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Chapter 18: the battle of Antietam.
On the morning of Sept. 17 at 2 A. M. Reveille was sounded and breakfast was at once prepared.
Soon after, heavy firing was heard in front and it was known that
Hooker was ‘at them’ with the gallant First and Twelfth Corps.
At 7.30 o'clock the regiment fell in and learned that it was going with
Sumner's Corp to the support of
Hooker and
Mansfield.
Upon
Burnside had been imposed the task of carrying the
Stone Bridge opposite
Lee's right flank and of intruding his Corps between
Lee's right wing and the river.
He failed.
The work that should have been done at 9 o'clock in the morning was not done until 2.30 o'clock in the afternoon and the fruits of victory were lost.
Sumner, in his position at the centre of the line, received orders from
Gen. McClellan at 7.20 A. M. to cross the
Antietam with his Corps, but instead of crossing at the bridge, went to the right, through a barnyard and past a number of haystacks, then around the hill upon which he had been encamped, and crossed the quiet, silent creek about a mile above the bridge, at a ford where the water was waist deep.
He had been on the eastern bank for 36 hours and might have opened the attack on the previous day, but no orders had come to him. His Corps was now two miles from the battlefield.
Hooker and
Mansfield had encountered the enemy and driven them across the
Sunken Road, near the Dunker Church, but in the engagement
Mansfield had been killed and
Hooker disabled.
Sumner by this time, held the right of the army, the object of the whole plan being to turn
Lee's left.
Sumner, never hesitating to obey orders, at once put his men into the affray and learned that
Mansfield's and
Hooker's commands were being exhausted.
Heavy firing was heard on the left as the regiment advanced across the creek, but
Burnside,
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who was at the left, did not press the work there and the weight of
Lee's forces fell upon
Sumner and
Hooker in a desperate attempt to force the centre.
After marching a mile,
Sedgwick's Division halted and faced to the right, behind a fence.
In front was a cornfield in which the First brigade was forming under
General Gorman.
Gen. Dana was in command of the Third or centre Brigade, in which was the Nineteenth Massachusetts regiment.
The Second Brigade, under
Gen. O. O. Howard, filed into the field in the rear, forming the third line.
Gen. Sedgwick commanded the
Division and took his position between the first and second lines and there led the charge.
Only about forty paces separated the lines from each other.
It was a very faulty formation.
The Division moved in three lines, each composed of a Brigade, without a skirmisher in front, in close order, and without connection or support on either flank.
The faulty formation, as explained by
Carleton, the Boston Journal's famous war correspondent, was probably due to the, fact that
Sumner had been educated as a cavalry commander.
Cavalry tactics form bodies in the mass, rather than in deployed lines.
It seems probable that in this formation he used the tactics of the cavalry instead of the infantry.
Hooker's gallant corps was compelled to fall back, with
Hooker wounded, and then came the order for the advance of
Sumner's Second Corps.
At the command ‘Forward’ the men climbed the fence and moved on through the corn which had been trampled and broken by the first line, into the open field beyond, under a heavy fire by the enemy's cannon stationed near the Dunker Church.
Col. Hinks rode in advance of the Nineteenth regiment.
Here was presented an inspiring sight.
The shells from the
Union artillery in the rear were fired over the heads of their forces at the enemy in front.
The First Brigade was just nearing a narrow belt of woods, just beyond which was posted the enemy's centre.
Immediately in its rear rode
Sumner, the gallant commander of the
Corps,—hat in hand, with his long grey locks streaming in the wind, his smiling face looking as if the noise of howling shell and screeching shrapnel was sweet music to him.
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He was the very picture of soldierly courage.
His brilliant staff accompanied him and the whole made an example which did much to keep the lines steady and unbroken under the murderous fire of the enemy, who had a perfect range and made great gaps in his close ranks as they moved on.
While crossing this field, the line changed front under heavy fire.
