With the Macbeth Light Artillery at Sharpsburg

Stunned and nauseated after the explosion of one of his battery’s caissons, a member of the Macbeth Light Artillery of South Carolina stumbled back into the streets of Sharpsburg while the battle of Antietam was at its height.

“As I passed along the streets in the western suburbs of Sharpsburg, I saw the most horrible scene that I witnessed during the war: a Confederate soldier lying on the street with the top of his head shot off,” he wrote. “It had evidently been done by Federal guns on the eastern side of the Antietam a mile away. His blood and brains were scattered on the ground and a hog was reveling in them as though the battle was for the special benefit of hungry brutes. On the crest of a high hill just beyond this scene, I saw General Lee, almost alone, with his glasses to his eyes intently watching his center that had already been broken without the slightest apparent indication of alarm.”

The following article, part of a lengthy series describing the wartime services of the Macbeth Light Artillery, first saw publication in the July 9, 1886, edition of the Weekly Union Times from Union Courthouse, South Carolina. Its author, however, is a mystery- he went by the penname of “Vidi.”

During the Maryland campaign, the six-gun battery under the command of Captain Robert Boyce was part of Evans’ Independent Brigade of Longstreet’s corps. The battery fought in two locations during the battle: the first position in the morning was just east of the Hagerstown Pike near the Henry Piper orchard supporting the Confederate line along Bloody Lane. The second position (late morning/afternoon) was closer to the Boonsboro Pike near the Middle Bridge.

 

The Macbeth Light Artillery rolled onto the field at Antietam with six guns but lost one before getting into its first position near the Piper orchard. A second gun was lost as the battery moved west to combat a Federal drive across Middle Bridge. All told, the battery suffered 19 casualties in the battle. 

          A narration of some of the scenes and incidents of the Battle of Sharpsburg may not be wholly an uninteresting prelude to this number of our recollections.

          Artillery men do little picketing, carry no baggage, and ride across streams. These are privileges that the infantry do not enjoy. We usually hauled our baggage on our caissons and on the limber chest. On the morning of the fight, when one of our caissons was blown up, a bundle of blankets was sent heavenwards. Ike Ison, who fell when the explosion took place, rose just as the blankets under the force of gravity were returning. In the confusion, he cried out, “Boys, they are shooting blankets at us!” Many of us thought it was something more solid than blankets that was doing the damage.

          As the Macbeth was hurrying into the fight on the morning of that eventful day, when it seemed as if heaven and earth had come together, my attention was arrested by the demeanor of a youthful soldier who was being borne to the rear badly wounded. He was weeping and one might have imagined that the frightful wound had turned his thoughts homeward and to loved ones there and thus unmanned the soldier boy. No doubt he was in great physical agony.

          His thoughts, however, were not of self or home, but of the battlefield, our struggling men, and victory. The indomitable spirit of this youthful patriot gave way to tears because he was no longer able to fight for his country. But his courage rose superior to his physical suffering and it was inspiring to hear him cheering the troops that were then hurrying by, saying, “Go it, boys! Our men need you over there.”

          We had one gun disabled before we reached our first position and lost another between the first and second positions. Hence it is that the Macbeth is referred to in the official reports as a battery of four guns. A section of the Washington Light Artillery received distinguished mention in connection with the saving of our center. It fought well and merited all the official notice it received but the Macbeth was in front of it and nearer the enemy and was there after the section referred to had left the field.

          Lieutenant Porter told the writer than Von Schartel, acting as gunner at our second position, divided two color bearers in halves. It was while gallantly fighting at this very hot place that young John Lyles, expressing the feeling of many other soldiers, declared that he wished it was night. In their official reports, the Federal officers saw that Colonel Bartow was wounded and General Richardson killed by canister. The Macbeth was the only battery that fired a gun at this position and most of our firing there was with double-shotted canister.

