Antietam Up Close: Beautiful Connecticut church windows

One of the more awe-inspiring scenes at the Antietam isn't on the battlefield. It's in a seldom-visited church on Main Street in Sharpsburg, Md. -- a church that after the battle was used as a hospital by the Union army. When the sun hits the stained-glass windows just right in the small, red-brick building, it can take your breath away. The windows were donated in 1891 by veterans of the 16th Connecticut, whose comrades were treated (and some of whom died) at the church hospital after the battle. I've written about the German Reformed Church hospital many times, including here, here and here. I shot these up-close images during a short visit on Saturday afternoon to the church, now called the Christ Reformed Church, which celebrated its 250th anniversary last year.

What army borrowed from Private Barney Houser at Antietam

From Sharpsburg, Md., Barney Houser was a  private in the 1st Maryland Potomac Home  Brigade.

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When Barney Houser marched off from Sharpsburg, Md., to fight the Rebs, he probably didn't expect anyone to one day come calling to borrow an iron kettle, a skillet, four window blinds, four ladles .... and his house. But war has a way of turning lives upside down.

A private in the 1st Maryland Potomac Home Brigade from August 1861-August 1864, Houser lived in a house next to the German Reformed Church, a small, brick structure on Main Street. Md. After the Battle of Antietam, the building was one of three churches in town used as a hospital. Wounded were carried into the church on planks, laid across the pews, and operated on by surgeons, who tossed amputated limbs out the windows. At least seven soldiers from Connecticut died within the walls of the 40 x 80-foot building, including 16th Connecticut privates James Brooks of Stafford and Horace Lay of Hartford and 8th Connecticut private John Doolittle of Middletown.

Bob Eschbach, holding a copy of a photo of Private Barney Houser,
 lives next to Christ Reformed Church, which was used as a hospital 
after the Battle of Antietam. 

Hard-pressed to deal with the influx of patients at the German Reformed Church, Union medical personnel used Houser's home, just 15 feet across an alley from the church, to accommodate more wounded men. And they also borrowed a litany of items from the soldier's house.

Bob Eschbach, current owner of the residence, received the evidence several years when he gave a tour of the house to Houser's descendants, who traveled from Kansas to Sharpsburg to learn more about their ancestor. The family gave Eschbach copies of a wartime image of Houser and a receipt he received from the army for items borrowed from his home for use in the hospital next door. In all, 14 different items are listed, including two bed ticks ($3), four chairs ($2), two bedsteads ($6), one waiter (75 cents) and one Dutch oven ($1). (See copy below.)

Whether Houser received financial compensation from government for his war "contribution" is unknown.

Worship services are still held on Sunday at the German Reformed Church, now called Christ Reformed Church. The building was extensively renovated after the Civil War, thanks, in part, to donations from Connecticut veterans, who paid for a beautiful stained-glassed window that faces Main Street. As for Eschbach, he has no qualms about living next to the scene of horror and pain so long ago.

"People have to live somewhere," he said. A frequent visitor to the battlefield, Eschbach has lived in the house since 1993.

Private Barney Houser lived in this house in Sharpsburg during the Civil War. According to
 the current owner,  part of the house dates to the Revolutionary War.

A copy of the receipt Barney Houser received for items borrowed from his house
for use in the church hospital next door.

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Antietam panoramas: Sharpsburg's Main Street church

Connecticut Civil War veterans chipped in
 $400 in 1891 to purchase this stained-glass
 window for the  German Reformed Church.

I got up early last Wednesday morning to shoot this panorama of Main Street in Sharpsburg, Md., a town Norman  Rockwell should have put on his bucket list. Of particular interest to me is the Christ Reformed Church, the red-brick building toward the left of the image. Called the German Reform Church during the Civil War, it was one of three churches in town used as a Union hospital after Antietam.

During the past three months, I have been digging into the stories of some of the Connecticut soldiers who were patients in that church. One of those men was James Brooks, a 19-year-old private in the 16th Connecticut, who lay in no-man's land in farmer John Otto's cornfield for 40 hours before he was found by a Union burial crew. He initially was treated in Otto's barn, a makeshift field hospital, before he was transferred to the German Reformed Church, where he died on  Oct. 11, 1862. Brooks' body was returned to Connecticut and buried in a small cemetery in rural Willington under a gravestone that notes he died of  "six heavy wounds."

If you visit Sharpsburg, put a stop at the church on your to-do list, and arrange to go inside to check out the beautiful stained-glass window that faces Main Street. In 1891, Connecticut Antietam veterans donated that window in honor of their comrades who died at the battle. Below is a panorama of the inside of the church, shot with my iPhone 4.

The church suffered significant damage during the war and was remodeled in the 1890s. The blood-stained Civil War-era floorboards  were reportedly ripped out in the 1940s, although I have heard that some of the original floorboards remain. I'll try to confirm that on my next trip to Sharpsburg.  An aside:  Recent blog subject Barney Houser, a private in the 1st Maryland Potomac Home Brigade, lived in the house to the left of the church during the Civil War. Items borrowed from his house for use in the German Reformed Church hospital included an iron kettle, a skillet, four window blinds, four ladles and a Dutch oven.

Antietam: Church of misery for 16th Connecticut

Wounded soldiers, including many from the 16th Connecticut, were treated at the
 German Reformed Church (now called Christ Reform Church) on Main Street
 in Sharpsburg, Md.,  after the Battle of Antietam. Left, church
 as it appeared in the 1890s and today. 