Col. Hinks, seeing that the men were becoming a trifle unsteady, halted the regiment and in the coolest manner, with cannister shot, shells and minie balls raining about them, ordered ‘Colors and general guides on the line, on centre dress,—’and as carefully alligned the regiment as if on parade, closing up the files made vacant by the fallen, and then, for a minute or more, sat upon his horse and drilled his men in the manual of arms, regardless and apparently unconscious of the whistling bullets which occasionally terminated the manual of some soldier in the line.
When he had concluded the drill with ‘Parade Rest’ the regiment had entirely recovered from its indications of unsteadiness, and moved forward on the double-quick to its place in the line, reaching it before the Brigade had cleared the belt of woods.
It was an illustration of the influence of example by a leader, the power of discipline and of the command of a familiar voice.
The Brigade moved on out of the woods and over a field strewn with the dead and wounded of both armies.
During this advance,
First Lieut. Reynolds, of Company G, stumbled over a dead Confederate
color sergeant.
He stooped and snatched the ‘Cross
Jack’ or ‘Saltier’ from the staff, made it into a ball and passed it to the orderly of
Col. Hinks as a trophy, then hurrying on with the regiment.
He never saw the flag afterward and no one now knows what became of it.
On the opposite side of the field was Hagerstown Turnpike, and a little to the left of the line was a small building, the Dunker church.
On one side of this turnpike lay rows of Union dead,—in some instances taking in every man in the line—while on the opposite side lay the dead Confederates, equally thick, showing how terribly in earnest these lines had been which lay on each side of the narrow road and shot at each other.
A terrible sight to go into battle over!
But ‘Forward, man’
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rang out the order,—‘Close up,’ etc.—and the lines dashed on. The mission of
Sumner was to support the sorely pressed troops of
Gordon and
Crawford.
Sedgwick's Division was in front of the column.
After passing the turnpike, the Brigade descended slightly into another wood where Death was holding high revel.
These woods were not like the
Peninsula swamp forest, filled with underbrush and creeping vines, black stagnant marsh and stifled air, but open and clear, with large trees and firm ground underfoot and spreading branches overhead.
While descending this slope,
Ernest A. Nichols, of Company C, a lad of but 17, was hit by a spent ball on the breast plate and fell forward.
Someone said ‘
Nichols is gone’ but he sprang up again and took his place in the ranks, saying ‘I'm not killed yet.’
Major Rice heard his remark and responded, ‘There's a brave man.’
The division moved on through this wood with the ranks being depleted at every step.
Gen. Sumner did not know that there were ten Confederate brigades with ‘
Stuart's Unseen Guns’ concealed behind the ridge in front and behind fences between the Dunker church and the house of a man named
Miller, east of the turnpike, ready to swing upon
Sedgwick.
Their centre was in a cornfield behind a stone wall, which was crowned with artillery and infantry at every available point.
Hooker's Corps had again been forced back and
Burnside had, as yet, failed to carry the bridge.
The Division was still in close column by Brigade lines, which made it impossible to manoeuvre, and the moment the lines crossed the old turnpike, afterward called ‘Dead Lane,’ and entered the woods, they were met by a storm of fire from small arms and canister from the enemy's artillery.
The first volley nearly swept the First Brigade off the earth.
The other two Brigades, of course, could use no fire themselves, and at the northern edge of the woods the Nineteenth halted on the top of a ledge.
In front, and slightly below were the Forty-Second New York and the First Minnesota, hotly engaged with the rebels, while the Nineteenth, suffering severely from the galling fire of short range, could not reply because of the position of the lines and the conformity of the ground.
They were, therefore,
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ordered to lie down, while the minie balls rained upon them, seemingly as thick as hail stones, and the buzz of canister shot was continual.
It was awful to lay there with no chance to reply, but
Col. Hinks sat on his horse near the centre of the regiment, amid the heaviest fire of which he seemed to be the special object, watching the movements of the enemy, and, as his men remarked, exhibiting no consciousness of danger.
With folded arms and a smile upon his lips, he remained thus at a distance of less than a hundred and fifty yards from the line of the enemy which was pouring its incessant fire upon the position.
The first brigade was almost annihilated.
One single shot of an Enfield or Springfield rifle could hit a man in the front rank of the first brigade and go through to the rear rank of the last brigade.
