaper also published a few words by noted poet George Morris, an expression of "the sentiments of parents and friends":

He died, as he had lived, beloved,without an enemy on earth;In word and deed he breathed and moved,the soul of honor and of worth:His hand was open as the day, his bearing high, his nature brave;and, when from life he pass'd away,our hearts went with him to the grave.
What desolation fill'd our homewhen death from us our treasure born,Oh! for the better word to comewhere we shall meet to part no more:The hope of that sustains us now,In that we trust on bended knee,While thus around his faded brow,we twine the wreath of memory."

The grave for Private Joshua Cretin's wife, Sarah, in
Saint Augustine Cemetery in Cambria County, Pa.
The soldier's final resting place is unknown.
(Find A Grave)

For families of  other Blair, Cambria and Huntington county soldiers in the 125th Pennsylvania, there was plenty of grim news after Antietam. Mustered into the Union army only six weeks earlier, the nine-month regiment suffered 54 killed among 229 casualties on Sept. 17, 1862, mostly in the West Woods behind the small, white-washed Dunker Church. Soldiers in the regiment, one veteran noted decades after the war, fell "thick as leaves of autumn" during fighting in the West Woods. (See interactive panoramas in this post.)

Recalled Lieutenant Theodore Flood, whose Company C shouted its motto "In God We Trust" as it went into battle:

"As we stood firing into the ranks of the enemy [in the West Woods] the second man to me, George A. Simpson, while bravely holding the flag aloft, was hit with a bullet from a Confederate gun, which pierced his brain, and he fell dead. A second man picked up the flag, and he was shot down. A third, and he fell; the fourth took it up, and he was shot and fell."

Initially diagnosed with a mortal wound, Simpson's brother, John, survived because a bullet narrowly missed vital organs after passing near his ribs. Thanks to "careful home nursing," the sergeant survived and became an attorney after the war. He never showed his Antietam scars for "public gaze."

Antietam victims in 125th Pennsylvania: Private James Long is buried in Carson Valley Cemetery
in Duncansville, Pa.; Private Lewis McDermitt is buried in Saint Augustine Cemetery
in Cambria County, Pa. (Find A Grave left and right)

Struck in the leg by a gunshot and in the back by a "shell or ball," Private Joshua Cretin died of his wounds, an especially cruel blow for his wife, Sarah, who was pregnant with the couple's third child. Married a little more than five years, the 37-year-old soldier in Company K left behind two young children, Sarah Jane, 4, and John Andrew, 1. Almost two months after her father was killed in action, Mary Elizabeth Cretin was born. (Nearly two years later, Sarah's brother, Daniel, a private in the 190th Pennsylvania, died in Alexandria, Va.)

Wounded in the thigh, Lewis McDermitt, a 23-year-old private in Company K, lingered for nearly two weeks after his leg was amputated and died at Hospital No. 6 in nearby Boonsboro, Md. After Lewis' death, his widowed mother sold her unmarried son's unfinished house for $275, using much of the proceeds to settle his debts and pay for his funeral. His mother planned to live in the house once her son returned from the war.

After nearly five years of marriage, 21-year-old Elizabeth Lier became a widow when her husband, John of Company E, was killed instantly when a bullet struck him in the head. She was left to raise their 1-year-old son, Daniel.  A 28-year-old private in Company G, James Long survived until Feb. 5, 1863, when he died of a gunshot wound to his left thigh in a hospital in Frederick, Md. He left behind a wife named Caroline and two young daughters, Susan, 4, and Sarah, 4 months.

"He served his country faithfully," Long's pastor noted at his funeral on April 23, 1863, "[and] poured out his life on the altar."

SOURCES:

Find A Grave

History of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers 1862-1863, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1906

Hollidaysburg (Pa.) Democratic Standard, April 28, 1863

Reimer, Terry, One Vast Hospital: The Civil War Hospital Sites in Frederick, Maryland After Antietam, The National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Md., 2001

John Rose, Lewis McDermitt, James Long, Joshua Cretin and John Lier  pension files, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington via fold3.com.

         West Woods: Where 125th Pennsylvania, 34th New York suffered heavy losses.

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The 125th Pennsylvania and Confederates blasted away at each other in the West Woods.

