1862: Antietam, The Cornfield

Source

Chère maman,

I am back with my regiment, the old 22nd is rapidly eroding away, both from disease and from the horror of battle. We have seen two very sharp engagements in less than a week.

We fought at South Mountain, which has been in the papers but was overshadowed by the immense fight along Antietam Creek in western Maryland, near the town of Sharpsburg. While we lost 30 men at South Mountain, of whom 13 were killed, percentage-wise it was nothing compared to the Antietam fight.

We went into battle with scarce a hundred men, we left the field with only 70 men still capable of bearing arms.

I daresay, I shall never willingly enter a stand of corn ever again.

Votre fils, Joseph

The 22nd New York was now under the command of Lieutenant Colonel McKie as their colonel, Phelps, had been elevated to command the entire brigade. It wasn't much of a brigade in mid-September of 1862, four hundred and twenty five men remained of the five regiments composing the unit. The 22nd contributed but a hundred men.

They had been ordered up in support of the black hat boys of Gibbon's Brigade and were posted some 25 paces to the left rear of that brigade. As they took post it was scarcely 5:30 in the morning and a heavy fog covered the field.

Joseph had just been reunited with the 22nd, he had been a parolee of 2nd Bull Run for scarcely a week before being exchanged. He had mixed feelings about being back in the ranks, his sergeant, Foy, had been invalided out and only his friend Thomas Dignan was still with the company, which had but 23 men on the field.

Lieutenant Huntley looked down the ranks, at the moment he was in command of Company K, 22nd New York Volunteer Infantry. "Steady boys, I doubt the Johnnies can see us out here. Fog's so damned thick, can't see maybe twenty yards."

As if to belie the lieutenant's observation, a battery of Confederate cannon off somewhere to the right began firing.

Gibbon's boys were taking a hard pounding as they moved through the cornfield. Not only were rebel cannon firing on them, but reb skirmishers were in the corn as well. Men were dropping left and right.

A courier from General Gibbon found Colonel Phelps with orders to close up tight to Gibbon's flank. "Don't hang back, Colonel, this field is thick with graybacks!"

Joseph was nearby and he almost laughed at the courier calling the Confederates "graybacks," which was also army slang for the lice that plagued them all.

"What's so funny, Frenchie?" Corporal McGowan, the company's sole non-commissioned officer, sneered.

"That fellow called the Johnnies graybacks, the cornfield is infested with lice, Corp!" Joseph snickered.

"Eyes to your front, Frenchie, this isn't a joke!"

Joseph looked to Thomas, who shrugged and murmured, "McGowan's got the wind up this morning, hasn't he?"

"We all do, Thomas, we all do."

Joseph's shoulder felt bruised and battered, he was perishing with thirst, yet he stood his ground and mechanically went through the motions of loading and firing. Try as they might, they couldn't push the Rebs off this ground.

Just to his left a man screamed as a cannon shot seemed to spring from the ground in front of him and tore his right leg off. He collapsed to the ground, sobbing hysterically. Joseph could see that there was no hope for the fellow, his blood was flowing freely into the soil of the battered cornfield. After Joseph fired had again, as he reached for another cartridge, he looked down at the man. His eyes were blank and it was obvious that he felt no more pain.

"Fall back lads! Fall back!"

Joseph¹ and the 22nd fell back reluctantly, firing as they went, but it was fall back or die, there was no other choice. Phelp's Brigade could do no more.

The Cornfield, Battle of Antietam
17 September 1862
Source

From Marker 32 on the battlefield² -

U.S.A.

First Army Corps

Phelp’s Brigade, Doubleday’s Division

Colonel Walter Phelps, 22nd New York Infantry, Commanding.

Organization.

22nd, 24th, 30th and 84th New York Infantry,

and 2nd U. S. Sharpshooters

(September 17, 1862.)

Phelps’ Brigade formed line at 5:30 A. M. on September 17, and moved in support of Gibbon’s Brigade. When Gibbon deployed, 135 yards north of this in the Cornfield and on the plateau west of the Hagerstown Pike, Phelps’ Brigade (425 officers and men) halted 25 paces in his rear, in the Cornfield. After Gibbon advanced and became heavily engaged on both sides of the Pike, Phelps moved to the support of his left and fought on this ground. The subsequent movements of this Brigade conformed to those of Gibbon. After heavy loss it retired to the fields north of D. R. Miller’s and thence beyond the Poffenberger Lane. Source

¹ I have no evidence indicating where my great-grandfather was during this battle, he may have still been on parole, or he may have been back with his unit. I do know that his regiment was at Antietam, though in a very weak state. For the purposes of this tale, I'm assuming he was indeed at Antietam.

² I looked at Google street view to try and get a photo of this marker, the post is there, but the plaque itself is missing as of October 2024. See here.