The 7th Ohio Infantry at the Battle of Antietam

Last month I had the opportunity to tour Antietam National Battlefield, following in the steps of Hector Tyndale's Federal brigade as it assaulted the Confederates in the Miller Cornfield and pushed them all the way back to the vicinity of Dunker Church. It was an incredibly moving experience to walk the field and read the words of the men who were there.

One of the soldiers whose accounts helped clarify the experience was Captain Frederick A. Seymour of Company G, 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. I quote below an excerpt from a letter Captain Seymour wrote home following the battle and include some photos of the areas of the battlefield that he described.

On the 4^th day of September, our brigade crossed the Potomac from Virginia at Georgetown and moved on the road to Rockville. Our progress was slow and toilsome on account of the great mass of troops and the enormous supply train necessary to move so large an army. We made slow progress, but kept moving steadily on to Frederick City. On the 8^th day of September, Colonel (Joel) Asper left the regiment on account of sickness and acting Major (Orrin J.) Crane being absent, the command of the regiment devolved upon myself. On the 9^th day, Col. Buckley of the 29^th Ohio left the brigade where he had been commanding for the last few days, he being no longer able for duty. Lieutenant Colonel Hector Tyndale of the 28^th Pennsylvania Regiment took command of the brigade which was composed of the following regiments: the 5^th Ohio, the 7^th Ohio, the 29^th Ohio, the 66^th Ohio, and the 28^th Pennsylvania. On the 11^th day, while halting for the rest, Gen. (Jacob D.) Cox of our old command, came up with his division. He stopped by for a while to see his old friends, and was warmly received.

Into the Cornfield by Alfred Waud

We moved on in perfect order; slow of necessity for we were in three and some of the time in five columns when on the march, for which it would be impracticable for all to pass on one road in single column. It was a sight magnificent and grand, as from some hill top we could get a view of advancing columns, stretching far away. We kept steadily on, day by day, until the 13^th when we came in sight of Frederick City. As we drew near the town, the sound of artillery broke upon our ears. We were hurried forward with all possible haste, but on coming to the town, found the rebels had fallen back to the mountains and were fortifying to dispute the passage of our advance.

The Ohio monument located across from Dunker Church

We encamped on the night of the 13^th in sight of the town and awaited orders. Soon, the order came to be ready to march at break of day with three days’ rations. On the morning of the 14^th, we moved on through the town. The people seemed wild with joy to think that Union troops were coming to their relief. Old ladies, blooming maidens, young girls, little boys with pails of cool water, all striving to be the first to do something for the Union soldiers. At nearly every window, were displayed the Stars and Stripes by ladies fair as they bid us welcome and God speed. On through the town we passed, with lighter hearts and quickened footsteps, all feeling that we left friends behind us and not, as in Virginia, lurking secret foes to shoot down our pickets.

Yours truly on the south side of the cornfield. It is truly sacred ground.

As we left the friendly city, one might discover the glistening tear in the soldier’s eye, as he turned himself around to gaze again, as it brought to mind his home and loved ones. As we moved on to South Mountain Pass, the booming cannon from rebel batteries, as they tried to hold our men in check, came thundering through the air. At last as we came nearer, the heavy roar of infantry told too plainly that a terrible battle was waging. As our artillery were returning the fire from the rebel batteries, Gen. Cox with his division had attacked them, and completely flanked them and before they were aware of his approach, poured a deadly fire upon them, drove them from their stronghold behind stone works with terrible slaughter, leaving their dead piled in heaps so terrible was their destruction. Gen. Cox and his men won for themselves a name which will not soon be forgotten.

The night of the 14^th we encamped at the foot of the mountain in sight of the bloody field. One Monday the 15^th we were early on the march. As we passed up the mountain road, we met a flag of truce borne by a rebel surgeon seeking the body of a colonel who fell the day before. They lost a general also and a large number of officers of less rank. It was in this engagement that Gen. (Jesse) Reno fell, a loss severely felt by our men for he was a good man and a brave general. As we went forward, the road on all sides gave unmistakable evidence of a terrible battle for on all sides, dead men and horses, broken cannon and all the dreadful carnage of war lay in wild confusion. Not a farm house, or mountain hut, barn or shed, but was filled with dead and wounded in all forms- some without arms, others with legs cut off by the terrible cannon ball, others too badly wounded to be helped but in their last agonies begging for help.

