Civil War Ghosts of Sharpsburg

The History Press

Contents

PART I

The Ghostly Confederate Soldiers' Passageway

There is more than just traffic moving along the streets and alleys in the northwest quadrant of Sharpsburg. There are also regular reports of Confederate soldiers moving down the roads headed west toward the Potomac River. Some are only witnessed in the middle of the night, while others appear in morning hours or at dusk. There are dozens, and on our ghost tours, we simply do not have time to mention every one that we've been told. Although the thousands of Confederate bodies left in Maryland could not cross the river with their regimental units, it seems they may still be trying to head west and cross over the Potomac River to rejoin them.

In this northwest corner of Sharpsburg, the sightings of Confederate soldiers continue like leftover memories from their past presence here. The quadrant is bounded by Chapline Street on the north, Main Street on the south, Mechanic Street on the east and the Potomac River on the west. Slicing east and west through the middle of the area is Alley No. 1, or what we call the Ghostly Confederate Soldiers' Passageway. Over and over, during the Civil War, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia moved through and occupied the town. Lee first came in September 1862 and fought the bloodiest day in American history from his base in Sharpsburg. In June 1863, the Confederate army passed through on the way to Gettysburg but left units behind in Washington County to secure the crossings over the Potomac River. In July 1864, the Army of Northern Virginia again was on the move. After crossing the river near Sharpsburg, it circled southeast in a last ditch and failed effort to capture Washington, D.C.

Sharpsburg is crisscrossed by streets and alleyways that give the appearance that nothing has changed here since September 1862. Houses look ancient, with the oldest falling into one of three types. There are eleven large limestone block homes, called founder's houses, and most have two original stories. These are the homes of Sharpsburg's first settlers. There are one-story structures that were originally log cabins. These have gone through transitions since the end of the Civil War. Most added a second story, and there are only a few examples that remain with just one floor. Many have exteriors that were later covered with boards for siding, and some were eventually bricked over or covered in stucco. Then there are larger, two-story brick buildings. Some, but not all, of this type were here during the days of the battle, and some came after.

Likewise, the alleys of Sharpsburg still have solid wooden outbuildings that date back to the days of September 1862. Key to knowing which pre-date the war, and those that were erected afterward, are the styles of hinges used on doors or windows. Forged hinges are telltale for knowing that the building existed at the time, and there are ample examples along the alleyways. Some, however, send mixed signals and use both forged and machine-made hinges. The conclusion we draw from examples like these is that the machine hinges either replaced a forged hinge or were added with a new window or door.

Although the military incursions came and went, some of the Confederates did not go home. On September 18, 1862, Lee's army evacuated Sharpsburg. In an effort to tidy up, the army soldiers got busy digging graves for thousands of their dead comrades. Hundreds were buried in the fields just north of town. Dozens were buried in the yards and cemeteries in Sharpsburg. Hundreds more were buried along the sides of roads leading west from Sharpsburg toward the Potomac River. Two to three miles from Sharpsburg, at the river crossing to Virginia called Bridgeport, the Confederates left behind many dozens of dead in field graves. Between 1862 and 1874, the roads from Main Street in Sharpsburg west to the Potomac, and from Chapline Street west to Snyder's Landing were lined with graves of Confederate soldiers lost at Antietam. Likewise, within the area of Sharpsburg we call the Ghostly Confederate Soldiers' Passageway, many lots were used to bury bodies that had been left in the houses and yards in the town. On our tour, we pass by those places that were converted into Confederate cemeteries and describe how deteriorated the graves became in a very short time.

Most accounts that recall them describe the graves as not more than eighteen inches deep; therefore, it was not very long before the dirt settled or washed away, leaving human skeletal remains out in the open. What gruesomely lurid visions! For years after 1862, a kind of numb immunity must have settled in as the people of the town grew used to such sights and learned to ignore them. In 1863, one Confederate on a march to Gettysburg described the area around Sharpsburg in a letter to his parents:

I have been this morning over the old Sharpsburg battle field this morning and have witnessed the most horrible sights that my eyes ever beheld I saw dead Yankees in any number lying on the top of the ground with a little dirt throwed over them and the hogs rooting them out of the ground and eating them and other lying on top of the ground with flesh picked off and their bones bleaching and they by many hundreds! Oh what a horrible sight for human being to look upon in a civilized Country!

— George K. Harlow, letter to family, June 3, 1863

The writer, however, is probably mistaken about one detail because the graves he describes were not likely the graves of Yankee soldiers. More likely is that they were Confederate graves that were dug in a greatly hurried rush as the army tried to reorganize and move back across the Potomac River.

