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| President Lincoln during a visit with General George McClellan near the Antietam battlefield in early October 1862. (Alexander Gardner | Library of Congress) CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. |
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| Released Sept. 11, 2018, Justin Martin's A Fierce Glory is available on amazon.com and elsewhere. |
And then the Union soldiers emerged from the corn. Rise up. Rise up, commanded Colonel Douglass. From the furrow, a wall of Rebels suddenly became visible. They loosed a terrifying unison volley, hundreds of bullets traveling in a tight synchronized constellation streaked across 200 yards in an eye-twitch, smack into the Union line. Hot metal ripped into the soldiers. The soft lead of the bullets expanded on contact, shattering bones and slicing through sinew. "The volley made them stagger and hesitate," Gordon Bradwell," a private with the 31st Georgia, would recall.Unlike other Antietam books, Abraham Lincoln -- featured in a cool, colorized version of a black-and-white image on the cover of A Fierce Glory -- is deeply embedded in the narrative. For Lincoln, Antietam may have been the most consequential battle of all. On Sept. 22, 1862, five days after fighting in Sharpsburg ended, the president issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, formally alerting the Confederacy of his intention to free slaves in rebellious states.
In crafting his fifth book, Martin used music as creative aid. (But never while writing.) His theme song for A Fierce Glory (Da Capo Press) was Bob Dylan's One More Cup of Coffee. "It seems fitting," the 53-year-old Kansas City native told me. "It has an old-timey mood, but I suspect he isn't referring to Antietam."
When he's not enjoying time with his wife and twin sons, Martin may be found tending to his postage-stamp-sized garden in the backyard of his house in Queens, N.Y. The avid gardener says he had a banner year for tomatoes and morning glories, but his first crack at edible flowers was a bust. Martin is a huge fan of the Kansas City Royals, New York Jets, Tottenham Hotspur, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane --- and ice cream at a store in a certain Western Maryland town. (Read on.)
In the following Q&A, Martin explains why he chose to write a book about Antietam, briefly details his research process, identifies his favorite spot on the battlefield and provides a two-word assessment of Little Mac's performance nearly 156 years ago. (You may be shocked!)
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| A Fierce Glory author Justin Martin (second from left), his mother (far left) and father (center), longtime battlefield guide John Schildt (third from left) and Martin's aunt and uncle at the Antietam National Battlefield visitors' center. (Image courtesy Justin Martin) |
Antietam has not been the subject of nearly as many books as Gettysburg. Still, it has been well covered -- by James Murfin (Gleam of the Bayonets), Stephen Sears (Landscape Turned Red) and others. What do you bring that's new?
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| Robert E. Lee |
Here’s another difference: Lincoln occupies the heart of my Antietam tale, looming much larger than in a typical military account. Given that the battle was the occasion for the Emancipation Proclamation, seems only fitting for Lincoln and his views on slavery to be woven right into the story.
Meanwhile, I attend to Robert E. Lee as a brilliant military leader, but also as a cruel slaveholder. Past histories of Antietam tend to gloss over the latter issue — if they touch on it at all. But in a battle that would have such a dramatic impact on the fate of slavery, the Confederate commander’s views on the so-called peculiar institution seem relevant and worth exploring.
Describe your research process, and specifically, what percentage do you estimate you were able to do online?
Martin: I read and read, everything I can track down. I visited the New York Public Library, National Archives, and other invaluable repositories of information on the battle.
As for how much research I was able to do online: I’d hazard 50 percent. This is my fifth book, and the percentage has been steadily increasing since my first one in 1989.
Obtaining an old document via the Internet is instant gratification at its finest: While researching the tragic fate of the 7th Maine at Antietam, for example, someone suggested I consult a book called Following the Greek Cross by Thomas Hyde, the regiment’s leader during the battle. It was published in 1894. I Googled the title and a nanosecond later — voila!
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| Stephen P. Grove farmhouse, where President Lincoln visited with Confederate and Union wounded. |
Martin: Lincoln was such an inspiring leader. Only six months before Antietam, his 11-year-old son Willie died. This unthinkable loss left Lincoln with such great empathy for the soldiers that fought in the battle, and the terrible price so many paid.
There’s a touching scene, which I recount in my book. Following the battle, Lincoln visited Antietam, a strip of black crepe encircling his stovepipe hat as a symbol of mourning for Willie. The president stopped at the Grove Farm, a hospital where both Union and Rebel wounded were being cared for. Lincoln offered comfort to the Union injured, of course. But then he made a gesture to Rebels, telling them that he “bore them no malice, and could take them by the hand with sympathy and good feeling,” according to a contemporary newspaper account. One by one, Confederates came forward to shake the Union president’s hand. Such humanity: Lincoln was showing a willingness to act as leader for all the people of a fractured nation.
What's commonly misunderstood about the battle?
Martin: I think it’s hard for people to comprehend the sheer mental and physical exhaustion brought on by a battle like Antietam. It must have been sensory overload: deafening sound, minie balls zipping in all directions, cannon shell raining from above. Many of the men fought even while hungry, exhausted, or ill. They were weighed down by gear, yet had to climb hillsides or ford Antietam Creek, often under withering fire.