Antietam soldier snapshot: 'I thought it was all up with me'

Left: A Civil War-era image of 124th Pennsylvania Private George Miller. Right: An image of
Miller decades later with his grandson.
 (History of the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers)

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Soon after a bullet ripped through his abdomen at the Battle of Antietam, 124th Pennsylvania Private George Miller was taken to the David R. Miller farmhouse, an aid station. While Union artillery boomed nearby and "pieces of shell were flying" about that morning, another soldier in the 124th Pennsylvania recalled seeing Miller walking at the makeshift hospital, "although [he was] shot through the body below the ribs."  Miller's suffering was so intense that he welcomed death, but the 23-year-old soldier from Upper Providence, Pa., survived despite the Rebel ball that had sliced his colon.

David R. Miller farmhouse, where George Miller was taken after
he was wounded in the bowels.

Plagued by the wound for the rest of his life,  Miller married a woman named Ann, with whom he had three children. In the early 20th century,  he posed for a photo with his grandson on his lap -- an image that appeared in the 124th Pennsylvania regimental history. In December 1906, Miller recounted with the regimental historian his awful experience at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, a little more than a month after he had enlisted:

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"At South Mountain, while on the march from Virginia to Antietam, we saw a cartload of limbs -- mostly legs that had been taken off above the knee; it made a great impression on me, as losing a limb was the only thing I dreaded when I decided to enlist. At Antietam, on the 17th of September, when I was wounded and saw the hole in the front of my coat and put my hand to my back, I thought it was all up with me, and for a month it seemed impossible that I could get well, and when I took a turn for the better it was a great disappointment as I was in hopes I was through my earthly troubles.

"I still have the blouse with a half moon out of the front and a large hole in the back. The ball entered above the stomach, coming out between the lower two ribs and cutting the colon, from which it discharged for ten days or so. Dr. [James D.]  Linton of our company drew a silk handkerchief through the opening which was about all that could be done. This would not be considered scientific treatment in these microbe days. After receiving my wound Comrade Charles Eckfeldt, at my solicitation, helped me off with my belt and knapsack, and as the barrel of his gun had been flattened by a ball, he took mine, and when I left the gutter on the pike, he was firing away but was never heard of again. His father searched every place opening graves etc."

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Miller, who was 80 when he died on June 21, 1919, is buried in Media (Pa.) Burying Ground next to his wife, Ann. 

SOURCES:

124th Pennsylvania Sergeant Charles Broomhall diary, Brian Downey's Antietam on the Web, accessed May 13, 2016.

History of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion -- 1862-1863, Ware Bros. Co., Philadelphia, 1907

Miller attended the dedication of the 124th Pennsylvania monument at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1904.
(History of the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers)

124th Pennsylvania monument on a beautiful morning in April 2016.

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NEW! Big, bold Civil War Then & Now blog launched

GO HERE FOR MY NEW CIVIL WAR THEN & NOW BLOG

Using Google Street View and my own photography, I tapped into my inner-William Frassanito and the excellent Juxtapose tool to create Then & Now Civil War images here on my main blog. The posts proved so popular that I created a new site here to feature those images in a much larger, bolder format. Think of it as Then & Now on steroids, filet mignon and prime rib.

Grrrrrrr. 

The bigger your screen, the better these images will display.

For more even more Civil War photography, please visit my sister blog, Civil War 180, which features panoramas of Civil War battlefields.

If you have a suggestion for a Then & Now image, email me at jbankstx@comcast.net.

You may also follow me on Facebook and Twitter at @johnnybanks.

A walk in the Wilderness, where George Austin 'disappeared'

Saunders Field, where 140th New York charged on May 5, 1864. Below: An interactive panorama.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

            Pan to the right to view the 140th New York monument in Saunders Field.

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To thousands of motorists who zoom past every day on Virginia Rt. 20, this scene -— a mile or so from McDonald's, a Sheetz gas station, E&M Auto Sales and Divine Nails -— is just another rolling field and patch of woods. Perhaps some don't have time to notice as they drive to their homes nearby in the upscale Fawn Lake subdivision, where streets are named for Civil War generals and signs mark "preserved" trenches and earthworks.