Soon the front line began to fall back, climbing up the rocky steep to the position of the Nineteenth.
Some of the men on the left were firing toward its rear and left.
The others yelled to them ‘What are you doing?
Don't you know any better than to fire into our third line?’
One of them replied: ‘You had better look back and see if they are the third line.’
Where was the third line?
No one knew!
The wood was clear of any enemy in the immediate rear, but to the left was the rebel line extending back beyond the road and marching down, rolling up the brigades and firing into them.
Gen. Sumner was talking with
Col. Kimball, commanding the Fifteenth Massachusetts regiment, when
Maj. Philbrick of that regiment shouted: ‘See the rebels!’
Gen. Sumner looked in the direction in which
Maj. Philbrick pointed and exclaimed ‘My God, we must get out of this!’
Howard's brigade was then facing toward the west.
He was at once directed to face it to the southwest, but there was not time before the blow fell.
French's division had not yet arrived near enough, so that the left of
Sumner's Corps was not properly closed on the adjoining force, and the enemy instantly threw troops into the gap, almost surrounding it and bringing an enfilading fire from front and flank and rear to add to the fierceness of the fight.
The Division was helpless and a third of its number were cut down in a few minutes.
The three lines were too close to serve as rallying points to
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each other, and the second and third lines suffered as severely as did the first.
Some of the regiments faced by the rear rank and fired; others broke from the death trap with little attempt at resistance.
The left having given away in confusion, the remainder of the line became so exposed that they were compelled to retire and only two regiments stood their ground,— the First Minnesota, under
Sully, and the Nineteenth Massachusetts, under
Hinks, who formed the right of the first and second lines respectively.
Their right flanks came together, their left flanks being wide apart like the letter ‘V.’
They maintained their organization and when all others had left the woods,
Col. Hinks changed front to rear on the first company, this movement being made in the face of a murderous fire.
The men now faced the advancing line of rebels, and the First Minnesota fell back to the allignment of the Nineteenth Massachsetts on its right.
During this action First
Sergt. ‘Tom’
Claffey, of Company G, and others were conspicuous for bravery in assisting to reform the men.
Three times in the terrible retrograde, the two noble regiments, side by side, fell back to new positions, each time by common consent after firing at the foe, until they got behind a stone wall in the middle of the field, from which vantage point they could not be dislodged.
Each halting place gave proof of the obstinate contest, by the row of fallen dead and wounded that marked the spot like a black line.
The track of each regiment was strewn with brave men. After a brief struggle at the stone wall, the enemy gave up the pursuit.
This halting place was still in advance of any other portion of the
Union line and in advance of the new line on which the remainder of the
Division had reformed.
Here the fighting was renewed.
There was a portion of one of the companies of the Nineteenth Massachusetts which had collected in the road and, slightly protected by an angle in the ‘worm-fence,’ the men gave their attention to the advancing line of rebels and tried to keep their colors down, firing only at the color bearers.
There was a good opportunity to shoot at them in the few minutes in which the men held the fence and their colors went down several times.
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The enemy had posted a battery upon a hill at short range, which raked the field and road with canister, putting the regiment in a very hot corner.
Just as they started to fall back, a charge of canister struck the road right among them and made them hurry.
A few rods brought them to another lane leading to the farm house of a man named
Nicodemus.
Some of the men ran to the piazza and fired a few shots from that elevation, then all retreated toward the barn, near which were four stacks of wheat.
After passing these, the men found themselves in a hollow, out of reach of the rebel artillery.
A stone wall ran through the hollow from the road and over a hill where a battery was just coming into action.
Behind this wall the regiment rallied and expected to make a stand there but soon was ordered to march toward the north and joined the rest of the division on a hill east of the
Hagarstown Pike, near the house of
W. Middlekauff, where they remained in support of a battery until dark.
Then they moved around and took position on the westerly edge of the east wood.
The action of the Brigade had saved
McClellan's right flank from being turned, as he states in his official report (pp. 279– 280) and by the re-forming of
Sedgwick's broken division,
Stonewall Jackson could not secure the results of his original advantage.