Lt. Col. G. Hector Tyndale, 28th Pennsylvania

As we moved on in pursuit of the fleeing foe, our men in good spirits, wrought up by the presence of our great chieftain Gen. McClellan as he rode through our ranks, it was pleasant to see the countenances of our men light up with joy as the rent the air with cheer after cheer, which was gracefully acknowledged by the gallant general. After marching till dark this night, the 15^th, we bivouacked for the night. On the morning of the 16^th we were aroused from our bed on the ground and received the order to march, for our artillery had engaged the enemy on a hill, a mile in our front. Our division was formed under Gen. Greene; in quick time, we were on the move to support the batteries, but after an hour’s artillery dueling, the rebels fell back across Antietam Creek. We were formed in close order of division and the order came to stack arms and make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Our men set about making coffee, the soldier’s only solace, after which, choosing the softest place on the ground, sought that rest and sleep so much needed by our nearly exhausted men, and night setting in, without further orders, we prepared to pass the night; but soon the order came to ‘fall in’ and in a moment we were under arms and on the march, which was slow and tedious as all night marches are. We kept on our march until three o’clock in the morning when arriving at a point near where the rebels were encamped and made a stand, we were ordered to halt and await the return of morning. Our men quickly dropping to the ground, were quietly sleeping as if there was nothing to disturb them the coming morning.

But to the tired and weary soldier, from three o’clock till morning passes quickly away and scarcely had the first tints of daylight broke upon the eastern horizon when the roar of artillery and musketry started the slumbering soldier and the order came to ‘fall in.’ With aching heads and benumbed limbs, they quickly obeyed the order and were on the march. After moving a mile to where the enemy was engaging our right wing, we were ordered to halt for our men to make coffee. Fires were soon kindled and the most of our men were able to get their coffee- some that were too slow had to do without for the order came to advance on the enemy. Our men were formed in column of division, the right in front, our brigade under Lt. Col. Tyndale of the 28^th Pennsylvania, our division under Gen. (George S.) Greene, our corps under Gen. (Joseph K.) Mansfield. In this order we moved on in solid column till we reached the point of woods where the enemy were in heavy force and were holding our men in check.

At this point, we deployed our brigade in line of battle to the right, the 7^th regiment on the right of the brigade, and marched into the woods, where the rebels were masked behind a fence, lying flat on the ground, their dirty gray (not uniforms, but rags) were so near the color of the ground that at first it was difficult to see where they were, but we soon learned for the leaden hail came thick and fast, and told upon our men, for three of Co. G had already been wounded. Our men soon discovered their hiding place and most terribly did they avenge their fallen comrades. After about 20 minutes of terrific fighting, we drove them from their shelter and put them to flight. In pursuing, as we advanced to their hiding place, the dead lay in piles, so sure and deadly had been our fire. They fell back through a field of standing corn, our men hotly pursuing, literally covering the ground with dead and wounded, capturing hundreds of prisoners of all grades, from colonels down to privates, besides a large number of colors. The carnage of that bloody field was terrible beyond all description. No language can describe, nor pen every picture it.

The northeast corner of the Miller Cornfield where the 7th Ohio struck the Confederate lines held by the 6th Georgia Infantry of Colquitt's Brigade.

After following them a mile or more, giving them to time to rally their confused and disordered ranks, our fire slackened for our ammunition had given out, although each man had from 60 to 70 rounds at the commencement of the fight. So it may safely be inferred that there was some shooting done. An orderly being dispatched for ammunition by Gen. Greene, our men lay down upon the ground, when shot and shell went screaming through the air above us, yet so as not to harm us. After waiting half an hour, the ammunition having been brought up and our cartridge boxes replenished, we changed our line of battle to the right and marched to a slight elevation of ground towards which point the enemy were advancing.

Dunker Church

As we gained the top of the hill, they were advancing upon us in columns of regiments. On they came with a steady tramp, determined to gain what they had lost in the last two hours. Our men, nothing daunted, thought to show them a specimen of the Yankee- accordingly ordered our right to advance as skirmishers, which they did, with orders to fall back at a given signal. Our regiment suddenly falling back under the hill, lay down, and calmly awaited their approach. On they came, confidently expecting to overwhelm us with their superior force as to numbers. Our skirmishers falling back to where the regiment lay, drew them on; until within 50 yards of our lines. Then, rising suddenly to our feet, we poured so deadly a fire upon them that they were completely broken and confused, our men following them with volley after volley with such terrible effect that they again retired in confusion, almost a total rout.

