Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1903 — When Antietam Was Red with Blood. [ARTICLE]

When Antietam Was Red with Blood.

. Doubly sacred to the hearts of many wektetu fauilUea are the waters of Antietam, because those waters 'were crimsoned by the blood of fathers, brothers, husbands and sons during out of the most sanguinary battles of the Civil War. The sketches herewith given will be of special iatesept tu tha veterana of the Eighth Illinois cavalry, the First, Bee-

ond, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twentieth and Twentyfourth Michigan infantry; the Seventh, Fourteenth,, Nineteenth and Twentieth Indiana volunteers, and the fiecond, Third, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin volunteer infantry, for they were dll most terribly mixed up in the many Bloody encounters of the 16th and 17th! of September, 1862, along the Antictam from Hagerstown to Sharpsbnrg, ;r 1 y t y God alone knows who owned the good right arm, that was found ludhscornfiehl, but it probably belonged to ptie of Gen. Sedgwick’s commands, who made their famous charge through the cornfield just north and east of the historic Dunker Church, fo_* it was plowed up In tips field five years after the battle, and has been since’ that time in the office of Drs. D. Fahrney and son of Ragerstqwn, Md. Its wonderful state of prerervation cannot bo accounted for as a chemical analysis of the soil In which it was found shows no preserving or mummifying qualitiea.

The old mill and falls near the stone bridge was the scene of a bloody conflict between the Federate, who were defending Hagerstown, and the Confederates, who were endeavoring to gain possessionof the town,.. It is said the daughter of horse and men was such at this cavalry fight that the Antietam ran blood for several hours below these falls. The ground in this locality, especially along the banks of the dream, is almost solid rock, and the blood ran rapidly into the creek. There is a gentleman in Chicago having an office in the Board of Trade building, who was a major in the Federal army and provost marshal of Hagerstown at that time. Just oyer the hill, back, of, the little brick house is a female academy, from the balcony of which thp Confederate sharpshooters were firing upon the Union officers down in the city, and there are to this day many musket balls bedded in the walls around the public square at" the grossing of Washington and Potomac streets. -u.< , -vs ft j '.t The Eighth i Illinois cavalry w.as engaged in thesr skirmishes, and • many, members of that organization, which was under command of Gei. W, Gamble, will call to mind the hot time In that bid town. ... . .