Augustus Meyer: 140th New York captain was
 mortally wounded during the charge at Saunders Field.
(Image courtesy 140th NYVI Living History Organization)

But momentous, and tragic, events occurred here in Saunders Field along the historic Orange Turnpike and in the woods nearby on May 5, 1864—- the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness. This is where 529 soldiers in the 140th New York, its ranks filled with immigrants from Germany and Ireland, burst from the woods on a wet, foggy morning that soon turned hot, charging an enemy entrenched near a distant woodline. Dressed in the regiment's colorful French North African Zouave uniforms, soldiers named McNamara, McVeen, Sprinkler, Seiger, Vanderhuff and Ziegler, among others, gained a foothold in that woodline. But after about 30 minutes, the Rebels forced them to retreat. The U.S. Army regiment suffered nearly 50 percent casualties.

Augustus Meyer's grave in Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester, N.Y. (Photo Joel Shore/Find A Grave)

This is where German immigrant Augustus Meyer, the 34-year-old father of 5-year-old girl named Therese, suffered a wound in the abdomen. Initially expected to recover, the captain died 19 days later at a hospital in Fredericksburg, Va., roughly 15 miles away.

The Genesee Valley Railroad transported Meyer's remains to Rochester, where the former clerk in a dry-goods company was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. A newspaper described his well-attended funeral service as "of a most imposing character," probably little comfort to his wife of seven years, Augusta.

"An uncomfortable rain storm prevailed during most of the afternoon,"  the Rochester Evening Express, "and so large a turn out, under the circumstances, was an expressive testimonial of the respect in which Capt. Meyers was held."

This is where 140th New York 1st Sergeant Charles L. Taylor,  a blue-eyed, 36-year-old salesman and produce dealer, was killed. Nearly a month after the battle, a comrade searching the battlefield discovered his remains. The distinctive Zouave uniform and a brown beard were telltale signs the body was Taylor's, 140th New York veteran John B. Snyder noted shortly after the war. Elizabeth "Libby" Taylor left a light burning in a window in their house in Brockport, N.Y., according to an account, so her husband could find his way home. She died in 1918, having never re-married.

Saunders Field is where 24-year-old Sergeant Joseph Seiger suffered a mortal wounded. After he had mustered into Company E of the 140th New York in September 1862, he gave his widowed mother his $90 bounty and a major portion of his army pay. Before he enlisted, the unmarried laborer regularly gave more than $1 of his weekly $4 salary at Cunningham's Carriage Factory in Rochester to Mary Seiger, who had emigrated to the United States from Germany after her husband's death.

George Austin's marker in Lakeside Cemetery in
Hamlin, N.Y. (Find A Grave)

And this is where George Austin vanished.

Shortly after the 140th New York attacked that morning, the married private also suffered a mortal wound. When the regiment retreated about a half mile, it left its dead and wounded with the  enemy, noted Austin's friend, Private Charles W. Starin. George had "disappeared," according to an August 1865 pension affidavit signed by Henry Allen, a commanding officer in Austin's Company A, who added, "I have no personal knowledge of his fate." George's remains initially may have been buried by the Rebels, or, like many soldiers killed during this battle in the dense forests, his body may have rotted in the woods. A marker in Lakeside Cemetery in Hamlin, N.Y., honors the 27-year-old soldier, but it is unclear if he was buried there.

Shortly after dawn one recent rainy morning, I walk through the woods where the 140th New York gained its short-lived foothold. Dogs bark in the distance. Brown leaves crunch beneath my feet. A distinctive tat-a-tat-tat of woodpeckers echoes. An interpretive marker notes the mortal wounding nearby of a Confederate general. Remains of trenches from both armies zig-zag through the woods.

And near the end of my walk, I stop, briefly close my eyes and imagine the scene in May 1864.

The remains of Union trenches deep in the woods near Saunders Field.

 Confederate General Leroy A. Stafford was mortally wounded in woods near Saunders Field.

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-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

• Widow's pension file documents for Augustus Meyer, Charles L. Taylor, Joseph Seiger and George Austin, National Archives and Records Service, Washington D.C. via fold3.com.

Oh, brother! How relic hunter uncovered rare Rebel buckle

In 2003 in Berryville, Va.,  Richard Clem holds his rare relic-hunting find: half of a Virginia -style
 CS tongue belt buckle. (Photo of Clem, buttons and belt plate below courtesy of  Richard and Don Clem)

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I  love great Civil War relic-hunting stories, and my friend Richard Clem has a ton of them. His stories have appeared on my blog here, here, here and here. Clem is most at peace, he once told me, when he's out in a field with a metal detector in hand and headphones on, searching for pieces of the past. Here's another story from the Hagerstown, Md., man who, along with his brother, has relic-hunted western Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia  for decades: 

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By Richard Clem

In the early morning hours of Aug. 13, 1864, Colonel John Singleton Mosby’s Partisan Rangers (43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion) struck the rear of Major General Phillip H. Sheridan’s 600-wagon supply train heading for Winchester, Va. Mosby’s 300 horsemen surprised and routed the Federals near Buck Marsh, along the Berryville Pike. The raid, which ended by 6:30 a.m,, resulted in the Rebels capturing 200 beef cattle, 600 horses, 100 wagons and taking 200 prisoners.

John Singleton Mosby

After reading and studying the “Gray Ghost’s” Berryville Wagon Raid, the author and his brother, Don, decided to use metal detectors and maybe uncover some Civil War relics from the little-known battle. Our search started in early summer of 2003 along the Berryville Pike, just north of Buck Marsh.

The first area we went over was covered with thick, low-cut briars in an apple orchard. After fighting the rough terrain and coming up empty-handed, I climbed over a wire fence to try my luck in a more level pasture. Don kept the course. After an hour passed and still finding nothing of value, I met Don at a fence. With the words “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence,” brother handed me a beautiful, solid-cast Block “I” Infantry button. At that moment, I turned greener than the rich patina on the freshly-dug Confederate button.

Our next outing was on a section of rocky ground scattered with shade trees overlooking Buck Marsh. Digging English copper coins, broken dishes bearing a “London” trademark, brass shoe buckles and rusted knives and forks indicated this high ground was once an old Virginia homestead dating to the 18th century.

Through summer months, we continued combing the same area and collecting Civil War relics --including a sword handle, two U.S.belt buckles, two U.S. cartridge box plates, various Union and Confederate buttons and bullets as well as artifacts of the Colonial period. We never knew what century we were digging in until the buried object was removed from the Old Dominion soil.

With “positive targets” getting less and less and knowing “all good things must come to an end,” we started branching out from the once-productive area. After an hour or so hunting in the surrounding orchard, my bullet pouch remained empty. Then words of wisdom from a veteran relic hunter I met years ago on the battlefield of Antietam came to mind: “Boy, you’ll never get’em all." With this statement still fresh, I mentioned to Don, “Let’s go back over to the old spot -- the best might still be there.” It was!

In the same general area Richard Clem
 found the half of a CS belt buckle, 
his brother found this Confederate
 solid-cast  block "I" button and a rare 
Episcopal  High School button. Could the 
finds be connected to the same Rebel soldier?

Swinging close to an hour over the so-called hunted-out land, all I could show for my efforts was a few worthless brass ends of previously missed shotgun shells. Crossing over the ridge to call it a day, brother was spotted searching in the shade of some hardwood trees. Heading in his direction, I started searching in some knee-high grass when the detector meter indicated large brass. Starting to dig, I noticed the signal was centered in a narrow dirt path horses had made in the thick grass.

Several inches of hard-packed dirt was removed when dark green letters appeared in the bottom of the hole: “CS.”  The Virginia-style CS tongue (half of a tongue & wreath interlocking Confederate belt buckle) lay face up in almost-pristine condition. The CS, of course, stands for “Confederate States” of America. I knew immediately I had uncovered a valuable piece of Southern history -- odds of digging this relic seem like a million-to-one. I wasn’t swinging in or parallel with the horse trail, but rather cutting across it when the detector sounded off.  (More on this rare find can be found in Mullinax’s Confederate Belt Buckles & Plates, Plate 006 on Page 10.)

