A storyteller returns to site of his remarkable Antietam find

Richard Clem at the O.J. Smith farm, site of a U.S. Army hospital.

Cropped enlargement of Alexander Gardner image of the O.J. Smith farm hospital in fall 1862.
(Library of Congress)

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On a beautiful fall day in 1991, my friend Richard Clem—the "Babe Ruth of Storytellers"—unearthed a brass identification disc on the O.J. Smith farm, a U.S. Army hospital site in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam. The rare find turned into an obsession for Clem, a longtime Washington County (Md.) resident who has unearthed three other soldier ID discs. 

Corporal William Secor,
2nd Vermont

The Smith farm disc belonged to 2nd Vermont Corporal William Secor, a color bearer and the only soldier in his regiment to die at Antietam. Dog tags weren't carried by Civil War soldiers; instead, some soldiers bought discs from sutlers on which they had their names and units stamped. No soldier wanted to be forgotten if he fell in battle or from disease. Letters, diaries, photographs and "tags" often aided burial crews in the identification of soldier remains. 

For his 2006 Washington Times story on Secor, Clem—a retired woodworker—dived into National Archives records and tracked down descendants. He discovered this condolence note sent from a 2nd Vermont officer to Secor's stepfather:

Camp near Hagerstown, Md

Sept. 28th 1862

Mr. Ketcham 

Dear Sir:

It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of Corporal William Secor, Co. A. Vt. Vols. He was wounded in the battle of Antietam on the 17th and died on the 18th day of September. He was buried on the Smith farm near Sharpsburg. At the time he was wounded he was carrying the Colors of his Regt. Which position he had occupied for some time.

Morning at O.J. Smith farm, site of U.S. Army hospital.

He had many friends in his Regt. I saw the Chaplain that was with him in his last hours, and he said that it might be of consolation to his friends to know that he lived with a hope in Christ and was resigned to his fate. As a soldier, there was none better. He was always ready and willing. He had some personal property by him at the time of his death, a Testament, money and a diary, besides the things he had in his knapsack. They are at your disposal.

Most Respt. E.O. Cole, 2nd Lieut.

In October 2021, Clem, John Davidson (JWD Relic Recovery on Facebook) and I returned to the site of this remarkable disc discovery. Steps from where we stood in the farm field, Alexander Gardner set up his bulky camera in fall 1862 for an image of the Smith farm hospital. When sunlight hit this field just right, Clem told me about relic hunts here, he spotted glass glittering in the field—the remains of medicine bottles from the long-ago hospital.

The front of the brass disc includes William Secor's name.

 The reverse of the ID disc.

                                2018 video: Richard Clem talks about O.J. Smith farm.

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Antietam up close: A study in contrasts

O.J. Smith's farm, near Keedysville, Md., was used for a Union hospital after the Battle of Antietam.
(Library of Congress collection)

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At first glance, this image from Alexander Gardner's series of glass-plate photographs taken days after the Battle of Antietam seems uninteresting. In the pastoral scene, men gather in the foreground while in the background appear tents and the barn of a 52-year-old farmer named O.J. Smith, whose property two miles northeast of Sharpsburg was used as a Union hospital...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... But enlargements of the image show compelling detail. In this blow-up, six or seven men, two of them apparently staring at Gardner's camera, congregate a short distance from Smith's barn. Perhaps they are surgeons taking a break from their arduous duties ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... and this enlargement shows the crude, hay-covered shelters undoubtedly used for the wounded. In the right background, just outside the barn, soldiers gather -- one appears to be reading a letter -- as three horses rest near a fence, a cornfield and possibly shelters for other wounded soldiers in the far background  ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

...while in this enlargement, men appear outside the entrance to the barn. Judging from their attire, at least two of the men may be civilians. We can only speculate about the scene inside the barn, where surgeons likely performed the horrible tasks of amputating arms and legs. A nurse named Eliza Harris described the scene on the farm days after the battle:

 "The first night we slept in our ambulance. No room in the small house, the only dwelling near, could be procured. The next day was the Sabbath. The sun shone brightly; the bees and the birds were joyous and busy; a beautiful landscape spread out before us, and we knew the Lord of the Sabbath looked down upon us. But, with all these above and around us, we could see only see our suffering, uncomplaining soldiers, mutilated, bleeding, dying."

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

... this bare-chested man, probably a wounded soldier, peers at Gardner's camera from a makeshift shelter in this enlargement of the right background of the image. Could that be another wounded man at left? 

Two woman and two men gather for a picnic at Antietam Creek in this image shot by 
Alexander Gardner five days after the Battle of Antietam  The Middle Bridge, also known as
Antietam Bridge,  appears  in the background. (Library of Congress collection)

... As wounded soldiers suffered in barns, houses and field hospitals such as the one on O.J. Smith's farm, Gardner took this image entitled "Picnic Party at Antietam Bridge, September 22, 1862."  This incongruous scene was photographed less than two miles from Smith's farm near Keedysville, Md. A week earlier, more than 10,000 Rebel soldiers crossed the bridge in the background on the Boonsboro Pike as they made their way toward Sharpsburg ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... detail in this enlargement of the picnic image is so impressive that even pieces of hardtack can be seen in the hands of the women on the boat. The woman at left may have even taken a bite of hers. A man, perhaps a soldier, stirs something in a container held by the woman on the right. Were they aware of the pain and suffering nearby? Did they care? Who were they? Their names and their stories are lost to history.

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SOURCES

--  Moore, Frank. Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice, S.S. Scranton & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1866.

-- Frassanito, William. Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, 1978.