Antietam Eyewitness Accounts
By D. Scott Hartwig

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Less than three weeks after the Confederate victory at Second Manassas, some 86,000 Union troops under 35-year-old Major General George McClellan clashed with 40,000 Confederates led by 55-year-old General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam in west-central Maryland. The 23,000 killed, wounded or missing by nightfall made September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in American history. Here are the recollections of some of the soldiers who fought there.

Union

We were finally however ordered to lie down in a cornfield & stray shot and shell began to whiz over our heads and burst around us. Of course every one thought it incumbent upon him to dodge every time he heard a chirra whoo even though it was flying a hundred feet above us. This feeling soon passed away however and the boys were decidedly too anxious to get up and see what was going on. They were soon satisfied. We were ordered to get up and throw off our bundles (I in this way lost my rubber and woolen blankets & have not seen them since) & march to the left into the woods [East Woods]. Lying just in front of our lines was a great number of dead and wounded. One poor fellow lay just before us with one leg shot off; the other shattered and otherwise badly wounded; fairly shrieking with pain.

Lt. Sebastian Duncan, Jr., 13th New Jersey Infantry, 12th Corps
Letter to his Mother, Sept. 21, 1862, Duncan Papers, New Jersey Historical Society

As soon as it was sufficiently light for our artillerists to commence operations, the ball was fairly open, the like of which I hope we shall never again see or hear. The discharges from the batteries were more frequent than I could count, and I could think only of the awful destruction of life they were causing. “Bests” regular battery, attached to our brigade, covered the front, and these six 12 pound Napoleons truly made their mark. We were ordered to the left into the woods with orders from Gen. Mansfield to hold them till reinforcements should arrive; and let me assure you that in those woods the 10th had just as much of a chance as did the enemy, and we improved it. Not a mound or a tree that gave us protection we did not improve and the lifeless remains of 43 rebels, among them Lieutenants, Captains, and one Colonel, as we advanced, proved the unerring aim of our men’s rifles. It was a squirrel hunt on a large scale, as you could see our men creep along from tree to tree.

Lt. Colonel James Fillebrown, 10th Maine Infantry, 12th Corps
Letter to his wife, Sept. 19, 1862, LewistownFalls Journal

What a bloody place was that sunken road as we advanced, and the Irish Brigade fell back; the fences were down on both sides, and the dead and wounded men were literally piled there in heaps. As we went over them in crossing the road, a wounded reb made a thrust at me with his bayonet; turning my head to look at him, I saw that he was badly hurt, and continued on. As we pushed forward into the cornfield [Piper Cornfield] beyond the road, Private charley Spencer in the front rank just before me, went down with an awful cry; stooping over him as I passed I saw that he had fallen forward on his face and was motionless. Just then a strand of canister went over our heads, and that was my dread; I could endure rifle bullets, but when the big iron bullets went swishing through the air with a sound as though there were bushels of them, it made me wish I was at home.

Charles A. Hale, 5th New Hampshire Infantry, 2nd Corps
“The Story of My Personal Experience at the Battle of Antietam,” John R. Brooke Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Battle oh horrid battle. What sights I have seen now see around me. I am Wounded! And am afraid shall be again as shells fly past me every few seconds carrying away limbs from trees and scattering limbs around. Am in severe pain. Furies how the shells fly. I do sincerely hope shall not be wounded again. We drove them first till they got sheltered then we had a bad place. Oh I cannot write.

Tags: America's Civil War, Antietam

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