Antietam Anniversary Approaches

Confederate dead on the Hagerstown road at the Battle of Antietam
Alexander Gardner. "Antietam, Maryland.." September 17, 1862.


The battlefied on the day of the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862

Alexander Gardner. "Antietam, Maryland. Battlefield on the Day of the Battle." September 17, 1862
On September 13, 14, 15, 2008 Antietam will offer various Ranger programs to commemorate the 146th Anniversary of the Bloody Fray that ensued !




What I consider to be a compelling and awe inspiring tribute is the lighting of 23,000 luminaries to pay tribute to each soul who paid the ultimate price at Antietam will take place Saturday evening @ 6:00 December 6, 2008 Please make arrangements to see this spectacular sight.

This information comes from the archives of the Library of Congress:

The Battle of Antietam
September 17, 1862

At dawn, the hills of Sharpsburg, Maryland, thundered with artillery and musket fire as the Northern and Southern armies struggled for possession of the Miller farm cornfield during the Civil War. For three hours, the battle lines swept back and forth across the land. More lives would be lost on September 17, 1862, than on any other day in the nation's history.
By mid-morning, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate troops were crouched behind the high banks of a country lane. They fired upon advancing Union troops, but the Union General, George B. McClellan, held a strategic advantage--a scout had discovered a copy of the Confederate army's battle plan.
An overwhelming number of Northerners broke through the Confederates' line. Union bullets rained down the lane onto Confederate soldiers, and the former Sunken Road came to be known as Bloody Lane because of the tragic death toll suffered there.
Covered by cannon fire from General Stonewall Jackson's artillery, the Southerners retreated toward Sharpsburg, while the Union troops fell back. New Southern troops arrived in time to repel a second Union attack led by General Ambrose Burnside.

By nightfall, the Confederates occupied the town of Sharpsburg, but the battle was a Union victory. More than 23,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action. The next day, Lee began his retreat across the Potomac River. Lee's plan to find new recruits and supplies in Maryland, a slave-holding state that remained in the Union, had failed. The next year he would launch another assault into Union territory, which came to a head at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

John Burns known as the "Old Patriot" was the only civilian wounded during the actual battle in the battle of Gettysburg, and despite the taunting his fellow soldiers gave him for his out of date flintlock, out-of-style clothes, Burns was a fierce patriot a veteran of the War of 1812 who fought for the Union until gunshot wounds--at least three of them--put him out of the battle. Several years after the war had ended, Burns, now seventy-five, since his notoriety was often asked to give tours of the field on which he fought so valiantly one day while he was was walking in the woods where he had stood against the Rebs at the McPherson farm an apparition of a Reb soldier stepped into his path to menace him with a rifle. Burns turned and swiftly walked out of the woods, never to return to that part of the forest again. He said that he could fight the Rebs but could not fight the ghosts.

The Old Patriot

This image is of "The Old Patriot" John Burns

Contributed by: James Johnson, 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry

The following thrilling narrative was related by B. D. Beyea, who spent several days on the battle-field in search of the body of Captain C. H. Flagg, who fell in that terrible fight:

In the town of Gettysburg live an old couple by the name of Burns. The old man was in the War of 1812, and is now nearly seventy years of age; yet the frosts of many winters have not chilled his patriotism, nor diminished his love for the old flag under which he fought in his early days. When the rebels invaded the beautiful Cumberland Valley, and were marching on Gettysburg, old Burns concluded that it was time for every loyal man, young or old, to be up and doing all in his power to beat back the rebel foe. and, if give them a quiet resting-place beneath the sod they were polluting with their unhallowed feet.

The old hero took down an old State musket he had in his house, and commenced running bullets. The old lady saw what he was about, and wanted to know what in the world he was going to do. 'Ah' said Burns, 'I thought some of the boys might want the old gun, and I am getting it ready for them.' The rebels came on. Old Burns kept his eye on the lookout until he saw the Stars and Stripes coming in, carried by our brave boys. This was more than the old fellow could stand. His patriotism got the better of his age and infirmity. Grabbing his musket, he started out. The old lady hallooed to him: 'Burns,where are you going?' '0,'says Burns, 'I am going out to see what is going on.' He immediately went to a Wisconsin regiment, and asked them if they would take him in. They told him they would, and gave him three rousing cheers.The old musket was soon thrown aside, and a first-rate rifle given him, and twenty-five rounds of cartridges.

The engagement between the two armies soon came on, and the old man fired eighteen of his twenty-five rounds, and says he killed three rebels to his certain knowledge. Our forces were compelled to fall back, and leave our dead and wounded on the field; and Burns, having received three wounds, was left also, not being able to get away. There he lay in citizen's dress and if the rebs found him in that condition, he knew death was his portion: so he concluded to try strategy as his only hope.

Soon the rebs came up, and approached him saying: 'Old man, what are you doing here?' 'I am lying here wounded, as you see,' he replied.Well, what business have you to be here? and who wounded you? wounded you our troops, or yours?' 'I don't know who wounded me; but I only know that I am wounded and in a bad fix. 'Well, what were you doing here? - what was your business?' 'If you will hear my story, I will tell you. My old woman's health is very poor, and I was over across the country to get a girl to help her; and, coming back, before I knew where I was, I had got right into this fix, and here I am.' 'Where do you live?' inquired the rebels. 'Over in town in such a small house.' They then picked him and carried him home, and left him. But they soon returned, as if suspecting he had been lying to them, and made him answer a great many questions; but be stuck to his old story, and they failed to make anything out of old Burns, and then left him for good.

He says he shall always feel indebted to some of his neighbors for the last call; for he believe someone had informed them of him. Soon after they left, a bullet came into his room, and struck in the wall about six inches above where he lay on his sofa; but he don't know who fired it. His wounds proved to be only flesh wounds, and he is getting well, feels first-rate, and says he would like one more good chance to give them a rip.

This story along with many others exists about Burns. The story of ghosts comes with one told by Burns himself, being a somewhat famous individual because of his patriot status he was many times asked to guide folks on a personal tour of the field where he fought on July 1.

More on that in the next post.

Abe's Pocket's Contents Revealed

Just three days after the Confederate surrender by Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865 10:15 p.m., while taking in a performance of "Our American Cousin" The contents of ol' Abes pockets was very curious, he had two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a small pocketknife, his watch fob, a linen handkerchief, and a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note and nine newspaper clippings, including several favorable to the president and his policies.The question long asked by historians and speculated by many a researcher is. Why the five-dollar Confederate note.

Speculators claim it could have been to remind him of the struggles that lead Lee to surrender after fighting a long hard war.

We will never truly know what was in the man's mind, As Byron said "I loathe that low vice, curiosity."

Till Next Post Enjoy the world around you but always be vigilant and aware of your enviornment!

Dick Bloom