In consequence of
Gen. Sedgwick's wound,
Gen. Howard came into the command of the division.
At the
Middlekauff house the roll was called and the regiment was found to have been very much reduced in numbers.
Every field officer was either killed or wounded.
Col. Hinks had fallen with a bullet through his right arm, fracturing and shattering the bone, and another bullet entered his abdomen, passing from over the right hip in front, penetrating the colon and out on the left side of the spine, in the region of the kidneys, from which wound he never fully recovered.
His coolness and gallantry, and the discipline and heroism of his command had undoubtedly preserved the lines from being permanently broken.
The report of the
Adjutant General of
Massachusetts says of
Col. Hinks: ‘As soon as he observed the flank attack, which had caused the division to be thrown into confusion, he rode
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forward and gave the necessary orders for the change of front, and as cooly superintended the execution of the movement as if on drill, notwithstanding the ground over which the regiment moved was covered with officers and men that fell from its ranks, under the heavy cross-fire of the enemy, pending the movement, and, as soon as the change of front had been completed, he rode his horse up to the colors in the line, and, by his inspiring words and gallant bearing in the face of the fearful carnage, stimulated his command with such firmness and determination, as induced them to hold the field alone against an attack from which other regiments recoiled.’
After
Col. Hinks was wounded, the command of the regiment again fell upon
Lieut. Col. Devereux.
His favorite horse was shot under him and he received a wound in the arm, but was able to direct operations until the battle was over.
Maj. Edmund Rice was severely wounded during the engagement and
Capt. George W. Bachelder, of Company C, was mortally wounded.
When the regiment passed through the stacks of wheat at the Nicodemus barn the enemy followed and some of the men began firing upon them, but were told to stop as
Capt. Bachelder was wounded and lying there, with others of the regiment.
The enemy soon fell back and then
Joseph Pillsbury,
Albert Rodger and
Colonius Morse, of his company, volunteered to go and take the captain to the hospital.
On reaching the stack they found him with
James Heath, who had stayed with him, and whom the rebels had not taken prisoner.
The captain's leg had been shattered by a shell just as the regiment rallied the time last in the open field.
He was taken to the field hospital, where he died in a few hours.
Capt. Bachelder was the idol of Company C.
He had always shown great love for his men and was ever mindful of their comfort, ever ready to share their privations and asking them to encounter no danger to which he was not ready to expose his own person.
In the Seven Days Retreat, no matter how hard the march or severe the fight, he was always smiling and ever ready with a cheerful word for the weary and halting.
He was always an example in courage,
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endurance, good nature and gentlemanly deportment.
Probaby no commander was more loved when living or sincerely mourned when dead by his men than was
Capt. Geo. W. Bachelder.
Colonel Devereux says of him: ‘What a noble life went out in his country's cause when he died.
Small in stature, but how grand a man!
He was beloved not only by the men of his own company, but by everyone in the regiment.’
The command of Company C then devolved upon
Second Lieut. Edgar M. Newcomb, who was soon promoted to be
First Lieutenant for his bravery in this action.
Capt. Henry A. Hale,
Lieut. Albert Thorndike,
Lieut. John P. Reynolds, Jr. and
Lieut. Elisha A. Hinks were wounded.
At an early part of the fight
Lieut. Reynolds was wounded in the ankle and was ordered to the rear by
Lieut. Col. Devereux.
He hobbled back to his company, however, and stayed long enough to receive another wound, this time in the elbow of his sword arm.
Col. Devereux said later, jokingly, that ‘it served him just right for disobeying his commander,’ but complimented him at the time in his official report.
Capt. Hale received a very peculiar wound.
A minie ball carried away all his front teeth and a piece of his tongue, making a painful and disabling wound.
Sergt. McGinnis, who had received a bullet wound in the breast, saw
Capt. Hale as he sat in the temporary hospital his lips swelled so that he could hardly open them and his face puffed out, trying to drink some tea. Thinking to ‘cheer the boys up a bit,’ he said to the wounded officer, ‘Oh,
Captain, how I'd just like to kiss you now.’