All the stories in this book are from our tour of the Ghostly Confederate Soldiers' Passageway. "Jacob McGraw's Ghost," "Charley King's War" and "The Confederate Sentry" are all closely tied to the use of the area for the burial of the Confederate dead. For the fullest possible understanding of the history that helps explain these stories, be sure to read the sections of this book titled "The Sharpsburg Experience" and "A Tale of Two Cemeteries."

THE EARTH OPENED UP

The Federal army opened up an artillery barrage aimed at Sharpsburg with the first shells falling in the village before dawn. For the next fifteen hours, the town suffered an onslaught of artillery designed to hold back Confederate reserves. With Lee's army firmly set in the town and crowded into barns, stables, outbuildings and vacated homes, it may have been a wise view, militarily, to attempt to dislodge them or, at least, keep them on their toes and on the move. For the people who lived in Sharpsburg and stayed there huddled in clusters in basements, it was the beginning of two days of terror.

The first day, September 17, 1862, kept the four hundred or so Sharpsburg citizens who remained in the village jammed together inside sturdy homes. There were, however, a few adventurous souls, notably Jacob McGraw, Savilla Miller and Theresa Kretzer. Each took opportunities to look much farther than the view out their front windows or rear porches, and you can read their detailed accounts in the chapters named for them. The cannonading lasted through the day into the darkness of evening before slowing and then finally ceasing. Overnight from the seventeenth to the morning of the eighteenth, there was scattered musket fire across the battle lines but nothing that remotely equaled the engagements of the all-out battle.

The second day, September 18, found the Confederate and Union armies in nearly the same positions as the day before. This meant Sharpsburg was still occupied by Rebels and therefore a possible artillery target. It also meant that those who had left their homes and fled the town could not yet return. No one could cross the lines of two armies and return to the village. For those who stayed in the town but sought safety in sturdier buildings, it meant another day of worry; there was no thought of going anywhere as long as Lee held the town. History tells us the eighteenth was a kinder day for the civilians of Sharpsburg because the Union artillery did not engage it as a target. The day lulled by slowly while those who were in others' homes pondered thoughts of leaving.

Overnight from the eighteenth to the nineteenth of September, Lee's army gathered and started to move out, headed to the west at three river crossings. With the new day came relief: those who were out of the village started their treks home, only to find alarming and gruesome scenes of death on every road and path. Those who had been guests at the fortress-like stone homes moved back to their own cabins to discover homes that were ransacked, looted and, very likely, occupied by wounded or dead Confederate soldiers.

Miraculously, there were no civilians injured from the bombardment of Sharpsburg on the bloodiest day in American history. There were, however, many survivors of the town who lived long into the next century after the events of September 1862. We are fortunate to have their profoundly interesting observations of shot and shell, stories that were told, retold and eventually recorded in writing. We know their primary emotions of fear and deep concern for the wellbeing of their homes because hundreds survived and dozens recorded the details of their stories.

Although nearly every home and building was struck, and records indicate seven to nine buildings were destroyed, today, the effects of the deluge of artillery on the village are barely noticeable by examination of the exteriors of the structures. Unlike Gettysburg, which features artillery shells lodged in the bricks and mortar in dozens of buildings, the remnants of the cannonading of Sharpsburg are today visible only on one building in town. The former home of Dr. Biggs, a notable citizen and town surgeon, features a ball of about three inches diameter still resting firmly where it found its mark over 150 years ago. The home sits on the northwest corner of the town square, and the black iron ball is clearly visible from the sidewalk there.

Nearly every character in this book experienced firsthand terror, death and destruction from the Union artillery that fell that day. Their lives were changed, and their stories were made vibrant and thrilling for them to tell and for others to hear. Many of the stories, told with subtle variations over time, have taken hold and are now living in newer stories, ones that survived the original owners and have moved on and grown in shape and dimension. They are invisible cultural fabric not well understood because the backdrop of their history has not been understood — until now.

The Union Artillery

The good news for the people of the village, as well as the Confederates who were in Sharpsburg when the artillery fire began, is that the Union army's batteries of its largest and most modern gun, the twenty-pound Parrott rifle, were aimed at taking on the Confederate army's artillery at battlefield locations north of Sharpsburg. The twenty-pounder Parrott weapons were designed to be fired with the some of the largest charges of powder ever devised for field guns, and shells for these weapons exploded overhead. They could be fired over a distance of two miles with charges timed to explode on target by a fuse. They were greatly feared weapons and were well known for their devastating effects on massed army units. While they could also be effective for rendering damage to structures, eyewitness accounts of the Union artillery fire levied on the village indicate that it was mostly smaller aerial charges and solid-shot balls that rained down. Sometimes, the balls smacked and crashed through plaster ceilings and walls without explosions. After piercing the structure and smashing the furniture and interiors of homes, some accounts say the masses of blackened metal continued their journeys through floors into lower rooms or basements or exited through exterior walls. On the other hand, charged shells, those designed to explode, sometimes did so while still in the air while others erupted upon contact with a target. In either event, charged shells sent shrapnel flying everywhere — through doors, walls, roofs and windows.

