Today in History:

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

Page 713 Chapter XXXI. THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN.

Question. I thought you were with Colonel Ford when he received the report.

Answer. I told him where he could get them. He made a requisition for the axes but did not get them.

Question. At this time, when you say you were present at the conversation when Colonel Miles said they should not receive another man, did he not say he could not spare a single man from the front?

Answer. I think he said he excepted and attack form the front.

Question. How many regiments did you receive?

Answer. Two full regiments and two parts of regiments, I think, as far as my recollection serves me; I could not tell exactly. I was busily engaged all the time my self, at work night and day.

Captain C. J. BROWN, called by Colonel Ford, and sworn and examined as follows:

By Colonel FORD:

Question. What is your position in the military service of the United States?

Answer. I hold a captain's commission in the First Maryland Regiment Potomac Home Brigade.

Question. How long were you stationed on Maryland Heights?

Answer. About two months, I think.

Question. Were you there on Saturday, their day of the evacuation?

Answer. I was.

Question. Were you there engaged in those fights on the mountain?

Answer. I was.

Question. both in the morning and later?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. I want you to describe to the court the condition of the troops stampeding and running there.

Answer. Your ordered me up to the mountain the right before, on Friday night, to the lookout.

Question. Confine yourself to the question, and make it as short as possible.

Answer. I went up there the night before and reported to Major Hewitt. The next morning, about daylight, the fight commenced. A short time afterward he ordered me to deploy my company and Company B on the right, from the lookout to the breastwork. I did so, and staid there until the fight was over, until we were ordered to fall back that they might shell the heights there.

Question. You have not answered my question. Describe the condition of the troops breaking and running from the heights, and you saw of it.

Answer. My company and Company B, Thirty-second Ohio, and what Garibaldi Guards were there stood first rate, as I thought. The One hundred and twenty-sixth New York broke, and, were not reformed again as a regiment during the fight, as I could see, and I was in the whole of it.

Question. From the forces of the enemy that you saw there, and the flanking upon your right, what was your opinion? Was there a military necessity for evacuating the heights?

Answer. I think so. When we were ordered to fall back they had partially turned the left flank of the breastwork. We were catching a cross-fire.


Page 713 Chapter XXXI. THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN.