Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1912-09-19
A Shepiferdstown Woman's Recollec'
tions of the Aftermath Of Antietam.
BY MARY BEDINoER MITCHELL.

BY MARY BEDINGER MITCHELL.
q EPTEMBER, 1862, was in the skies
i6 of the almanac, but August still reign
ed in ours il was hot and dusty.
The railroads in the Shenandoah Valley
had been torn up, the bridges had beer
DESTROYED, communication had been made
difficult, and Shepherdstown, Va, cor
nered by the bend of the Potomac. lay as
if forgotten in the bottom of somebody's
pocket. We were without news or
knowledge, except when some chance
traveller would repeat the last wild and
uncertain rumor that he had heard. We
had passed an exciting summer. Win
chester had changed hands more than
once. We had been "in the Confedera-
cy" and out Of If again, and were now
waiting in an exasperating state OF ignor-
ance and suspense, for the next move in
the great game.
1t was a saying with us that Shepherds
town was just nine miles from every
where. II was, in fact, about that dis
tance from MartinSburg and Harper's
Ferry-oft- mentioned names-and from
Williamspot, Md, where the armies so
often crossed, both to and from Maryland.
II was off the direct road between those
places and lay, as said, at the foot OF a
great sweep in the river, and five miles
from the nearest station on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad. AS no trains were
running now, this was OF little conse-
quence; what was more important was
that a turnpike road-unusually fine tor
that region OF stiff, red clay-led in almost
straight line for thirty miles to Winches-
ter on the south, and stretched northward,
beyond the Potomac, twenty miles to
Hagerstown, Md. Twenty years later il
was the scene of "Sheridan's Ride"
Before the days of steam this had been
part of the old posting-road between the
Shenandoah Valley towns and Pennsyl-
vania, and we had boasted very sub
stantial bridge. This had been burned
early in the war, and only the massive
stone piers remained but mile and a
half down the Potomac was the ford, and
the road that led to it lay partly above
and partly along the face OF rocky and
precipitous cliffs. II was narrow and
stony, and especially in one place, around
the place of "Mount Misery" was very
steep and difficult for vehicles. 1t was,
moreover, entirely commanded by the
hills on the Maryland side, but it was the
ford over which some part of the Confed-
crate army passed every year, and in
1863 was used by the main body OF in
fantry on the way to Gettysburg. Be-
yond the river were the Cumberland Ca
nal and its willow -fringed tow path, from
which rose the soft and rounded outlines
of the hills that from their farther slopes
looked down upon the battlefield OF An
tietam, four miles distant. On clear days
we could see the Union fort at Harper's
Ferry without a glass, and the flag flying
over it, mere speck against the sky,
and we could hear the gun that was fired
every evening at sunset.
Shepherdstown's only access to the
river was through narrow gorge, the
bed of a small tributary of the Potomac,
that was made to do much duty as it
slipped cheerily over its rocks and fur
nished power for several mills and fac
tories, most of them at that time silent.
Here were also three or four warehouses,
huge structures, testifying mutely that
the town had once had business. The
road to the bridge led through this cleft,
down an indescribably steep street, skirt
ing the streams ravine to whose sides the
mills and factories clung in most extraor-
dinary fashion; but il was always a mar
vel how anything heavier than wheel
barrow could be pulled up its tedious
length, or how any vehicle could be driv-
en- down without plunging into the water
at the bottom.
In this odd little borough. then, we
were waiting Developments" hearing
first that "our men" were coming, and
then that they were not coming, when
suddenly, on Saturday, the 18th of Sep
tember, early in the morning, we found
ourselves surrounded by hungry horde
of lean and dusty tatterdemallions, who
seemed to rise from the ground at our
feet. did not know where they came
from, or to whose command they belong
ed: have since been informed that at
Lees orders General Jackson recrossed
into Virginia at Williamspot, and has
tened to the capture of Harper's Ferry
by the shortest roads. These would take
him some four miles south of us, and our
haggard apparitions were perhaps part
of his force. They were stragglers, at all
events,-professional, some of them, but
some worn out by the incessant strain of
that summer. When | say that they
were hungry, convey no impression of
the gaunt starvation that looked from their
cavernous eyes. All day they crowded
to the doors of our houses. with always
the same drawing complaint:
"I've been a-marchin' an a-fightin' for
six weeks stiddy, and amt had n-a-r-
thin to eat 'cept green apples an green
Gavin, an l wish you'd please to gimme
a bite to eat"
Their looks bore out their statements,
and when they told us they had "clean
Civ out" we believed them and went to
get what we had. They could be seen
afterward asleep in every fence corner
and under every tree, but after a nights
res, they "pulled themselves together"
81.