Today in History:

696 Series I Volume XIX-I Serial 27 - Antietam Part I

Page 696 OPERATIONS IN N.VA.,W.VA.,MD.,AND PA. Chapter XXXI.

Question. The point where Captain Palmer was, and out there where Captain Crumbecker was.

Answer. I do not know where either of those parties were at all. I simply know this-that a portion of the First Maryland Regiment, as I heard-I was not there; I did not leave the battery from the time I commenced firing that day until we left-I heard that they were on the lookout, or by the lookout, with the Thirty-second Regiment. Away from that, I do not know where they were located; I simply know where you sent your pickets, and where you sent your men, at my request.

Question. Did those men send back to me for instructions from these different places?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you think it would have been prudent for me to have gone up these paths?

Answer. You were at your headquarters, where I suppose your place was, and they were looking for you all the time.

Question. How long would it have taken me to make the tour there?

Answer. I suppose it would have taken you, up to the lookout, an hour and a half.

Question. And to the other points a corresponding amount of time?

Answer. I do not know where the other points were.

Question. Was it not very difficult to find a man in this underbrush and among the stones and rocks?

Answer. Where was that; on the top of the mountain?

Question. Going through these by paths.

Answer. If a man desired to hide away he could, but you could see a man in the paths.

Question. But you could not see him from headquarters, and tell where he was, at any of these points?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. What is your opinion of the force attacking us there, from what you saw yourself and from all you learned?

Answer. If the force I saw in the valley was all coming to the mountain, it was a terrible force. I do not know where they went. I am satisfied there were a great many there.

Question. Are you satisfied there were a great many on the mountain?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. In all, what force are you satisfied was there?

Answer. I could not say from myself how many there were. I heard from some of the colonels on the mountain that there were six brigades-twenty-four regiments. A colonel of the Seventh North Carolina Regiment-these are his his boots I have got on now; we treated boots; mine hurt me; I made a pretty good trade-he told me there were just twenty-four regiments there.

Question. Attacking us there?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By the COURT:

Question. Would a battery and a force placed at Solomon's Gap be of any service in defending the heights against an enemy coming through Pleasant Valley?

Answer. Yes, sir.


Page 696 OPERATIONS IN N.VA.,W.VA.,MD.,AND PA. Chapter XXXI.