Small Talk-Trivia

Antietam

By Stephen Davis · Originally published October 2018 · pp. 39–43

1. The commander of the Union XII Corps who was mortally wounded in the battle was Maj. Gen. Joseph K. F. _____. 2. The bridge over Antietam Creek on the southern part of the battlefield today bears the name of what Federal general? 3. His I Corps attack opened the battle on the morning of September 17 on the Federal right flank. Which general? 4. Colonel of the 6th Alabama was wounded five times during the battle of Sharpsburg. The fifth Minié ball struck him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. He “might have drowned in his own blood had not a ‘thoughtful’ Yankee earlier shot a hole in his hat.” Who? 5. Antietam ranks as the deadliest day in American history, with 3,654 men killed, according to Sears’ Landscape Turned Red. What is the second deadliest day in U.S. history? 6. By mid-afternoon, Lee’s right was under pressure and close to breaking, when a fresh division of Confederate infantry felicitously arrived from Harpers Ferry. Who commanded it? 7. McClellan believed that Lee’s army was much stronger than it actually was. How many troops did Mac think Lee had? a) 50,000 b) 85,000 c) 110,000 d) 140,000. 8. The church of a small Protestant sect became part of the battlefield. Can you name it? 9. Union assaults midday against Lee’s center broke the Confederate line at one point, allowing Federals to enfilade the Confederate infantry. What’s this sector called? 10. In this field, owned by farmer D.R. Miller, the fierce counterattack of Hood’s division blunted the assault by the Federals against Lee’s left. What kind of field? Answers found on page 43. Steve Davis is the Civil War News Book Review Editor. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected].

Small Talk Trivia Answers 1. Maj. Gen. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (1803-Sept. 17, 1862). Mansfield took a Minié ball in the stomach about 7:20 a.m. and died soon thereafter (Murfin, The Gleam of Bayonets, p. 225). 2. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881). At the time of the battle it was called the Lower or Rohrbach Bridge (John Cannan, Burnside’s Bridge: Antietam [2001], p. 34). 3. Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker (1814–1879). After Hooker, wounded in the foot, was taken from the field, Brig. Gen. George Meade succeeded in command (Murfin, p. 225). 4. John Brown Gordon (1832–1904). The quote is from Ralph Lowell Eckert, John Brown Gordon (1989), p. 36. Years ago I had a neighbor, Rawson Gordon, a descendant of the general. Rawson still talked about “the lucky bullet-hole hat.” 5. September 11, 2001, on which 2,983 persons lost their lives, according to the New York Times (“Struggle to Tally All 9/11 Dead by Anniversary,” Times, Sept. 1, 2002). Third highest mortality occurred at Pearl Harbor, with 2,403 killed (Alan Axelrod, America’s Wars [2002], p. 517). D-Day, fourth deadliest, saw 1,465 Americans killed (Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day [1959], p. 279). 6. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill (1825-Apr. 2, 1865). “At three-forty another advancing line was visible coming in from the south. Lee was shaken. That column would outflank the Confederate right with ease. Lee pointed and asked a young aide to use his telescope and ascertain what troops they were. There was a pause. Then the aide called out, ‘They are flying the Virginia and Confederate flags!’” (Robertson, General A. P. Hill, p. 143). “McClellan’s pre-battle estimate of 110,000 or more Confederates…” (James M. McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam [2002], p. 130). The Dunkard Brethren or the Dunkers. Alann Schmidt and Terry Barkley, September Mourn: The Dunker Church at Antietam Battlefield (2018). The Sunken Road, sometimes called Bloody Lane. “According to local tradition, an elderly woman who lived nearby visited this hideous scene shortly after the battle and gave the Sunken Road the name it has carried ever since, the Bloody Lane” (Perry D. Jamieson, Death in September: The Antietam Campaign [1995], p. 88). “Many cornfields were the scene of fighting during the Civil War, but this one was ever after known as the Cornfield” (McPherson, Antietam, 117-18).