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


Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Wizard of Oz and the Civil War

Image
T he 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has delighted viewers for 85 years and ranks as a personal favorite, especially during the Halloween season. While watching it with the family the other night, I wondered if there were any connections between the film and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes and those connections touch both the blue and the gray.           Interestingly both “witches” in the film not only had Civil War ancestors but had connections with Civil War soldiers from Ohio. Margaret Hamilton, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 9, 1902, to attorney Walter Jones Hamilton and his wife Mary Jane Adams; Margaret’s grandfather was Judge Edwin Timothy Hamilton. Judge Hamilton had served as a private in Co. D of the 84 th Ohio Infantry during the summer of 1862. The 84 th Ohio, a three months’ regiment, served nearly the whole of its service attached to the Railroad District in western Ma...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my ...
Read more

Cook & Brother of New Orleans

Image
    The lockplate of a New Orleans-made Cook & Brother Enfield rifle produced in 1862 shows the fine craftsmanship that became the hallmark of the maker throughout the Civil War. Note the stars and bars flag at left, an emblem used on C&B's production throughout the war and the Cook & Brother, N.O. 1862 markings. Earlier production weapons at New Orleans had the flag located just above the maker's name while later weapons produced in Athens, Georgia would have a modified flag and Athens on the plate followed by the serial number.        In the spring of 1861, two English-born businessmen, Ferdinand and Francis Cook of New Orleans, perceived the need for the South to have its own domestic production of firearms and  set out to prove "that rifles could made here as well as in Yankee land or in Europe." The brothers  elected to produce copies of the British Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield rifle as this was considered the benchmark longarm...
Read more

I Want to See a Battle: A Hoosier at Shiloh

Image
W riting in his diary, Private Manius Buchanan of the 29 th Indiana recalled the eagerness with which his regiment marched towards Savannah, Tennessee with the sounds of the battle of Shiloh ringing in their ears.           “The forced march was kept up until 2 p.m. when we were halted until 4 p.m,” he noted. “The rest was really needed, but the continual question is ‘Why are we stopped here?’ The sound of battle increased in volume and anxiety to be up and doing grows more intense. As I am weak from a late sickness, I am urged to fall to the rear; but no, in common with all, I want to see a battle and fear this will be my only chance.” The regiment would go into action the following afternoon, and of the four neighborhood boys who had enlisted together in Co. B, only Buchanan escaped unscathed. One afternoon's exposure to the horrors of battle was all it took to satisfy this Hoosier's desire to see the elephant. “I wanted to see a battl...
Read more

An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

Image
  “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.” I t was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta.       Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands.      Around this same time,  an old acquaintance from Me...
Read more