Antietam

The Battle of Antietam, by Kurz & Allison (1878), depicting the scene of action at Burnside's Bridge

 

Commentary

This letter was written eight days after the battle at Antietam.  

Elizabeth (Libbie) Graham is William’s only sister. For further information on Libbie Graham, see William's Letter Correspondents.

Luck of War

 

The Battle of Antietam on September 16 to 18, 1862 was the key battle of the Maryland Campaign. This was the battle in which William and the 107th NY Regiment experienced its first trial by fire. William's statement in his letter to Dr. Bell in October 1862 regarding coolness "under a good shower of shells" was based on actual experience in what was later determined to be the bloodiest day of the war - September 17, 1862.

The 107th fought near the Dunker Church during
most of the day.

At Antietam, the 12th Corps (of which the 107th Regiment was now part) entered the fight early in the morning, and carried a position near, and in front of, the Dunker Church. Luck was a factor in William's survival during this bloody battle. The 107th Regiment was detached from the rest of the Corps to support George Cothran's Battery of artillery. They dug in to protect the battery from being overrun by the enemy. 

Historically the term "battery" referred to a cluster of cannon in action as a group, either in a temporary field position during a battle or at the siege of a fortress or a city. During the American Civil War, artillery batteries often consisted of six field pieces for the Union Army and four for the Confederate States Army, although this varied.

The 107th Regiment was under the command of Colonel Robert Van Valkenburgh. In his official report to General George Gordon of September 21, 1862 he said the following:

"...we received an order from you to retire into the woods and again form line of battle, which I was in the act of obeying when General Gibbon ... ordered me to return and support Cothran's battery, which was doing good execution upon the right of the woods.

I obeyed the order, formed my men in line of battle in front of the enemy, marched up to the battery, occupied the position assigned to us until past 3 o'clock, when the battery and my regiment were relieved by General Slocum's division. We were under severe fire from early in the morning until about 4 o'clock. The officers and men, so far as I know, of the One hundred and seventh Regiment behaved well, and obeyed every order with alacrity.

I desire to commend the coolness and bravery of Captain Cothran, who was in command of the battery. His decision and promptness, in my opinion, contributed in a great measure to the sustaining of that position."

1862 - Dunker Church and Burnside Bridge after battle

Of the 600 present for battle in the 107th regiment; 7 were killed, 51 wounded and 5 missing; making total casualties of 63.

A soldier assigned to the 107th regiment was half as likely to become a battle casualty as the rest of the Corps. The percentage of loss being 10.5% compared to 21.8% for the 12th Corps as a whole. If we just look at the number killed, the difference was even starker; the chances of being killed being more than four times as great in the 12th Corps as a whole.

General Mansfield fell, mortally wounded, while deploying his columns, and the command of the corps during the battle devolved on General Williams. The two divisions of the Corps lost in this battle, 275 killed, 1,386 wounded, and 85 missing; total, 1,746, out of about 8,000 present in action.

Antietam Battle, Sept 17, 1862. Click to enlarge.

According to the battle history, although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout the 18th, while removing his wounded south of the river. McClellan did not renew the assaults. After dark, Lee ordered withdrawal of his army.

Emancipation Proclamation

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary warning that by January 1, 1863 he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state that had not ended its rebellion against the Union. None of the Confederate states returned to the Union. Therefore, Lincoln's order was signed and took effect on January 1, 1863.

The Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners (and their sympathizers) who envisioned a race war. It angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, and undermined elements in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy. The Proclamation lifted the spirits of both free and slave African Americans. It led many slaves to escape to Union lines to obtain their freedom, and to join the Union Army.

The Emancipation Proclamation broadened the goals of the Civil War. While slavery had been a major issue that led to the war, Lincoln's only mission at the start of the war was to maintain the Union. The Proclamation made freeing the slaves an explicit goal of the Union war effort. Establishing the abolition of slavery as one of the two primary war goals served to deter intervention by Britain and France. The Emancipation Proclamation was never challenged in court. To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U.S., Lincoln pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Congress passed the 13th Amendment by the necessary two-thirds vote on January 31, 1865, and it was ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, ending legal slavery.

Guy C. Adams is recorded as being with the 107th by the Nat’l Park Service database. Like William, he went in as a private and out as a Sergeant. Guy Adams is about age 17 in 1862 and is the son of John Adams, a neighboring farmer of Libbie. William and Libbie's father James Graham was  almost 77 years old at this time. He was living on the farm of William Bell, his brother-in-law.

Commentary

Dr. Robert Bell lived in Monterey, Town of Orange, Schuyler Co., NY.  For further information on Dr. Bell, see William's Letter Correspondents.

William's report on Jackson's near presence was probably erroneous since Lee had withdrawn the battered Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley.

Bounty money was simply a sum of money offered to any eligible man for volunteering. Bounties existed on the federal, state and more importantly, local levels. The bounty usually took the form of $50, $200, $300, $1000 cash amounts that would only be paid to the man after he volunteered. As Eugene Murdock notes, “It had the expected results, men volunteered, and it became the standard method of obtaining troops.

William's statements respecting "slavish fear" or that, "I feel quite as cool under a good shower of shells as anyone around me" were not idle boasting. Just a month before on September 17th he had experienced and survived a virtual cloud burst of shells while defending a battery of Union cannon in the middle of the battle at Antietam. 

Burnside's Bridge today