The poor captain could not laugh as it hurt his lips to move them, and could only splutter in his pain.
Sergt. McGinnis then lay upon the operating table and had his bullet removed without taking anaesthetics.
John Barry of Company C was severely wounded in the face by a minie ball, which completely destroyed one half of the upper jaw and took off a piece of his nose.
First Lieut. Albert Thorndike received a peculiar wound.
A ball went through his abdomen, passing in through one vest pocket and out at the other.
It struck his watch chain, which split the ball, and the part which passed through him carried
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with it a piece of the chain.
This piece of chain came out some time afterward in the process of suppuration.
Capt. J. G. B. Adams relates the interesting fact that after the
battle of Antietam, while caring for his mortally wounded brother, a rebel officer of the Eighth South Carolina regiment came up and declared that he had a brother in the Nineteenth Massachusetts regiment.
The rebel officer was
Phineas Spofford, and his brother of the Nineteenth was
Daniel W. Spofford, who had been wounded during the day's fighting and carried to the rear.
These two brothers met in happy reunion after the war.
At no time was the engagement general, but disjointed masses entered the fight with a gallantry unsurpassed and, being unsupported, were enfiladed and driven out, as the rebel commanders, with characteristic sagacity, discovered the ‘holes’ in the
Union lines and filled them with their best battalions.
The engagement of
Sedgwick's Division was a battle in itself.
The men advanced nearly parallel to the
Confederate line, which was bent in a circle on higher ground, until they found themselves in a cul-de-sac under the fire of several rebel brigades which were rapidly working around their flank and rear.
There was nothing to do but lie down and afterward get out and change front.
The fact that this was quickly done probably saved the division from capture and annihilation.
The battle raged with varying fortune during the day, and at night the enemy, who, though severely punished and suffering great losses in officers and men, withdrew across the
Potomac to his own soil.
The
battle of Antietam resulted in the largest list of casualties of any one day's battle.
The Union cause lost
Brigadier General Mansfield, killed:
Major Generals Hooker and
Richardson, and
Brigadier Generals Rodman,
Sedgwick,
Harts uff,
Dana and
Meagher wounded, with 12,469 killed, wounded and missing. The Confederate cause lost
Brigadier Generals Branch,
Anderson and
Stark, killed;
Major General Anderson and
Brigadier Generals Toombs,
Lawton,
Ripley,
Rodes,
Gregg,
Armstead and
Ransom, wounded, with 25,899 killed, wounded and missing.
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Thirteen guns, thirty-nine colors, upwards of 15,000 stand of small arms, and more than 6,00C prisoners, were the trophies of the Army of the Potomac from the battles of
South Mountain, Crampton's Gap and
Antietam, while not a single gun or color was lost during these battles.
Official list of casualties in the Nineteenth
Massachusetts regiment at the battle
of
Antietam, September 17, 1862.
killed in action or died of wounds:
wounded:
| Colonel Edward W. Hinks, arm and body, severely. |
| Lieut. Col. Arthur F. Devereux, wrist, slight. |
| Major Edmund Rice, thigh. |
Co. A. | Sergeant Isaac N. Adams (since died). |
| Corporal Gorham Coffin, slight. |
| Private William W. Holmes, shoulder. |
| Private Oliver S. Rundlett, breast, severe. |
| Private Samuel A. Hall, hand. |
| Private Everett Carlton, arm. |
| Private Daniel W. Spofford, leg. |
| Private George W. Palmer, shoulder. |
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Co. B. | Captain Henry A. Hale, face, severe. |
