Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2015 by Kevin R. Pawlak
All rights reserved
First published 2015
e-book edition 2015
ISBN 978.162585.465.0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015942272
print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.925.5
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Dedicated to Private First Class Clifford James Williams, Thirty-ninth Infantry Regiment, Ninth Infantry Division, killed in action near St. Lo, France, July 24, 1944. Boston Strong
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
As the sun slipped toward the western horizon at the end of Americas bloodiest day, the cries of thousands of wounded and dying men replaced the roar of cannons and rattle of musket fire in the fields and woodlots around Sharpsburg, Maryland. The casualties were on a scale so appalling that we can barely comprehend it today. There was no hope for the almost four thousand already dead. Thousands of their comrades, who began this day in the ranks of infantry regiments and artillery batteries, now lay wounded upon this field. Their fate was in the hands of the surgeons and their assistants in both armies. The wounded of Antietam were just the latest casualties of the Maryland Campaign. Since the fighting at Solomons Gap on September 13 through the South Mountain fighting the next day to Jacksons final attack on Harpers Ferry on the fifteenth, the citizens of Shepherdstown had witnessed, ministered to and endured the specter of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers seeking refuge in their town. What had been a trickle became a flash flood of misery on September 17.
All too often, we are inclined to overlook the terrible aftermaths of Civil War battlefields and look forward to the next campaign. More than 150 years have sufficiently distanced and desensitized us to the sights and sounds and smells of those battlefields so that we have little concept of what those places and times were like. There has been less commentary and analysis of the medical history of the war overall perhaps than many other aspects and even less about that of the Confederate side. Much of the reason for the lack of attention to the Confederate medical service is the frustrating scarcity of original material. To an even greater degree, we frequently pass by completely the civilians who stood in the path of the armies and who remained long after their passage, cleaning up the refuse of war and trying to find a new normal.
Kevin Pawlak makes his debut on the literary stage of Civil War history by filling in some of these empty spaces. He is uniquely qualified to take on this important work. As the chief guide at Antietam National Battlefield, I have come to know Kevin very well in the past five years. He is a 2014 graduate with honors in history with an emphasis on the Civil War, from Shepherd University. He came to intimately know the town of Shepherdstown during his years as a student there. He takes us back to that town where so many of the Confederate wounded were treated after the battles of the Maryland Campaign. Kevin served as a seasonal park ranger at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and became the youngest ever National Park Service certified Antietam Battlefield Guide after completing a particularly rigorous testing and presentation program. He now is a full-time education specialist at the Mosby Heritage Area Association. Kevin is well known among the Antietam guide community as a prodigious researcher. He has brought this subject to life by unearthing scores of original documents and rare pictures. By scanning the bibliography and endnotes of this volume, you will see the many primary sources that he used to craft this work. He tells an engaging and compelling story.
I accompanied Kevin on many trips to the National Archives in Washington, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle Barracks and (it seems) every bookstore in between as he researched and prepared this book. In many hours of enjoyable conversation and reflection on mostly Civil War topics, I have come to know and respect him as a serious historian. Kevin represents the next generation of Civil War scholars who will advance the scholarship and historiography of that momentous time.
Kevin has skillfully brought to life the untold story of the undermanned and poorly equipped medical department of the Army of Northern Virginia led by Lafayette Guild, with the story of many of those wounded during the battles of the Maryland Campaign and the people who lived along the Potomac River in the town of Shepherdstown, a place that became one vast hospital.
JAMES A. ROSEBROCK
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)
Chief Guide, Antietam National Battlefield
Sharpsburg, Maryland
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
From the time I first set foot in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in 2009, the amount of tangible history in the town captivated me, as did the towns awareness of its historic sites and stories. One of its most fascinating stories that especially intrigued me during my time attending Shepherd University was the towns experience during the Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Never did I imagine that I would be in a position to write a book about that story. While much has been written about the Federal hospitals and the wounded recuperating in Maryland following the Battle of Antietam, no study has yet examined the Confederate wounded following Americas single bloodiest day. I wanted to write this book to tell that story as well as the story of the Confederate medical corps during the campaign and that of Shepherdstowns citizens who became engulfed by the Army of Northern Virginia in September 1862.
Found within this book are chapters discussing the formation of the Confederate medical corps and its actions during the various battles of the Maryland Campaign. This focus is intertwined with the stories of the men the corps aided as well as the story and history of Shepherdstown and its experience during the campaign. For readability purposes, and to provide an easy-flowing story, this is not a book that delves into the strategy of both armies in Maryland. Rather, the stories of those who found themselves in Shepherdstown alongside the towns residents are told. In order to have a better understanding of what Shepherdstown endured and how it came to be a hospital town, examinations of the towns history, the Confederate army and the Confederate medical corps are necessary.
While one name appears as the author of this book, many people helped with its completion. My thanks first extend to The History Press and my editor there, Candice Lawrence. She has been an excellent help during this lengthy process and has made it as easy as possible along the way. Thanks also go to Marianne Davis, whose eye for typos and punctuation mistakes is invaluable.