          Suffering with nausea and paroxysm of pain from the explosion of the caisson, I took advantage of a calm in the storm of battle and retired from the field. As I passed along the streets in the western suburbs of Sharpsburg, I saw the most horrible scene that I witnessed during the war: a Confederate soldier lying on the street with the top of his head shot off. It had evidently been done by Federal guns on the eastern side of the Antietam a mile away. His blood and brains were scattered on the ground and a hog was reveling in them as though the battle was for the special benefit of hungry brutes.

Main street in Sharpsburg, Maryland shortly after the battle in 1862. 

          On the crest of a high hill just beyond this scene, I saw General Lee, almost alone, with his glasses to his eyes intently watching his center that had already been broken without the slightest apparent indication of alarm. The Macbeth had advanced and planted her guns in the gap and was maintaining the position with distinguished gallantry wholly unconscious that the eyes of our great chief were watching her action or that so much depended on their efforts. I doubt very much if there was another command that fought from early morn to dewey eve without relief. Reserves generally do the relieving; but it so happened that when it came the Macbeth’s time to be relieved, there was no reserve. Every soldier in Lee’s army had already smelt the smoke of battle that day.

          In some respects, the battle of Sharpsburg was the greatest of the war. For a brief period of time I have heard more rapid and terrific cannonading but when it is remembered that the battle raged from before sunrise till after sunset, I doubt if the incessant roar of artillery at Sharpsburg was equaled on any other battlefield during the war. Every minute after the two armies had warmed up the battle balls were ploughing the ground, whizzing or shrieking through the air while shells were exploding, showering their fragments here, there, everywhere.

Night put an end to the terrible fight. Lee and his men retired that night fully expecting it would be renewed the next day with increased fury. But morning came and the day wore away without the firing of a hostile gun. I am quite sure that the Macbeth could have carried more men into a fight on the 18th than we did on the 17th. The two detachments, belonging to our disabled guns, were intact and many who aided the wounded in getting from the field never returned. Experience taught us before night put an end to the conflict that it would not do to send men out of the battle with the wounded. The experience of that day would have been of immense value to us had the fight been renewed on the 18th. 

General Robert E. Lee and Traveler 

          It was impossible for Lee to supply his army with ammunition and rations for any length of time north of the Potomac as a sudden rain and rise in the river would have imperiled his army. Already both horses and men were on half rations. As McClellan failed to accept Lee’s offer of battle on the 18th, our army was ordered to cross the Potomac that night. The Macbeth reached the river before twilight and there we remained till dawn the next morning. The infantry began to enter the river as we drove up and as the ford was deep the crossing was slow.

          We were in our saddles all night, expecting every moment that we would be ordered forward. As we neared the southern bank of the Potomac, an exhausted horse in a battery in our front fell. He was took weak to pull out of the water. General Lee, riding out of the river just then, watched the ineffectual efforts to put the feeble animal on its feet, said, “Every minute is worth an hour to us. Roll him out of the way.” The horse went into the river as Lee and his men moved on.

          Three roads led from the river on the Virginia side. For nearly a mile the upper one ran along the water’s edge between a high ridge and the river. At Shepherdstown, it deflected from the rover at an angle of about 45 degrees and ran in a northwest direction to Martinsburg. The lower road made about the same angle with the Potomac and ran in a southwest direction to Charlestown, a place made historic by the execution of John Brown of Harper’s Ferry notoriety. The central road ran directly to Winchester.

          Retreats always have a demoralizing tendency. Crossing the river at night, troops getting separated from their comrades, had a most unhappy effect on Lee’s army. The army took the upper route leading to Martinsburg but thousands of our troops who got away from their commands in crossing the river followed the lower road to Charlestown. Lieutenant Porter came out of the river with the four guns that came out of the fight unhurt and “falling in” behind this crowd of lost soldiers on the lower road went on to Charlestown and thence to Winchester.