Top: 8th Connecticut private John Doolittle's
 death on Oct. 10, 1862 was recorded 
 by a surgeon in the  case book shown 
in  middle photo.  George Chamberlain, 
 a private in the 16th Connecticut, 
was also treated at the German Reform
 Church in  Sharpsburg, Md. He died nearly 
three years after Antietam from a wound 
suffered at the battle.
(Top, bottom photos: Middlesex Historical Society)

In October 1894, Connecticut veterans of Antietam, most in their early 50s and 60s, made a pilgrimage to the battlefield where many of their comrades suffered and died three decades earlier.

On Oct. 11, the old soldiers toured the field, swapped stories, collected war relics and attended the dedication of monuments to the 8th, 11th, 14th and 16th Connecticut regiments. "All of the above indicated monuments stand upon the advance positions of the respective regiments, where our friends placed upon the altar of the nation their heavy tribute of blood," the itinerary for the trip noted. (1)

The festivities that evening, according to the trip itinerary, included "interesting exercises, an address, camp-fire talks, and music, at the Reformed Church courteously offered for our use." (2)

Ironically, that same church was a place of horror 32 years earlier.

Houses, barns and churches in the Sharpsburg area became makeshift field hospitals during and after the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17. 1862. Many Connecticut soldiers were treated at the German Reformed Church, a small, brick building on Main Street a short distance from where Robert E. Lee held a council of war the night of the bloodiest day in American history. Wounded men were carried into the church on planks, laid across the pews, and operated on by surgeons, who tossed amputated limbs out the window. Parishioners aided the overtaxed doctors.

Soldiers from the 16th Connecticut, most of whom were wounded in farmer John Otto's cornfield about a mile and a half away, were treated at the German Reform Church well into October and November. In nearly indecipherable doctor's scrawl, surgeons E. McDonnell of the U.S. Volunteers and Truman Squire of the 89th New York detailed in a case book the treatment of those men, some of whom suffered from multiple -- and often ghastly -- wounds: (3)

Private Horace Lay, Company I, 16th Connecticut, Hartford: "Admitted to this hospital Oct. 5, 1862. Present condition (Oct. 6) fracture of left femur by a ball...

"...his thigh being quite small, would seem to invite the knife -- but I am sick today myself and cannot pursue action."

Lay's wife, Charlotte, traveled to Sharpsburg and was present when her husband died on Nov. 16, 1862. (4)

Private George Chamberlain, Company G, 16th Connecticut, Middletown: "Present condition: Wound from the entrance of a musket ball a little below the bend of the right knee ... he keeps the leg flexed at a right angle and is careful not to move the joint for reason of pain."

His mother, Mary Ann, traveled to Sharpsburg to help nurse her son back to health, and both of them witnessed the death of Horace Lay, an acquaintance of George's. (5) Chamberlain, 18 years old when he enlisted, was discharged from the army because of disability on April 1, 1863. He died of his Antietam wound on May 11, 1865.

Private John Loveland, Company C, 16th Connecticut, Hartford: "Lost more blood in the operation than I could have wished and the patient sank quite low after the removal of the limb and was long in coming from the influence of the chloroform. But tonight he has good pulse, good color, is rational, feels hopeful and the case appears ... promising."

Loveland died on Oct. 16, 1862. He left behind a wife, Anna, whom he married on Jan. 15, 1860.

Private William W. Porter, Company H, 16th Connecticut, Glastonbury: "Oct. 8: evening: Amputated the thigh this morning. Patient stood the operation well and is comfortable."

"Oct 9: Pulse quite feeble ... Stump looks well. ... Case now critical."

William Wallace Porter, a private in the 
16th Connecticut, was mortally wounded at 
Antietam. He is buried at ancient Green Cemetery
 in Glastonbury, Conn.

"10th Oct. morning: Died at 2 1/2 this morning."

Porter's father traveled to the battlefield and returned to Connecticut with his son's body. William Porter is buried in ancient Green Cemetery in Glastonbury next to his brother, John, who died in action near Petersburg, Va.

Private James Brooks, Company I, 16th Connecticut, Stafford: "He has six wounds...

"The boy is emaciated but has an appetite and there is hope."

"Oct. 7 evening: Doing pretty well considering multiplicity of his wounds."

"Oct. 9 morn.: Holding his own remarkably."


"Oct. 11th: Failing rapidly and might die soon."

 "Oct. 11th 3 p.m.: Just died."

Eager to memorialize their comrades and honor the good people of Sharpsburg who came to their aid, veterans of the 16th Connecticut graciously donated two large stained-glass windows (cost: $400) and $100 to the church when it was re-dedicated on June 14, 1891. 

The church, now called Christ Reformed Church, has been remodeled several times, and the bloody floorboards were reportedly ripped out in the 1940s. Unaware of the pain and suffering that took place within the building's walls, most battlefield tourists today rarely stop by the little church on Main Street, a scene of misery nearly 150 years ago.

(1) The Joint Excursion of Connecticut Regiments, Oct. 11, 1894
(2) Ibid
(3) Report Surgical Cases in German Reform Church Hospital, Sharpsburg, Md., 1862
(4) Widow's army pension document, Dec. 22, 1862 and Feb. 27, 1864.
(5) Widow's pension affidavit, Nov.10, 1863

His surgeon noted that Private James Brooks of the 16th Connecticut was wounded
six times at Antietam. Brooks, from Stafford, Conn.,  died on Oct. 11, 1862.
He was 19 years old. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

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MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle.