We Felt a Little Streaked: At Burnside's Bridge with the 21st Massachusetts

The Rohrbach Bridge was one of three bridges that crossed Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg but is certainly the most well-known. Often referred to as the Burnside Bridge, it is one of the most iconic sites on the Antietam battlefield. Here General Edward Ferrero's brigade crossed the bridge under a heavy fire from Robert Toombs' Georgians and Private Charles Crafts of the 21st Massachusetts was wounded as he describes in his letter below. (Image courtesy of Phil Spaugy)


During the Battle of Antietam, General Ambrose Burnside’s IX Army Corps was tasked with taking the Rohrbach bridge across Antietam Creek and among the troops employed to accomplish that objective was Private Charles Ransom Crafts of the 21st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. After taking the bridge, the regiment fell under Confederate artillery fire where it appeared the Rebels threw everything they could find at the Federals.

“The Rebels came down on us in force and opened on us with their batteries,” Crafts recalled. The Confederate gunners fired “shot and shell, railroad iron, sledgehammers, chains, blacksmith’s tongs, horseshoes, spikes, small stones, grape and canister, and worst of all, musket balls. We had to stand and take it and when they got too near, we would give them a volley and charge on them, and in that way we held them back until we got out of ammunition.”

          Already smarting from a neck wound sustained at Chantilly just a few weeks before, Crafts was struck again before crossing the bridge. “I was hit, the ball passing through my cap box then striking a button glanced off injuring me but slightly. I am not wounded so badly as to compel me to leave the company,” he assured his father James Monroe Crafts back in Whately. Crafts’ letter describing the fight at Antietam first saw publication in the October 13, 1862, edition of the Greenfield Gazette & Courier.

 

Irish-born Sergeant Thomas E. Plunkett of Co. E of the 21st Massachusetts Infantry poses with the regimental flag after losing both arms at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Plunkett seized the colors from the first color bearer and bore them to the forefront of the line under a hail of Confederate fire. A shell exploded nearby which severed both of Plunkett's arms. The intrepid mechanic from West Boylston survived the horrific wound and later was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism at Fredericksburg. 

        

Near Sharpsburg, Maryland

September 20 & 23, 1862

 

          I see by the papers that I was reported as killed in the terrible battle of Antietam Creek and I know you are anxious to gain all the intelligence you can of your boys. Our chaplain has just told me that a mail would leave tomorrow. Well, we have had a hard fight and I am all right although I have been wounded twice slightly, once in the neck and once in the bowels in the late fight, and once in the neck at Chantilly. They may bring me next time but I trust in Providence for my returning safely home.

          Our brigade had to take a bridge and it cost us as many as 550 good boys out of 1,600; that is taking them off pretty fast now I tell you. We were laying about one mile from the bridge when the Rebels commenced shelling us. Then we were moved into a hollow to be out of the way of the shells when it was ascertained that the Rebels were trying to cross the bridge to attack our left. General Sturgis was ordered to go to the bridge and drive them back, then to cross and hold the bridge.

          The Rebel batteries did not reply very often as our division advanced. The First Brigade [General James Nagle] drove them back and tried to cross the bridge but were unable to do so, having suffered greatly. The Second Brigade (which includes the 21st Massachusetts) was then called for and we went with the greatest yelling you ever heard in your life, and commenced firing. We fired about 30 rounds then crossed the bridge with only 10 rounds in our boxes. You had better believe we felt a little streaked.

 

A soldier's point of view of the Burnside Bridge. (Image courtesy of Phil Spaugy)

“As soon as we were ordered forward, we started on the double quick and gained the position although we lost quite a number of men doing it. We were then ordered to halt and commenced firing and the way we showered lead across that creek was nobody’s business. As soon as the men got steadily settled to their work I took a rifle from one of the wounded men and went in, loading and firing as fast as anyone. After half an hour the enemy’s fire began to slacken a little and soon the order was given for our brigade to charge. With the cry of “remember Reno,” we started for the bridge.” ~Second Lt. George W. Whitman, Co. D, 51st New York

 

          The firing ceased for awhile when the Rebels came down on us in force and opened on us with their batteries, throwing shot and shell, railroad iron, sledgehammers, chains, blacksmith’s tongs, horseshoes, spikes, small stones, grape, and canister, and worst of all, musket balls. We had to stand and take it and when they got too near, we would give them a volley and charge on them, and in that way we held them back until we got out of ammunition. Then the order was given to retreat, but there we stood and well we did for in a few minutes we were relieved by another division it being about night. We drove them about a mile when another division came over and we were allowed to rest on our arms after filling our cartridge boxes.

General Edward Ferrero

The next day we did nothing but bury the dead and sorrowfully we did it, too, for there were a good many boys that lay there who had fought their last fight. Before crossing the bridge, I was hit, the ball passing through my cap box then striking a button glanced off injuring me but slightly. The wound on my neck received at Chantilly is almost well. I am not wounded so badly as to compel me to leave the company. General Burnside said that we were going to rest for a week or two. I hope so for 24 hours is more than we have had in any one place before for some time. Yesterday all our regiment could muster was 92 rank and file. Tomorrow I am to have a clean shirt. Isn’t that nice?

Sources:

Letter from Private Charles Ransom Crafts, Co. G, 21st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Gazette & Courier (Greenfield, Massachusetts), October 13, 1862, pg. 1

Loving, Jerome M. editor. Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman. Durham: Duke University Press, 1975, pg. 67


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