          Captain Boyce, Lieutenant Jeter, and the writer by some means were thrown with the two disabled guns that got separated from the battery in crossing the river. We followed the army along the upper road. It would have been a serious matter for us had McClellan discovered our retreat in time to have planted some guns on the Potomac as he did later in the day. They could have disabled some of our guns so as to have blocked the road where it leaves the river at Shepherdstown. The ridge to the left of the road shut us in beyond the possibility of escape. As we ascended the hill to Shepherdstown, I looked back to see if the Federals were pursuing. The sun was just rising: no Federals in sight.

          In going through Shepherdstown, we passed the graves of Dawkins, Miller, and Rogers who had fallen two days previous at Sharpsburg. It was sad to think that these gallant men who stood by our side a few days before as buoyant with hope as any in the company would no more share with us the joys of victory or the humiliation of defeat along with the trials, privations, and hardships of a soldier’s life.

          Just north of Shepherdstown, we overtook Lee’s army on either side of the road; our battery was not there. A road leaving the one along which we had just marched and running parallel with the Potomac entered the lower road a few hundred yards from the ford. I was ordered to follow this road in search of the battery. At its junction with the road leading to Charlestown, I heard that Lieutenant Porter had gone towards that place.

          By this time, the Federals had planted some batteries on the hills just over the river and were shelling our side of it furiously. I passed back under this fire. Fitz-John Porter pushed his corps across the river under the cover of these guns but met with a bloody reception. Two hundred of his command were captured and thousands killed or drowned. The Potomac looked for once as though it was wearing the blue. But few of Porter’s command lived to tell how fearfully it had been cut to pieces.

 For most posts about the Battle of Antietam, click here to visit my Battle of Antietam page. 

To read more about the Macbeth Light Artillery, the other articles in the series are located within the pages of the Weekly Union Times as follows. Unfortunately, copies do not exist of the Union Times for the entirety of the series run in 1886 but here is what is available through newspapers.com:

No. 1- April 16, 1886, pg. 1

No. 2- April 30, 1886, pg. 1

No. 3- May 14, 1886, pg. 1 (Seven Days)

No. 4- May 28, 1886, pg. 1 (Second Bull Run)

No. 7- July 9, 1886, pg. 1 (Maryland Campaign/Antietam)

No. 10- August 20, 1886, pg. 1 (Vicksburg Campaign)

No. 11- September 3, 1886, pg. 1

No. 13- October 1, 1886, pg. 1

No. 16- November 12, 1886, pg. 1

Source:

“Reminiscences of the Macbeth Light Artillery,” Vidi, Weekly Union Times (Union Courthouse, South Carolina), July 9, 1886, pg. 1

 

 

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

Arming the Union: Federal Contract Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets

Image
A t the outset of the Civil War, the Federal government ran into a serious issue when the Confederacy occupied Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the home of one of the nation’s two armories, and carted the gun making equipment off to Richmond, Virginia. This left just the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts as the sole government-operated entity to produce longarms for the Union army.           But it quickly became apparent that production at Springfield would have to be supplemented, so the War Department pursued two tracks to increase the weapons supply. Agents were dispatched to Europe to purchase suitable weapons from England, France, Austria, Belgium, and Prussia. Over time, these agents acquired hundreds of thousands of European arms of different designs and origins that equipped Federal regiments in the first years of the war.           In the meantime, operations at the Springfiel...
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 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

Arming the Empire State: Arms Issues to New York Infantry Regiments in 1861

Image
     During the Civil War, the state of New York provided more than 400,000 men to the Union army, the highest number of soldiers of any state, and as can be imagined, the task of arming those hundreds of thousands of volunteers was a very difficult one. At the outbreak of hostilities, the state militia numbered 19,000 men but the state possessed only about 8,000 long arms nearly all of which were utilized to arm the eleven militia regiments which left the state in the earliest days of the war. The state dispatched an agent to England on April 24 th to purchase 25,000 Enfield pattern rifle muskets but upon his arrival, he found those weapons hard to find as Confederate agents had already been busy buying up the stock. Eventually, he was able to secure 19,000 Enfields at a cost of $335,000; these weapons arrived in bits and pieces over the next several months and were issued out soon after their arrival to newly formed regiments.  A perusal of the adjutant general’...
Read more

