Wet, Rainy and Cool on a Trip to the Antietam Battlefield 5/16/2008

It rained most of the night and was still raining when we got up but we had planned a trip to the Antietam Battlefield today to do 2 couple of virtual caches and take the driving tour through the battlefield. We did a few traditional caches on the way to the battlefield and the first one was at St Mark's episcopal Church in Boonsboro, MD. It was a cache commemorating Seaman Apprentice Craig B. Wibberley who bid family and friends goodbye in August and shipped out for a six-month tour of duty on the USS Cole, no one could have anticipated that he would return to them in October, a fallen hero. On October 12, 2000, USS Cole (DDG 67), under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, set in to Aden harbor for a routine fuel stop. Cole completed mooring at 09:30. Refueling started at 10:30. Around 11:18 local time (08:18 UTC), a small craft approached the port side of the destroyer, and an explosion occurred, putting a 35-by-36-foot gash in the ship's port side. The blast hit the ship's galley, where crew were lining up for lunch. Seventeen sailors were killed and thirty nine others were injured in the blast. Among the killed was Seaman Apprentice Craig Wibberly from Williamsport, MD. A young man dedicated to serving his country, and a father’s partner for fishing and rebuilding Corvettes. At 19, Craig Wibberley joined the Navy to travel and get an education, his father said. The quiet country church’s graveyard was Craig Wibberley’s final resting place and the cache was placed as a rememberance to him.
Then it was on to Booth's Mill Bridge. This bridge was built by Charles Wilson in 1833 for $2,700, and the bridge was adjacent to a large powder mill and boys’ school run by the Reverend Bartholomew Booth. The bridge sits at the south end of Devil’s Backbone County Park. It crosses the Antietam Creek at the ford which Braddock's army used in 1755, later the site of Samuel Hitt's mill. After the fighting, nearby houses and barns became makeshift hospitals, treating wounded soldiers from both sides. After finding that cache and getting the necessary information it was off to Roxbury Mills Bridge. On the drive to this bridge we must have passed 4 different State of Maryland prisons from mimimum to maximum to youth and also a technical training prison. The Roxbury Mills Bridge located on Garis Shop Road, this three-archer over the Antietam Creek is a fine example of the design and workmanship that characterize stone bridges of the era. Built in 1824, in close proximity to the once famed Roxbury Mills, the ruins of which still stand today, this was one of a series of bridges to be constructed by Silas Harry for Washington County. Roxbury was originally a sawmill, then a grist mill, and finally a distillery. The beautifully restored bridge still serves our road system but alas, the distillery is no more.
Then it was on to a cache located at the Washington Ag Center in a light pole and the next cache was located in an old cemetery as a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe as the cache container was a life size plastic "Raven".
We drove to the Antietam National Battlefield after finishing those caches for 2 virtual caches located in the park and we also wanted to take the driving tour through the battlefield. Our first virtual was at a monument dedicated to Sgt. William Mckinley who when the Civil War broke out,On September 17, 1862, quit his job as a postal clerk in Poland, Ohio, and enlisted as a private in Company E, of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Before his first year of service had ended, young McKinley was promoted to Commissary Sergeant. On September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War, Sergeant McKinley was just to the rear of the battlefield watching over the brigade’s food and supplies. The men had eaten only a scanty breakfast, and he knew that as the day wore on the Buckeyes were growing weaker. Gathering up a hand full of stragglers, Sergeant McKinley courageously led two mule teams with wagons of rations and hot coffee into the thick of battle. Working his way over rough ground, through a hailstorm of artillery and rifle fire, he ignored repeated warnings to retreat – and continued on. He lost one team of mules to Confederate gunners, but did not return to the rear of the brigade until his fellow soldiers had been properly fed under the most adverse conditions. For his coolness under fire, outstanding bravery, and attention to DUTY, young McKinley was that same week promoted to second lieutenant. By war’s end he was a major – and thirty years later became President of the United States. Our next cache was also a virtual where we had to locate a set of coords and email what was at those coords. There was an old American 13 star flag painted on an old stone wall at the site. Then we had to ask a park ranger what the significance of the flag was. Well come to find out noone knows what the significance is. Then we started our 8 mile drive through the park. The drive, like Vicksburg, took us over the countryside where the battle had been fought and showed us many many battle plaques, landmarks, statues and buildings. Here is a brief description of the battle: The Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) on September 17, 1862, climaxed the first