| First Lieutenant Elisha A. Hinks, breast contusion. |
| Corporal Adolphus W. Greeley, face. |
| Private William H. Bean, breast, and arm. |
| Private George B. Carlton, dangerously. |
| Private Hollowell R. Dunham, foot. |
| Private Jeremiah Logan, thigh. |
| Private Robert E. Rich, leg. |
| Private George W. Cain, leg. |
| Private Rufus H. Cole, Jr. |
| Private James G. Kent, face, slight. |
| Private Stephen J. Younger, neck. |
| Private Michael Riley, hip. |
Co. C. | First Sergeant William Stone, shoulder. |
| Corporal Daniel W. Bryant, leg (died Oct. 5th, 1862.) |
| Corporal David B. Jellison, thigh. |
| Private John A. Cheney, hand. |
| Private Edward W. Morrill, hip. |
| Private John Barry, face. |
| Private John Donovan, ankle. |
| Private Jacob T. Hazen, breast (died Oct. 10th, 1862.) |
| Private Jeremiah Danforth, groin. |
Co. D. | Corporal Alexander Beach, hand. |
| Private Mark A. Harris, thigh. |
| Private William H. Goodrich, back. |
| Private William Young, abdomen (died July 7, 1863, at Frederick, Md.) |
| Private John Cavanaugh, knee. |
Co. E. | Sergeant James Buchanan, body, dangerously. |
| Corporal and acting color sergeant, Peter O'Rourke, leg. |
| Corporal Patrick Wallace, head, severely. |
| Corporal Henry K. Martin, arm, severe. |
| Private Michael Sullivan, thigh. |
| Private Edward Doherty. |
| Private Daniel Delay, shoulder. |
| Private Timothy Leary, leg. |
| Private James Flannigan, leg. |
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| Private George Wright. |
| Private Philip Dunn, leg. |
| Private James Welch. |
Co. F. | Sergeant Charles K. Hazen, slight. |
| Corporal Benjamin E. Fogg, hand. |
| Corporal John N. Robinson, leg. |
| Corporal Nelson E. Knights, leg. |
| Private James Doherty, arm. |
| Private William M. Curtis, neck. |
| Private William Gardner, leg. |
| Private Seth M. Harris, shoulder. |
| Private John McCann, leg. |
| Private Joseph S. Gifford, arm (died Sept. 25th at Winchester, Va.) |
| Private Joseph C. James, leg. |
| Private William Smith, shoulder. |
| Private Frederick P. Turner, head. |
Co. G. | First Lieutenant John P. Reynolds, Jr., ankle and elbow. |
| First Sergeant Joseph Marshall, shoulder. |
| Sergeant Jeremiah C. Cronan, hand. |
| Sergeant John P. Condon. |
| Corporal Frederick Chandler, leg. |
| Private Jeremiah Corbett, shoulder. |
| Private Charles S. Pearson, foot. |
| Private James McCarty, thigh and arm. |
| Private John McCarty, foot. |
| Private Jesse K. Sherwell, leg. |
| Private John Cronan, thigh. |
| Private Levi Woofingdale, back. |
| Private Robert Marshall, leg. |
| Private George W. Batchelder, hand. |
| Private Simon D. Hitchcock, arm. |
| Private Michael Leonard, bowels. |
| Private George Lithead, arm and leg. |
| Private William B. Fisher, thigh. |
| Private Patrick Sullivan, back. |
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| Private Bartholomew Crowley, back. |
Co. H. | First Lieutenant Albert T. Thorndike, stomach, severe |
| Private George H. A. Ball, thigh. |
| Private Samuel Driver, thigh. |
| Private John A. Williams, foot. |
| Private Thomas Bridges, leg. |
| Private Stephen McReady, contusion. |
Co. I. | Sergeant John Powers, leg. |
| Private Nathaniel B. Jordan, breast. |
| Private William McCracken, arm. |
| Private John T. Ross, leg. |
| Private Andrew Vinton, hand. |
| Private Lawrence Carey, arm. |
| Private Charles A. Hall, thigh. |
| Private Michael McCue, thigh. |
| Private Lorenzo P. Nickerson, hand. |
| Private Thomas A. Sweetser, knee. |
Co. K. | Sergeant William A. McGinnis, breast, severe. |
| Sergeant Charles A. Haley, hand, slight. |
| Private Joseph W. Cosgrove, slight. |
| Private Samuel E. Vial. |
| Private William A. McKenna, |
| Private Robert Williams. |
| Total 7 officers, 97 men. |
missing:
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captured:
Recapitulation.