Many of the shells fired by the Union army landed in Sharpsburg but did not explode. For months and years after the battle, people of the town found them with results that any ordinary, prudent person would expect. Almost immediately after the battle, a wise reporter predicted dire consequences from the inundation of fields with the unexploded ordnance:

Herald of Freedom and Torchlight, October 1, 1862 A Vast Grave-yard

The fields over which the battles of the Antietam raged are dotted in every direction with graves. These graves are generally very shallow, and it will be difficult hereafter to turn up the soil to any depth without disturbing the bones of those who repose in them. Many unexploded shells have also buried themselves beneath the surface, and if they should come in violent contact with the plowcoulter they would certainly explode, and render ploughing a very unsafe work in such a soil.

News accounts quickly came to light to reveal ghastly results about tragedies in the area. The following story was reported from Williamsport, Maryland, a river town just north of Sharpsburg:

Maryland Free Press, January 30, 1863

Two boys, Polk and Dallas, twin sons of John Nowl of Williamsport were on Monday, the 18thinst., trying to remove the charge from an unexploded shell; one of the boys in striking upon the plug which contains the percussion cap, exploded it a piece struck one of them on the leg, carrying away a large portion of the flesh and producing such a fracture of the bone as to require amputation of the limb. Another piece struck the other boy on the arm, also producing extensive laceration of the soft parts, and badly fracturing both bones. The amputation of the leg was performed by Dr. [?] assisted by Dr. Croft. Both boys are doing well. Many similar accidents have occurred from the improper handling of explosives and as our county is now strewed with them persons cannot be too careful in handling them as sometimes the slightest stroke or falling from the hand to the ground may cause their explosion.

Despite the warning and obvious danger, people continued to try to explore the inner contents of unexploded ordnance. A minister of the town lost his teenage son to an explosion in the spring of 1863.

Maryland Free Press, March 6, 1863 Fatal Accident

On Saturday last a youth 15 or 16 years of age, son of Rev. M.L. Shuford, of Sharpsburg, in this county, was so seriously injured by the explosion of a shell, from which he was endeavoring to remove the contents, as to cause his death on the following day. Great care should be taken in handling these shells, large numbers of which have been taken from the battle-field and are scattered over the county. Many of them are easily exploded as is evidenced by the number of accidents which have already occurred in handling them.

The armies were gone, but left behind were incidental and deadly reminders of their visit.

THE SHARPSBURG EXPERIENCE

GHOSTS V. REENACTORS

Try to imagine walking by an alley in Sharpsburg at nighttime and looking down its length. In the dim but streetlamp-lit distance, you see a lone soldier or maybe a group of gray-clad, gaunt and grizzled Confederates. What instincts would you follow to understand the sighting?

All human experience tells us to believe what we see in terms of what we have experienced. The easiest and safest explanation would be to surmise that because we are in Sharpsburg the images must be Confederate reenactors. Not only is there logical safety in the explanation, it is also probably true. Yet this is a common error among both villagers and visitors because not everything you might see in Sharpsburg is real. Much of it can be explained or directly related to the events of September 1862. Without understanding the historical events of long ago, you might miss the greatest connections we know of in Civil War history between the past and present. Even among the people who live in Sharpsburg, the immediate assumption of "reenactors again" leads to misidentifications. Not every Confederate reenactor is a ghost, and not every sighting of a ghost is a reenactor.

Confederate reenactors predominate in Sharpsburg because it was the central operating base for Lee's army. In the days before the battle on September 17, 1862, the Confederate army marched into the town and moved into every uninhabited, and sometimes inhabited, home, barn, church, stable and shop in the village. These days, Confederate reenactors frequently camp on farms just a stone's throw away from the town center, within an easy quarter-mile walk of the town. It is no wonder Sharpsburg has so many late night and early morning sightings of moving Confederate foot cavalry. The main question to be answered is are any of them living, breathing persons of the current day? Or could they possibly be fleeting remnants, mysterious reminders that flow from events from over 150 years ago? Sometimes we know and can be certain, but mostly we are left to guess one from the other. An understanding of the town's Civil War history and events can lead to unmistakable connections that make sense.