of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's two attempts to carry the war into the North. About 40,000 Southerners were pitted against the 87,000-man Federal Army of the Potomac under Gen. George B. McClellan. And when the fighting ended, the course of the American Civil War had been greatly altered. After his great victory at Manassas in August, Lee had marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland, hoping to find vitally needed men and supplies. McClellan followed, first to Frederick (where through rare good fortune a copy of the Confederate battle plan, Lee's Special Order No. 191, fell into his hands), then westward 12 miles to the passes of South Mountain. There on September 14, at Turner's, Fox's, and Crampton's gaps, Lee tried to block the Federals. But because he had split his army to send troops under Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, Lee could only hope to delay the Northerners. McClellan forced his way through, and by the afternoon of September 15 both armies had established new battle lines west and east of Antietam Creek near the town of Sharpsburg. When Jackson's troops reached Sharpsburg on the 16th, Harpers Ferry having surrendered the day before, Lee consolidated his position along the low ridge that runs north and south of the town. The battle opened at dawn on the 17th when Union Gen. Joseph Hooker's artillery began a murderous fire on Jackson's men in the Miller cornfield north of town. "In the time I am writing," Hooker reported, "every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before." Hooker's troops advanced, driving the Confederates before them, and Jackson reported that his men were "exposed for near an hour to a terrific storm of shell, canister, and musketry." About 7 a.m. Jackson was reinforced and succeeded in driving the Federals back. An hour later Union troops under Gen. Joseph Mansfield counterattacked and by 9 o'clock had regained some of the lost ground. Then, in an effort to extricate some of Mansfield's men from their isolated position near the Dunker Church, Gen. John Sedgwick's division of Edwin V. Sumner's corps advanced into the West Woods. There Confederate troops struck Sedgwick's men on both flanks, inflicting appalling casualties. Meanwhile, Gen. William H. French's division of Sumner's corps moved up to support Sedgwick but veered south into Confederates under Gen. D. H. Hill posted along an old sunken road separating the Roulette and Piper farms. For nearly 4 hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., bitter fighting raged along this road (afterwards known as Bloody Lane) as French, supported by Gen. Israel B. Richardson's division, also of Sumner's corps, sought to drive the Southerners back. Confusion and sheer exhaustion finally ended the battle here and in the northern part of the field generally. Southeast of town, Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's troops had been trying to cross a bridge over Antietam Creek since 9:30 a.m. Some 400 Georgians had driven them back each time. At 1 p.m. the Federals finally crossed the bridge (now known as Burnside Bridge) and, after a 2-hour delay to reform their lines, advanced up the slope beyond. By late afternoon they had driven the Georgians back almost to Sharpsburg, threatening to cut off the line of retreat for Lee's decimated Confederates. Then about 4 p.m. Gen. A. P. Hill's division, left behind by Jackson at Harpers Ferry to salvage the captured Federal property, arrived on the field and immediately entered the fight. Burnside's troops were driven back to the heights near the bridge they had earlier taken. The Battle of Antietam was over. Bloody Lane was a rude farm lane which served first as a breastwork for the Confederate center but soon became an open grave for hundreds of the dead and wounded. For about three hours 2,200 Confederates, later reinforced by another 4,000 men, held off the attacks of a combined Union force numbering nearly 10,000. Finally, just after noon, this thin gray line collapsed and fell back several hundred yards to the Piper Farm. The Union attackers had suffered too many casualties to pursue their advantage. Seeing the dead in the road an observer wrote " They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are in adequate to portray the scene". Burying so many dead challenged survivors. Wooden plank wall caps stripped from the Lower Bridge were sawed up as provisional grave markers and Antietam National Cemetery created as a burial ground. The next day Lee began withdrawing his army across the Potomac River. More men were killed or wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, than on any other single day of the Civil War. Federal losses were 12,410, Confederate losses 10,700. Although neither side gained a decisive victory, Lee's failure to carry the war effort effectively into the North caused Great Britain to postpone recognition of the Confederate government. The battle also gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which, on January 1, 1863, declared free all slaves in States still in rebellion against the United States. Now the war had a dual purpose: to preserve the Union and end slavery. A more detailed description can be found at Wikpedia....Battle of Antietam. As we drove through we got out at as many of the locations we could but many of the farms and buildings were not accessible to the public.