Grant's Bodyguard: An Illinois Trooper at Fort Donelson

Image
Continuing on last week's theme of brushes with the legends of the Civil War, this week's post features a letter from Illinois trooper Private George M. Bradley of Co. A, 4th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Bradley, a native of Akron, Ohio, enlisted September 26, 1861 in the 4th Illinois Cavalry and served three years as a Private, mustering out November 3, 1864.  Perhaps one of the most noteworthy things about his service was the time he spent as a bodyguard for General Ulysses S. Grant during the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Interestingly, Bradley joined up with the 2nd Iowa Infantry on February 15, 1862 and participated in their celebrated attack that broke the Confederate right and precipitated the surrender of the fort on the following day. The charge of the 2nd Iowa will be the feature of my next blog post as I have a number of accounts from Ohioans who participated as members of the 2nd Iowa. Bradley's letter saw print in the March 13, 1862 issue of the...
Read more

Old Abe: The Magnificent War Eagle of the 8th Wisconsin

Image
       In September of 1861, Captain John E. Perkins and the Eau Claire Badgers went into Camp Randall, in Madison Wisconsin with an unusual company mascot: a fledging bald eagle who they soon named Old Abe.           Old Abe had been captured near the Flambeau River in Chippewa County, Wisconsin by Agemahmegezhig (Chief Sky), a member of the Chippewa tribe during sugar season in the spring of 1861.   “His captor cut down a large pine tree in which was the eagle’s nest and secured this one caught in spite of the screams and menaces of the parent birds,” Captain James H. Green of the 8 th Wisconsin later wrote. Daniel McCann of Eagle Point, Wisconsin soon purchased this fledgling eagle by trading a bushel of corn with the Chippewa. Captain Perkins was then in Eau Claire organizing a company and it was there that McCann sold the eagle to Perkins’ company for $2.50. Perkins, who was later killed at the battle of Farmi...
Read more

A Different Vista on the Civil War: An "Ohio" Marked Lorenz Rifle

Image
          While the focus of this blog has been almost exclusively on chronicling the services of Ohioans during the Civil War through their own words, once in a while it is worthwhile to look into object-based history to help further illuminate the times. Object-based history provides a different vista through which to view past events, by studying the manufacture, use, and history of the objects themselves. Today's post marks my first entry into studying the Civil War through its relics and objects. Unidentified Yankee private holding a Lorenz rifle and Colt revolver (Library of Congress)            I recently acquired an Ohio-marked M1854 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle from a longtime Civil War collector. When I decided to purchase the rifle, I knew little beyond the fact that I had come across dozens of references to this usually well-regarded longarm in my research over the years and it was one of the more att...
Read more

Cotton Burning on the Levee: A Civilian Witnesses the Federal Seizure of New Orleans

Image
F or one Ohio-born resident of New Orleans, the arrival of Admiral David Farragut’s fleet on April 25, 1862, marked a day of liberation. “Yesterday about half past 1 o’clock, the cry was raised that the Yankees were upon us,” wrote Louis M. Beyers in a letter to his mother. “I started toward the levee where the Federal vessels were said to be lying. Reaching the river, what a sight breaks upon my view. The steamboat William Morrison was one mass of flames. All the shipping was sending forth the most dense black smoke. The Mississippi , a ram which was nearly finished and which, if completed, would have demolished the whole fleet in one hour, floating slowly by with the smoke issuing from every opening and several other important like vessels in various parts of the river, all showing that the torch has been applied to them.” “Together with the thunder which came peal after peal gave a scene of the utmost grandeur. There proudly floating in the smoke and rain were the glorious old ...
Read more