People always ask: Why didn’t McClellan resume the battle on Sept. 18? Following a day fueled by pure terror and adrenaline, after watching one’s comrades fall dead and wounded, precious few of his men were truly “combat ready,” claims of some historians to the contrary. Same goes for Lee. He didn’t attempt one of his trademark-bold strikes against the Union that day because his army was in even worse shape.
Without giving too much away here, what surprises might the reader find in A Fierce Glory?
Martin: For starters, there was a two-hour lull smack in the middle of the bloodiest day in American history. The fighting pretty much stopped from 1 to 3 PM, while the Federal IX Corps moved into position for its final assault.
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| Robert Toombs: Confederate brigadier general redeemed himself at Antietam, Justin Martin says. (Library of Congress) |
Another surprise grew out of my extensive research on Robert Toombs, the man who would be president of the C.S.A. Early in 1861, during the nominating convention in Montgomery, Ala., he got stinking drunk and made a public fool of himself. The nod went to Jeff Davis instead.
At Antietam, Brigadier General Toombs redeemed himself, serving as overall commander of a group of 450 stalwart Georgians who held off 12,500 Federals, delaying their crossing of Antietam Creek for several crucial hours. Ask a Civil War buff “list some Confederate generals at Antietam that come quickly to mind,” and you’re likely to hear Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, the Hills (A.P. and D.H.), maybe "Neighbor" Jones. But not Toombs. For his inspired leadership during the battle, he deserves to be top of mind.
Thanks, by the way, for not demanding that I give away too many surprises; suffice it to say my book is full of them. That’s due to the wealth of primary sources on Antietam. Depending on one’s focus and sensibilities, a researcher can examine the same documents and cue in on different details. As a consequence, whatever Antietam book follows mine is virtually guaranteed to contain fresh surprises, and I look forward to reading it.
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| Terrain played a key role in the fighting at Antietam, Justin Martin and many historians agree. Here's the 16th Connecticut monument, with the undulating ground of the 40-Acre Cornfield in the background. |
Martin: The role the landscape played. In the modern world, it’s possible to destroy a target viewed only at a distance, perhaps even relying on a satellite image.
But Antietam was on such an intimate scale. Soldiers regularly traded volleys over the length of a football field. Terrifying! Every feature of this humble farming community came into play: fences, barns, stands of trees and country lanes. All had potential to serve as hiding spots, or as impediments to the enemy. Everything was consequential, even a seeming quirk like the fact that Farmer Miller’s cornfield was as-yet unharvested, the stalks standing taller than a man. Had his crop been in stubble, the Bloody Cornfield — that notorious deathtrap — wouldn’t have figured in the battle.
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| Bloody Lane, the sunken road where scores of Confederate dead lay on Sept. 17, 1862. |
In researching the book, you walked the ground at Antietam -- the West Woods, Bloody Lane, the 40-Acre Cornfield. Describe the experience. And what's your favorite place on the field and why?
Martin: I did my research in stages, focusing on different parts of the action: The Bloody Lane, as you mention, or the West Woods. I’d read up in my home office in Queens, New York, and then I’d make a trip to Sharpsburg.
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I should mention here that on every visit, I arranged for a tour with an Antietam guide. The first time, I called the main office and said, “Do you have a guide that can give me a tour focused exclusively on the Cornfield action?” I figured this might be a bizarrely specific request, but they set it right up, no problem. The guides really know their stuff and have the best stories. I couldn’t have written this book without their help.
As for my favorite spot: Burnside Bridge. Here’s this beautiful stone bridge spanning Antietam Creek, woods to both sides. I always like to end my visits with a stop there, regardless of what part of the field has served as my day’s focus. I’m drawn by the tranquility of the spot, to be honest. Because this site is so well preserved, seemingly unchanged by the passage of time, it’s also very easy — if one so chooses — to conjure the scene on that single long-ago day when it wasn’t so peaceful.
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| Burnside Bridge, Justin Martin's favorite spot on the battlefield. |
If you could go back into time and interview one person from your book -- not including Lincoln or the commanding generals -- whom would that be and why?
Martin: Since you’ve granted me the power of time travel, seems a missed opportunity not to interview McClellan. Although I’ve written books about Walt Whitman and Frederick Law Olmsted, Little Mac has the honor of being the most complex character I’ve ever grappled with. I have about a thousand questions I’d like to ask him.
But your house, your rules: If I had the chance to interview someone besides a commanding general, I would choose Private Roland Bowen, Company H, 15th Massachusetts. During my research, I thoroughly enjoyed his vivid published diary, From Ball’s Bluff to Gettysburg … And Beyond. He was a colorful character, and very insightful. Describing his quick retreat from the West Woods massacre, he wrote: “No God Damned Southerner is a going to catch me unless he can run 29 miles an hour.” The perspective of foot soldiers often gets lost in history. I’d bring Pvt. Bowen a Coke (an exotic treat from the future), and we’d talk for hours.
Fill in the blank: At Antietam, George McClellan was ________________.
Martin: Uncharacteristically effective.
Finally, did you grab an ice cream at Nutter's in Sharpsburg?
Martin: Every single visit — even in February.
Thank you John and Justin! I think the new book is on the way as I read this. I'm glad to have the pointer to R.E. Bowen as well. Thanks again, y'all!
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