Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1886-05-21
AtA.tietam.-There was an excur-

Al Antietam.-T was an excur-
sion from Baltimore and Washington to
the Antietam battlefield on Monday last
under the auspices Of the First Army
Corps. It had been reported that there
would be from three hundred to four
hundred of the veterans on the excur-
sion, and when the ninety-six visitors
stepped from the train at Keedysville
there were just eighty-five vehicles
waiting to transport them the three
miles to Antietam. The visitors had
been advised beforehand to boycott all
vehicles that did not have the mark OF
the First Army Corps-a small flag
consequently there was much swearing
done by the balance of the drivers.
Mayor R. w. Grove had charge OF the
visitors. The vehicles varied from the
mule team and jolting wagon to car
riages, and the procession out Of keedys-
Vile looked like camp-meeting crowd
Gen. Longstreet was not present. Gen.
Edward S. Bragg and q party, among
whom were j. II. Slime, the historian
Gen. w. w. Dudley, ex-commissioner
of pensions; Gen. J. E. Dickerson, the
adjutant general of Hooker's division,
and who opened the fight of Antietam
on the Federal right, Major Fl. L. Craw-
ford, the first to open the fight at South
Mountain, and others, took the Smoke
town road. They visited first the Dunk
ards church and that portion of the
battlefield where the chief part of the
First Army Corps was located, and
where the heaviest fighting was done
September II, 1862. In this vicinity
the veteran General Mansfield was
killed. Another party of the visitors
went out on the Hagerstown road, to
the right of the church, to the place of
the famous haystack. The first party
proceeded from the right of the line to
the left, and passed through Bloody
Lane, where some very heavy fighting
and a great slaughter OIL both sides took
place. The Antietam or North Bridge
over which Hooker's division and the
principal part of McClellan's army pass
ed-was inspected, along with Myers
Mill. Dinner was partaken of at Shafps-
burg, after which the party went down
to Burnside Bridge, mile southeast Of
the town, named after Gen. Burnside.
Here Burnside was held in check by a
few hundred Georgia troops under Gen.
Robert Toombs, lodged Oh the crest of
the hill. The Twenty-second Massa-
chusetts Regiment forded the stream to
tie right of Burnside and deployed to
the right, forcing Gen. "oomhs back
half mile. Burnside almost succeeded
in turning the right of Lees army and
getting in his rear; but Gen. "A. p.
Hills light division of Georgia and Car
DINA troops came up and drove Burn
side back, and kept him there all that
night and next day until Lee haG effect
ed crossing at Blackford's Ford, near
Shepherdstown, and escaped to Virgin
ia. The two armies lost i'm the battle of
Antietam over ten thousand each. The
National Cemetery was the last place
of interest visited. There are about
sixty eY- Union soldiers living in Sharps-
burg and vicinity, and only one Confed-
erate-Dr Charles Russell, of the Sew
enth Cavalry Regiment of Virginia.
On Tuesday The eXcursionists visited
the battlefield of South Mountain. The
Sharpsburg and Keedysville folks who
had made preparations to dispense hos
pitality to about four hundred visitors
at so much per head were, greatly dis
appointed at The smallness Or the party.