The record-union., 1897-12-25
BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.
HOW PRESIDENT MCKINLEY Sc
CURED PROMOTION.
Serving Hot Coffee to the Soldiers
Unmindful of Flying
Bullets.

Unmindful of Flying
Bullets.
Two small tracts of woodland. a
sunken lane, a corntield of 100 acres,
an old church of the Dunkards, many
stone walls, several ledSes Of rocks, "a
peach orchard--these were the closely
grouped features of the part Of the field
CT Antietam which Longstreet and
jackson occupied and against which
Hooker, Mansfield and Sumner success
slVely sent their thousands OF brave
men, says the st. Louis Globe Demo-
crat The cornfeld'' is one of the his
torlc spots. Through it the battlefield
commissioners have cut an avenue ana
upon the avenue they have placed can
non and tablets to tell that there.
within the limits of 100 acres, more
men fell than on any plot Of ground of
like dimensions during the entire civil
war. Stiffened forms in blue and IN
gray, 1000 Of them, lay in the corn
rows at sundown. The First Texas was
IN the thiekest of this terrible lighting
and when it withdrew from the field
at night ST per cent. OF its strength was
left dead or wounded. OF every 100 men
in this regiment when the battle began
only fourteen marched away. Such
facts and figures make Antietam mem
orable. High above the circles of SOL
diers' graves on Cemetery Hill stands
magnificent granite figure of pri-
vate soldier 1t was we'll chosen. Antie-
tam is the glory of the soldier, not of
the General. Not for themselves, but
for their country" is craven on the
monument. They died for their coun-
try, but almost uselessly, il seemed.
when the accounts of Antietam We're
balanced
Near one corner of the famous corn
field is a high level where the Philadel-
phia Brigade found itself III a murder
Gus crossfire while participating in one
of the desperate assaults. 1t could not
go back. The brigade stood until )4o
Of it's number lay on the ground within
the space of its formation. The place
was a slaughter pen. Probably not
half dozen Confederates We're hurt by
the return fire The shaft raised to
commemorate the scene of carnage tells
that the brigade carried into the ser
vice an enrolment of $500, and from
Balls Bluff to Appomattox lost 3,409.
Nearly one-fifth Of the total loss for
the four years was incurred in a single
hour at Antetam.
AS the visitor drives over Antietam
field to-day he comes occasionally to
a form of monument that Is distinctive.
A brightly polished brass cannon stands
upright, with base imbedded in block
Of granite. Each Of these marks the
I fnrt he rOJ1
field led his troops forward to take up
the assault after Hooker's earlier effort
10 dislodge the Confederates in front Of
the Poffenberger farm house had failed,
he came to a piece of woods bordering
on the Poffenberger lane. The lines
were somewhat confused Mansfield
thought the troops In the woods were
Of the Union side He went forward
to see and was killed. The patches Of
woodland have been cleared away. That
is about the only change made in the
appearance of the field. The commits
sion has bought right of way and
opened roads SO that it is possible to
drive along what was the front of bat
tie. Otherwise Antietam is as it was
when it saw the bloOdiest one-day bat
tie of the entire war Even the stump
of the famous sassafras tree, so well
known to the survivors, is still stand
ing.
Unchangeableness is characteristic of
the steady old Dutch community of
Antietam. Christian Orndorff was the
pioneer magnate of the rich valley. He
put rough hewn stone monument on
hill to locate his possessions. and it
is there now. He built great stone
mill beside he Antietam The mill was
hundred years old. almost, when
Pleasanton's cavalry trotted down the
narrow roadway under fire of Lees
thirty guns. massed on Cemetery Hill,
and found cover behind the hills of the
original Orndorff farm. The mill looks
as it might be standing at the end
of another century. High up in the
gable is the stone with the inscription
put there by reverent Christian Orn-
dorff at the building. Pleasanton's cav
alrymen, while waiting all day for the
turning of Lees wings, which never
came. tried to make out the quaint old
Dutch words. Their descendants gene
rations hence will wonder and smile
when the inscription is translated:
s''''''.---''
No.,