Charles C . Tew Charles Courtenay Tew ( October 17 , 1827 – September 17 , 1862 ) was a colonel in the Confederate States Army and was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War . Early life . Tew was born in Charleston , South Carolina to Henry Shade Tew and Caroline Courtenay . Tew ' s paternal ancestry was French Huguenot and his maternal grandfather was a native of Ireland . Tew was one of twenty cadets initially admitted to the new South Carolina Military Academy in 1843 , now known as The Citadel . Tew graduated first in his class in 1846 , becoming both the first graduate of the school and the first honor graduate . Upon graduation , he took a position as a professor at the school . He left The Citadel in 1852 , when he spent a year in Europe studying military tactics . When he returned from Europe he was made Commandant of Cadets at The Citadel . 1857 Tew was appointed superintendent of the Arsenal Academy in Columbia , SC . He founded his own successful military academy , at Hillsborough , North Carolina in 1859 called the Hillsborough Military Academy . Civil War . When North Carolina seceded , the first two colonels appointed by Governor John Willis Ellis were Tew and D . H . Hill . Tew was commissioned to the 2nd North Carolina State Troops , which , during the Peninsula Campaign was attached to the brigade of Brig . Gen . George B . Anderson in the Army of Northern Virginia . Tew took part in the Peninsula Campaign , the Northern Virginia Campaign , and the Maryland Campaign . Tew was killed - in - action at the Battle of Antietam on September 17 , 1862 , while leading his regiment , the 2nd North Carolina State Troops . Antietam . During the mid - day portion of the Battle of Antietam at the Sunken Road , Tew took command of Anderson ' s brigade after Anderson fell mortally wounded . Tew and Col . John B . Gordon were talking at the position of the 6th Alabama in the Sunken Road ( the famed Bloody Lane ) at the center of the Confederate line when both were struck down . Gordon later wrote - " The first volley from the Union lines in my front sent a ball through the brain of the chivalric Colonel Tew , of North Carolina , to whom I was talking , and another ball through the calf of my right leg . On the right and the left my men were falling under the death - dealing crossfire like trees in a hurricane . . . " Capt . Matthew Manly of Company D , 2nd North Carolina wrote - " During the battle in this bloody lane Colonel Charles Courtenay Tew was killed , his body falling into the hands of the enemy . . . . He was shot through the head and placed in the sunken road . . . Here he was found , apparently unconscious , the blood streaming from a wound in the head , with his sword held in both hands across his knees . A Federal soldier attempted to take the sword from him , but he drew it toward his body with his last remaining strength , and then his grasp relaxed and he fell forward , dead . " Tew was shot through both temples , but evidently did not die immediately . His body was ostensibly pulled down into the Sunken Road after he was struck . When the Confederates were forced to retreat from the Sunken Road , Tew ' s body was not recovered , and was never identified or returned . Tew ' s fate and legacy . Many conflicting stories and rumors were spread concerning Tew ' s fate . A prominent one was that Tew was alive and a prisoner of war at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas . Tew ' s father went to Washington and received permission to visit the prison but he was unable to locate him . His place of burial remains unknown . In October 1874 , a Union veteran , Capt . J . W . Bean , sent a silver cup , which had been taken from Tew ' s body , to Tew ' s father . Bean ' s letter also informed Tew ' s father that he had buried Tew on the field . Tew ' s sword ( presented by the cadets of the South Carolina Military Academy and inscribed with his name ) and his watch were never returned to his family . A photograph taken by Alexander Gardner is believed to contain an image of Tew ' s body . The photograph , often called " Dead at Bloody Lane " shows a Confederate officer in the bottom right of the photo , lying on his back against the bank of the Sunken Road .