Trying to overcome my excitement, I turned off the detector and rushed over to my hunting partner. With encrusted dirt still clinging to the cast-brass treasure, it was proudly placed in his hand. “Where did you find this?” came the excited question. While pointing to the detector and headphones only yards away, Don remarked, “Unless I miss, my guess that wreath half has to be still laying around there somewhere!” You can bet we beat the “you know what” out of that tall grass, but no wreath. It could have been missed by only inches or it could be, as Don suggested, “in Tennessee.” Only the Ruler of All Knowledge knows exactly where it’s located.

On another typical, humid July afternoon on the edge of the old homestead, Don dug a nice two-piece button displaying a Maltese cross surrounded with letters “EHS / Va.” These letters stood for “Episcopal High School / Virginia.” Founded in 1839, this school of higher education is still in operation today in Alexandria, Va. The students all wore the same style uniforms, with a row of silver-washed buttons down the front. Early in the War Between the States, students wanting to fight for the Southern cause sometimes went to war wearing their school uniforms because Confederate equipment was in short supply. The school closed during the Civil War, but reopened in the post-war period.

One of four Federal belt plates Richard Clem found
 at the site in Berryville, Va.

Because of their brass construction that resists the elements of nature, the CS tongue and Episcopal button were in excellent condition after being underground close to 140 years. That they were located in a rocky area that was never touched by farmer’s plow or strong corrosive fertilizer also was a contributing factor to the good state of preservation,  (More on this type of rare button can be found in Crouch’s Virginia Militaria of the Civil War, Page 72.)

Now, for some food for thought, let’s travel back in time to 1864. During research on Mosby’s Berryville wagon raid, the name “Lewis B. Adie” surfaced as being one of only two Rebel Rangers killed in action on that early August morning. Lewis Benjamin Adie was born July 21, 1844, in Leesburg, Loudoun County, Va. His father, the Reverend George Adie, was rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg.

A member of 149th Ohio Infantry wrote, “I saw him (Adie) lying on his face the body of a handsome man, who was shot by our company.” Another witness stated, “Before receiving the fatal shot, Adie killed two of the enemy with his revolver and pressing the third hard, he fell under the fire of an infantry company which arose from behind a stone wall.” The final resting place of the young trooper remains unknown, although one source lists him as being “buried on the field.”

A close-up of Richard Clem's rare find.

As a member of Mosby’s cavalry, Private Adie should have been carrying a sword. Don dug the handle of a Confederate sword at the homestead site. The belt that the sword scabbard or revolver holster in all probability would have had a tongue & wreath buckle as the CS tongue I dug. True, it can’t be proven Adie was even carrying a sword. But we know he “killed two of the enemy with his revolver” that would have had a holster and perhaps a tongue & wreath buckle. It would be hard to lose either half of one of these “interlocking” buckles unless it was taken from a person who was killed or dying.

What is even a stranger coincidence, at the beginning of the war, Lewis Adie was attending the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. The Episcopal button my brother dug came from that very school. All three of these artifacts were discovered close together on ground overlooking Buck Marsh, in the general vicinity where Adie was killed. The author realizes to connect these relics to anyone is next to impossible. Yet the question must still be asked: “Could the sword handle, CS tongue and the Episcopal button all have been the personal effects of one Lewis Benjamin Adie?” Any attempt to answer this question would be mere speculation, but it provides some good “food for thought.”

I’ll always remember one summer evening leaving the old homestead under a breathtaking Virginia sunset. Walking along a dusty lane while passing back and forth the just-dug CS tongue, Don offered to trade me his whole day’s find of two bullets and two plain brass buttons for the cherished relic. We never made a deal. As we drove out of the orchard in the pickup truck on our way home, words from the past echoed once again:

“Boy, you’ll never get’em all.”

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SOURCES:

--Episcopal High School 
--Relicman.com, B3990
--Williamson, James J., Mosby’s Rangers, Ralph B. Kenyon Publisher, New York, 1896.
--Crouch, Howard R., Civil War Artifacts, SCS Publications, Fairfax, Va., 1995.
--Mullinax, Steve E., Confederate Belt Buckles & Plates, O’Donnell Publications, Alexandria, Va., 1991.

During our visit in Sharpsburg, Md., in December 2015, Clem showed me his fabulous discovery.

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Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.