Killed | 1 Officer | 13 men |
Wounded | 7 Officer | 98 men |
Missing | | 14 men |
Prisoners | | 3 men |
| 8 Officers | 128 Men. |
Signed by
Wm. R. Driver, Acct.
Adjt. 19 Mass. Regt.
Bolivar, Va., Sept. 27, 1862.
The losses of
Sumner's Second Corps were as follows:
First Division | Second Division | Third Division |
1st Brigade, | 314 | 1st Brigade, | 740 | 1st Brigade, | 510 |
2nd Brigade | 540 | 2nd Division | 545 | 2nd Brigade | 529 |
3rd Brigade | 305 | 3rd Division | 898 | 3rd Brigade | 582 |
| 1159 | | 2183 | | 1621 |
First Division, | 1159 |
Second Division | 2183 |
Third Division | 1621 |
Total loss of Sumner's Second Corps | 4963 |
The losses in the Third Brigade, of the Second Corps, consisting of the 19th, 20th Massachusetts, 7th Michigan, 42nd and 59th New York and the 127th Pennsylvania, were 898, which was the greatest percentage of loss of any brigade in the engagement.
It will be noticed that the Nineteenth Massachusetts regiment lost 128 out of 384 men engaged.
Thirteen of its men
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were killed.
One company went into the field with 28 men and came out with but 14 remaining.
The losses of
Sumner's Corps—which numbered about 18,000 men, or one-fifth of the army engaged in the battle,—was nearly thirty per cent of its men engaged, and one half of the whole loss of the
Union Army in the fight; while the losses in
Sedgwick's division, which numbered only about five thousand men and in which was the Nineteenth Massachusetts were 2183, or more than 45%
Col. Hinks suffered very much from his wounds received at
Antietam, and for sometime was considered mortally wounded; indeed he was reported and for some days believed to be dead, and lengthy obituary notices of the most complimentary character appeared in the
Boston dailies and other
Massachusetts papers.
Said the Daily Advertiser, ‘He commanded the Eighth Regiment through the three-months service in 1861 with such ability and success that he was at once commissioned colonel of the Nineteenth for the war, that regiment being largely recruited from the old Eighth.
In command of his new regiment, he was equally successful in securing the respect and confidence of all who came in contact with him.’
Said the Daily Journal on the same occasion, ‘
Col. Hinks was a brave and valuable officer, and is a great loss to the service as well as to the state of his nativity . . . . He displayed the qualities of a soldier, as well in the care of his men as in his bravery in the field, and he will be remembered with respect by all who served under him,’ . . . . .
Dr. Alfred Hitchcock visited the field of
Antietam, and in a letter to
Governor Andrew, Sept. 26, 1862, this described the condition of
Col. Hinks: ‘
Col. Hinks, poor fellow!
seemed on Monday to have symptoms of sinking.
His wound is through the abdomen and back, and a miracle only can save him. I advised against his proposed removal, as lessening the only possible chance for such a miracle to be wrought by Him in whose hand our breath is’ . . . . . . . .
The following is an extract from an official letter written
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by
Gen. Sedgwick to
Gov. Andrew after the
battle of Antietam, (see Report of
Adjutant General of
Massachusetts, pp. 181-3:—
To His
Excellency John A. Andrew,
Governor of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,—. . . . . . I have already forwarded through the military channels a list of officers and soldiers who were distinguished for gallantry and good conduct, recommending them for promotion, and I would again commend to your excellency,
Col. Lee of the Twentieth,
Col. Hinks of the Nineteenth,
Lieut. Col. Kim– ball of the Fifteenth and
Lieut. Col. Palfrey of the Twentieth.
Great credit is due to these officers for the splendid condition in which these regiments took the field.
The Fifteenth and the Nineteenth are, in my opinion, fully equal to any two in the service.
I have on two occasions strongly recommended the appointment of
Col. Hinks as
Brigadier General.
He disciplined and brought into the field one of the finest regiments, and has been twice wounded while gallantly leading it in battle.
I again urge the appointment, and respectfully ask your
Excellency's favorable indorsement.
I have the honor to be, your
Excellency's obedient servant,
(signed)