Podcast: Antietam guide Kevin Pawlak on Final Attack, more

In Episode 23, battlefield guide Kevin Pawlak talks with co-hosts Tom McMillan and John Banks about the Antietam Institute's epic tour of the 40-Acre Cornfield and elsewhere on the southern end of the battlefield. Plus, Kevin, John and Tom begin their campaign for a Congressional Medal of Honor for 118th Pennsylvania officer Lemuel Crocker, whose heroics at the Battle of Shepherdstown — the final battle of the Maryland Campaign — should be known by all students of the Civil War. 

Pawlak, a board member of the Antietam Institute, is author of Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital and other Civil War books. | Join the Antietam Institute.

Podcast: Author Tom McGrath on Battle of Shepherdstown

In Episode 6 of "The Antietam and Beyond Podcast," historian and author Tom McGrath discusses the Battle of Shepherdstown with me and co-host Tom McMillan. Fought Sept. 19-20, 1862, the battle on what was then Virginia soil (it became West Virginia in June 1863) was the final clash of the Maryland Campaign.

We discuss:

• The 118th Pennsylvania and how a "Civil War badass" in its ranks became a hero.
• The amazing terrain of the battlefield.
• What you can see on the hallowed ground today (cement mill ruins and a house with a cannon ball embedded in it!) and much more.

McGrath is author of Shepherdstown: Last Clash of the Antietam Campaign, September 19-20, 1862, which you can purchase here.

Shepherdstown to Port Republic: 10 unheralded battlefields

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Here's my list, ranked...

1. SHEPHERDSTOWN (W. Va.) | Sept. 20, 1862: Fascinating terrain at final Maryland Campaign battle. Most of battlefield is private property -- including this ground (above) upon which A.P. Hill soldiers advanced (toward camera). Recent visit made doubly good by excellent time spent with town parking cop, who uses a Segway on the job. Regarding the battlefield, he warned me about bears, coyotes, snakes, and ticks. What, no sea serpents? Read about amazing heroism on this battlefield.

2. SOUTH MOUNTAIN: (Md.) | Sept. 14, 1862: Rugged! How the hell did they fight here? George Meade’s men marched past this old house on Frostown Road on Sept. 14, 1862. Once owned by two brothers, locals told me, it and surrounding land were acquired by American Battlefield Trust. As you can tell by the deep-blue sky, this was one of those fabulous western Maryland afternoons.

3. BRANDY STATION: (Va.) | June 9, 1863: View from Fleetwood Hill. Oh my. Meet the man who was instrumental in saving this hallowed ground. Explore panorama.

4. PICKETT'S MILL (Ga.) | May 27, 1864: The Yankees attacked through that ravine? Really? Ranger Jeff Wright (above) warned snakes lurk here. Grrrr. Another Shepherdstown. 

5. CROSS KEYS (Va.) | June 8, 1862: I lost recent staredown here with cows and bull here, preventing a higher ranking. Long story. 😫

6. PIEDMONT (Va.) | June 5, 1864: “Grumble” Jones death site at extreme right of panorama. Best Civil War nickname, by the way. Mrs. B could use for me. 

7. CEDAR CREEK (Va.) | Oct. 19, 1864: Would be higher if they bagged I-81. Ugh. Here's where 8th Vermont advanced through a ravine. Read more.

8. NEW MARKET (Va.) | May 15, 1864: Field of Lost Shoes! Explore panorama.

9. BALL'S BLUFF (Va.) | Oct. 21, 1861: Federals -- including this 15th Massachusetts soldier -- swam Potomac under fire. (Video from Visit Loudoun via YouTube.)

10. FISHER'S HILL (Va.) | Sept. 21-22, 1864: I deftly eluded “cow mines.” Angry herd here eyed me warily, apparently despondent over recent death of one of their own. Weird vibe. Dandy view and a magnificent witness tree (above). Curses to you, I-81! 

HONORABLE MENTION: Port Republic, Va., above (June 9, 1862), Britton's Lane, Tenn. (Sept. 1, 1862), Tebbs Bend, Ky. (July 4, 1863), Morton's Ford, Va. (Feb. 6-7, 1864), Monocacy, Md. (July 9, 1864), Allatoona Pass, Ga. (Oct. 5, 1864), Spring Hill, Tenn. (Nov. 29, 1864),

What do you think of my list? 

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

Elmwood Cemetery, where Confederate Antietam dead rest

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Many Confederate Antietam dead are buried here at Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, W.Va., across the Potomac River from Sharpsburg, Md., or at Washington Confederate Cemetery in Hagerstown, Md. Shepherdstown was part of Virginia in 1862.

Faces of the Civil War: Rebel surgeon William S. Parran

Mortally wounded at Antietam, Rebel doctor William Parran is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in 
Shepherdstown, W.Va., which was part of Virginia during the Civil War. 

Close-up of William Parran's gravestone. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

The wives of at least five Connecticut soldiers who died at Antietam were pregnant at the time of the battle. Of course, Southern families weren't immune to such awful tragedy either. Mary Virginia Parran, wife of Confederate doctor William Sellman Parran, was pregnant with the couple's second child when her husband was mortally wounded at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862.

The son of a doctor, William Parran was mustered in to
the Confederate army as a captain on April 17, 1861.
(Photo: Museum of The Confederacy, Richmond, Va.)

From Barboursville, Va., Parran was mustered into the Confederate army as a captain in Company F in the 13th Virginia on April 17, 1862, five days after the Rebels bombarded Fort Sumter. He became ill, apparently from jaundice, and resigned his commission and was dropped from the regiment's rolls by late April 1862. The son of a doctor, Parran rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia as an assistant surgeon later that year, and by the time of Antietam served with Courtney’s Artillery Battalion. After the Rebels captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Parran was detached and sent to Sharpsburg. As the Union army neared a breakthrough at Bloody Lane, Parran is believed to have helped man a short-handed battery of Washington Artillery on the Piper Farm. Apparently mortally wounded during the action, the 27-year-old doctor was taken across the Potomac River to Shepherdstown, where he died later that night.

"He was never backward in offering and rendering services whenever and wherever he thought they were needed and would be accepted," a friend wrote about Parran in November 1862. "He lost his valuable life while nobly working at another's battery, to which he had offered his services. He was a tender and affectionate father, and left a fond and devoted wife and a darling little daughter to mourn his untimely death. May the widow's God be her God, and a father to her fatherless!"

Parran's son, William S. Parran II, was born on April 19, 1863. His father lies buried in Shepherdstown, W.Va., in Elmwood Cemetery, where more than 100 other Confederates who were killed or mortally wounded at Antietam are also interred.

"Dr. Parran was ever an affectionate and dutiful son, a devoted husband and parent, a true friend, and an unswerving patriot," a short account of his life published in 1875 noted. "His genial social nature, his frank and manly qualities, made for him, wherever he went, hosts of friends, in whose memories and affections he has a monument to his honor more enduring and more to be coveted than brass or marble."