Antietam Eyewitness Accounts

Tired and sleepy we still march on, and as we come in proximity of the battle ground the scores of wounded passing to the rear remind us that bloody work is going on. A little further on, to the left of the pike, we halt & “load at will.” No sooner done, then in again. The enemy’s batteries give us shot & shell in abundance causing many muscular contractions in the spinal column of our line. But all the dodging did not save us. Occasionally a shell, better aimed than the rest would crash through our line making corpses & mutilated trunks.

James J. Fitzpatrick, 16th Mississippi Infantry, Richard H. Anderson’s Division
Diary, Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin

There was no halt made until we reached the northern boundary of the corn [Miller’s corn field], and there for the first time that day I saw the enemy. He had a battery on top of the hill and was shooting over us. Our line silenced the guns, but did not capture them. A quiet of a few minutes followed, then an infantry line appeared on the crest and engaged our line. The flag of the regiment opposing the 11th Miss. was shot down (or lowered) at least a half dozen times before it disappeared behind the hill. Our line did not advance any farther, but kept its same position. The next move in our immediate front was an attempt to get a gun in position to bear on us. It came up in a gallop but the horses were nearly all killed or wounded, the artillerymen disappeared and the effort failed.

D. L. Lowe, 11th Mississippi Infantry
Lowe to J. M. Gould, April 29, 1891, Gould Papers, Dartmouth College

Just then, a Yankee horseman waved his hat at us, and Col. Tew returned the compliment. It was the last I saw of the colonel [Tew was killed in the ensuing engagement]. Our skirmishers began to fire on the advancing line, and we returned to ours. Slowly they approach up the hill, and slowly our skirmishers retire before theirs, firing as they come. Our skirmishers are ordered to come into the line. Here they are, right before us, scarce 50 yards off, but as if with one feeling, our whole line pour a deadly volley into their ranks – they drop, reel; stagger, and back their first line go beyond the crest of the hill. Our men reload, and await for them to again approach, while the first column of the enemy meet the second, rally and move forward again. They meet with the same reception, and back again they go, to come back when met by their third line. Here they all come. You can see their mounted riders cheering them on, and with a sickly “huzza!” they all again approach us at a charge, but another volley sends their whole line reeling back.

Lt. John C. Gorman, 2nd North Carolina Infantry, D. H. Hill’s Division
Letter to wife and mother, September 21, 1862, North Carolina State Archives

White and I, seeing we were in point blank range of the batteries, had pressed the left wing forward under the hill, the colors continuing to advance. Just here, Major White passed down the line from the right, and said to me; “We can take that battery – forward!” We both passed through the ranks, and moved side by side, with the colors, to the front, and had almost reached the battery (the guns of which were already abandoned), when the Major was struck in the cheek by a rifle ball, fired by the infantry in rear of the battery. Still he pressed forward, until within twenty yards of the battery, when just at this moment the guns, re-manned, opened upon us, and swept down the remnant of gallant men who had followed us; the Major falling at the first discharge, being struck about the ear by a grape shot.

Captain, 7th South Carolina Infantry, McLaws’s Division
In Memoriam,” Charleston Mercury, Dec. 3, 1862

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