Joseph K. F. Mansfield, Brigadier General of the U.S. Army: A Narrative of Events Connected with His Mortal Wounding at Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862Gould, John Mead
History
Joseph K. F. Mansfield, Brigadier General of the U.S. Army: A Narrative of Events Connected with His Mortal Wounding at Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862
Gould, John Mead
Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862; Mansfield, Joseph K. F. (Joseph King Fenno), 1803-1862
Our excursion was entirely for pleasure; we had no thought of controversy,
nor even of the enlightenment of the Sharpsburg people, who knew nothing
of the true locality where Mansfield was wounded, but were showing two or
three erroneous places to visitors. We defended the truth, photographed
the position, but found it difficult for several reasons to decide by
several feet upon the _exact_ spot of the wounding.
It is necessary now to go back to 1862 and tell the story of the battle as
seen by the 10th Maine; and as since the war a generation has grown up
that knows nothing of the way soldiers are arranged for marching and
fighting, it is best to give a great many explanations that may seem
unnecessary to an old soldier.
THE PART TAKEN BY THE 10TH MAINE.
The 12th Army Corps, Mansfield commanding, marched on the Boonsboro pike,
late at night of Sept. 16th, from "the center" through Keedysville to the
farm of George Line (G. Lyons on the old maps) and there rested till
daybreak. Gen. Mansfield slept on the west side of a fence which ran south
from Line's garden to woods. His bed was the grass and his roof a
blanket. The 10th Maine was on the east side of the fence (see map), and
some of our boys who indulged in loud talk were ordered by the General to
lower their tones to a whisper. The other regiments of our brigade were
near us, while the other brigades of the corps appeared to be behind ours
(or east). Our brigade[6] was the advance of the corps, and marched a
little before 5 o'clock on the morning of the battle, first to the west
across the Smoketown road, and nearly to John Poffenberger's, and then
south to nearly abreast of Joseph Poffenberger's (marked 6.20 on the map),
and there halted for almost an hour, during all of which time, that is
from before 5 A. M., Hooker's corps was fighting in and around "the great
cornfield," the enemy being south and west of it.
As well as could be judged, all of the 12th corps followed our movements,
and halted to the right or left of the rear of our brigade.
The 124th and 125th Penn. were detached from the brigade at some early
hour, but at 7.20 by my watch, which may have been five to ten minutes
fast, the other four regiments were started for the fight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account