“The Battle of Antietam Creek”
Description
At Antietam, singer hears a wounded comrade tell of leaving his home, disliking his master, and running off to New Orleans, where he is concripted.After ten battles, he has been wounded. The singer realizes that the man is his own brother
Long description
At the battle of Antietam Creek, singer hears a wounded comrade tell of leaving his home and family for Ohio. The man tells of being an apprentice, disliking his master, then running off to New Orleans, where he is concripted into the army. He has been in ten battles, but has finally been wounded -- by his brother, he thinks. The singer realizes that the man is his own brother, and rushes to him as he dies. The singer buries him
Notes
The Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg was hardly a victory for anyone. It produced the highest casualties of any single day of battle in the war. By the time it was over, every regiment in Lee's army was worn out, and he may have had fewer than 25,000 effective soldiers left. McClellan still had unused troops, but he refused to commit them; his losses had also been immense.
After the battle, Lee headed back across the Potomac. The wooing of Maryland was over. The one good result of Antietam was that it was enough of a victory -- barely -- to allow Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
Both the fact that the dying soldier was inducted in Louisiana and the fact that he had been in ten battles would imply that he was a member of Stonewall Jackson's corps. In all likelihood, we are to believe that he was a member of either Hays's "Louisiana Tigers" (division of Ewell/Early) or Starke's/Stafford's brigade (division of Jackson/Winder/Talliaferro/Stark; later commanded by Edward Johnson). These were, apart from a few artillerymen, the only Louisiana troops in Lee's army.
What's more, the divisions of Ewell and Jackson had had harder fighting than almost any others in the army. A truly veteran regiment from other parts of Lee's army -- say the First North Carolina -- might have fought seven or eight battles by then (First Bull Run, Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, Seven Days, Second Bull Run, and Antietam, plus perhaps one or two skirmishes such as Big Bethel or Williamsburg) -- but Jackson's and Ewell's troops had also had a part in the dozen or so battles of Jackson's Valley Campaign. - RBW
Historical references
- Sept 17, 1862 - Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg). Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland meets a bloody check at the hands of McClellan
Cross references
- cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (subject)
Recordings
- Warde Ford, "The Battle of Antietam Creek" (AFS 4213 A, 1939; on LC29, in AMMEM/Cowell)
References
- Roud #15487
- BI, RcBoAC