Dunkard Church one of the sites we visited where you could get out and go inside had quite a history before and after the battle. It is one of the most noted landmarks on this great field of combat is a house of worship associated with peace and love. Indeed, the Dunker Church ranks as perhaps one of the most famous churches in American military history. This historic structure began as a humble country house of worship constructed by local Dunker farmers in 1852. It was Mr. Samuel Mumma, owner of the nearby farm that bears his name, that donated land in 1851 for the Dunkers to build their church. He also allowed members of the congregation to be buried in the Mumma family cemetery located a few hundred yards to the east of the church. In 1853 the church was dedicated and during its early history the congregation consisted of about half a dozen farm families from the local area. On the eve of the Battle of Antietam, the member of the Dunker congregation as well as their neighbors in the surrounding community received a portent of things to come. That Sunday, September 14, 1862, the sound of cannons booming at the Battle of South Mountain seven miles to the east was plainly heard as the Dunkers attended church. By September 16 Confederate infantry and artillery was being positioned around the church in anticipation of the battle that was fought the next day. During the battle of Antietam the church was the focal point of a number of Union attacks against the Confederate left flank. Most after action reports by commanders of both sides, including Union General Hooker and Confederate Stonewall Jackson, make references to the church. At battles end the Confederates used the church as a temporary medical aid station. A sketch by well known Civil War artist Alfred Waud depicts a truce between the opposing sides being held in front of the church on September 18, in order to exchange wounded and bury the dead. At least one account states that after the battle the Union Army used the Dunker Church as an embalming station. One tradition persists that Lincoln may have visited the site during his visit to the Army of the Potomac in October 1862. As for the old church, it was heavily battle scarred with hundreds of marks from bullets in its white washed walls. Likewise artillery had rendered serious damage to the roof and walls.. By 1864 the Church was repaired, rededicated and regular services were held there until the turn of the century. By the end of the 19th century membership had dwindled. The congregation built a new church in the town of Sharpsburg. Veterans that returned often had their picture taken in front of the church. Over the years souvenir hunters took bricks from the walls. A lack of adequate repair and maintenance left weakened structure and in 1921 a violent wind and hailstorm swept through the area flattening the church. With no plans to rebuild the church, the Board of Trustees voted to relinquish all claims to the property and have it revert back to the Mumma family. In 1924 the land and church ruins were put up for sale and purchased by Sharpsburg resident Elmer G. Boyer. He salvaged most of the undamaged material of the building and in turn sold the property. The new property owner built a home on the foundation of the old church and in the 1930's operated a gas station and souvenir shop on the site. This structure was removed in 1951 when the property was purchased by the Washington County Historical Society. They in turn donated the site, now just a foundation, to the National Park Service. Because the Dunker church was a prominent battlefield landmark, its reconstruction was a long term goal of the National Park Service. In 1960 The State of Maryland provided the NPS with $35,000 to reconstruct the church. The present Dunker Church, standing on the original site was completed late in 1961. Many of the original salvaged materials were purchased from Mr. Boyer and are now integral parts of the reconstructed church. These include 3,000 bricks, door and window frames, some flooring, and a number of benches. A visit to the Dunker Church today is like a step back into time. Note the simplicity of the church with its plain windows, crude wooden benches on which you may have sat for hours during the services in bygone years; and the simple table at the front where the elders of the church would have read from the old Bible. Take a seat inside and contemplate the sacrifice of the people of 1862.
After finishing our drive we went back to the RV and I showered and Mom did our cache logs. As I had said before Mom had a case of poison ivy and she decided that she should see a doctor as it wasn't clearing up. So we found one in Martinsburg and she got an appointment and we drove up there. Well come to find out because Mom is Type 2 Diabetic she can't take a shot of Prednisone as it might throw her sugar out of whack and cause a diabetic coma. So the doctor gave her some pills that had a very very light dose of the Prednisone over a period of 5 days and some pills for the itching. After we got her pills at CVS we went back and had dinner and I worked on the blog and Mom watched TV.



Picture List:1&2-St Mark's Episcopal Church Boonsboro, MD Circa 1819, 3-Cornerstone of the Church, 4&5-Cemetery at St. Mark's, 6-Entrance to Antietam National Battlefield, 7&8-Antietam National Cemetery, 9-The early 13 star American flag painted on the side of the rock wall, 10-Dunkard Church Histroicl Plaque, 11-Dunkard Church Circa 1852, 12&13-Inside of Dunkard Church, 14-The End Of The Confederacy Was In Sight Plaque, 15-These Men Are Going To Stay Here Plaque part of Bloody lane, 16-Bloody Lane Marker, 17&18-Bloody lane itself, 19&20-Mumma Cemetery, 21&22-Irish Brigade Observation Tower, 23-The Inn at Antietam, 24-A House Was Burning Plaque referring to the Mumma Farm, 25-Information sign on the Mumma Farm, 26&27-The Mumma Farm, 28-Overlooking one of the battlefields, 29-One of the many fence lines along the battlefields, 30-Overlooking the Valley, 31-Union Line of Battle Marker, 32-Destroy The Rebel Army Plaque, 33-Thrilling Spectacle Plaque, 34-Forever Free Plaque, 35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42-Some of the many plaques with information of each of the battles on them, 43-Brigadier General Branch Killed Here Marker, 44&45-Clara Barton Monument & Plaque, 46-The Bloody 40 Acre Cornfield Marker, 47-Cannon overlooking the Bloody 40 acre cornfield, 48-The Bloody Cornfield Marker, 49&50-The Sherrick Farm, 51&52The Poffenberger Farm, 53&54-Cannons overlooking the "Valley" one of the battlefields, 55,56&57-3 of the many statues of famous military men of the battle, 58&59-Roxbury Mills Bridge, 60&61-Booth's Mill Bridge, 62-The Falls at Devil's Backbone Park, 63-Civil War Trails MD Marker, 64-Council of War Should We Attack? Marker, 65-Jones Crossroads Historical Marker, 66-Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 67-General Store in Boonsboro, 68-Old Feed & Grain Mill in Boonsboro.