Crossing over the fence surrounding the Miller Cornfield at Antietam
(National Tribune)

They took shelter again in a piece of heavy standing timber, half a mile or so back, to where our troops pursued with victorious shouts, capturing prisoners almost without number, and still driving them from their shelter; our right acting as skirmishers in the woods, driving them from tree to tree and held the ground we had gained for an hour or more, they holding their men as best they could, and fighting with the desperation of fiends, seeming determined to perish rather than yield. The ground from the hill from which we had driven them in wild disorder back to the woods was all the way strewed thick with the wounded and slain, and presented a spectacle of horror at which the heart saddens and grows sick in beholding. The dead lying mangled and torn in all the horrid ghastliness of death, was a sight terrible beyond all conception. The wounded rebel and Union soldiers lay side by side, apparently forgetting they were ever enemies, piteously asking for water and help from those, who a short half hour ago, were seeking each other’s lives with all the intensity of hatred of which man is capable. A rebel officer upon being offered water, looked up with his eyes full of tears- said he did not expect that, but supposed he would be bayonetted.

Rail fence around the cornfield

It was on this part of the field that our loss was the heaviest. It was here that Corporal Lazarus of Co. G, and Sergeant Carter of Co. F fell in the thickest of the fight; and I may be allowed to say, that two better soldiers never fell on any battlefield. And terrible and heart crushing as it is to friends, they have the mournful satisfaction of knowing that they died at their post, in the midst of dangers from which they never for a moment shrank or faltered. They nobly died with their face to the foe.

Gen. Greene ordered us back to rest our men as our brigade commander Col. Tyndale had been severely wounded, and as our troops had been constantly under fire of the hottest kind since six in the morning. It was after one P.M. and our men were glad to get a chance to rest for they were nearly exhausted. The day was very warm and the work terrible. Before falling back, both Col. Tyndale and Gen. Green paid us a high compliment for our good order, coolness, and courage in battle. He said he was proud of his Ohio troops-they were worthy of any commander. It was with much sorrow that we learned at this time of the fall of our corps commander Gen. Mansfield. We had learned to admire him and believed him a good man as well as a good general.

Gen. McClellan was everywhere, on all parts of the field, giving orders and encouraging his troops. You could tell on what part of the field the general was passing by the deafening cheers that rent the air. It will be seen that the work he had to do was of a magnitude which most minds would have been inadequate to perform.

As the darkness set in, our little shattered brigade was again ordered to the front. Being in command of our regiment on the receipt of the order, I soon had the 7^th under arms and were on the march. Arriving 80 rods from the enemy’s line, we were ordered to halt and wait for orders. Giving our tired men the order to rest, they were soon lying on the ground, each with his musket firmly grasped, ready for that oft repeated word ‘fall in.’ Receiving no further orders for the night, our men were soon lost in sleep, forgetful of the events of that never to be forgotten day. Nearly all night, the pickets kept up their dueling and many a soldier went out to duty, who returned no more.

On the morning of the 18^th, I begged permission to go back to the field in order to obtain the bodies of Corporal Lazarus and Sergeant Green, and receiving an order from Gen. Green to take as many men as I needed to bury the dead of our regiment, I obeyed the order, taking with me some 20 men with stretchers and shortly we started on our sorrowful mission to perform the last rites to our fallen comrades. On arriving at the point where out men had fallen, we collected all we knew to have been killed, took them to a burying ground neatly enclosed, laid them in their soldier’s grave, put up a headboard to their graves, dropped a tear over their ashes, and bid them farewell.

All agree that it was the most terrible fight that ever occurred on American soil. As we moved on, on all sides for two or three miles the ground was still covered with the unburied dead, the rebels having stole away in the night, leaving their dead for us to bury. The provost marshal has reported 5,000 dead rebels which he has buried, and not through then. It is said, and without exaggeration, that their loss on leaving Manassas was 60,000 men. This is their own account, and 40,000 crossed into Maryland and never went back. A terrible retribution after their pompous boast that they would desolate Pennsylvania.

The Ohio Monument- 5th, 7th, and 66th Ohio right across the road from the Dunker Church

The 7th Ohio Infantry was also known as the "Rooster Regiment"