Ninth New York (Hawkin's Zouaves) Volunteer Infantry Monument - Antietam

The Ninth New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, known as Hawkin's Zouaves in honor of Colonel Rush C. Hawkins was organized in New York City and mustered into federal service in May 1861.  At the Battle of Antietam the regiment was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 9th Corp, Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.  

Burnside's Corp made up the left flank of the Union Army and was charged with crossing Antietam Creek at the lower bridge and advancing in a northwesterly direction toward the town of Sharpsburg.  The placement of this monument just east of the Harpers Ferry Road marks the head of the union advance before they were turned back by A. P. Hill's Light Division late in the day on September 17, 1862.  

"To the Memory of the Brave Men of the Ninth New York Infantry (Hawkin's Zouaves) who fought upon this field, and especially to those who died that their nation might live"

The 9th New York Monument as seen from Antietam National Cemetery.  Confederate artillery was positioned where the cemetery now stands during the Battle of Antietam.

Of 373 men of the Ninth New York listed as present for duty on September 17, 1862, when the Battle of Antietam was fought 54 were killed, 158 wounded and  28 missing in action for a total of 240.  

The 104th New York Volunteer Infantry Monument at Antietam: In Need of Repairs

The 104th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a consolidation of the Morgan Guards and the Geneseo, Regiment, Wadsworth Guards, was recruited from Albany, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Rensselaer, and Steuben Counties in New York between October 1861 and March  1862.  The regiment, was mustered into federal service in March 1862, and on the 22nd left New York in route to Washington where it was assigned to the Military District of Washington commanded by Brigadier General James S. Wadsworth.  

In May 1862 the regiment was transferred to the Department of the Rappahannack.  From June 1862 to September 1862 it was part of Major General Pope’s Army of Virginia and was heavily engaged at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run. In early September the 104th New York became part of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 1st Corp, Army of the Potomac.  The 1st Corp, commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker saw action at Turner’s Gap during the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862 and in Miller’s Cornfield at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 where it was heavily engaged with rebel troops commanded by Major General Thomas J. Jackson. 

On September 27, 1917 the State of New York dedicated a monument to the 104th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment on Antietam National Battlefield.  The monument is  on the north side of Cornfield Ave., due south of Miller’s Cornfield.  

The monument, which cost $1,392.70 in 1917, is a square shaft of Barre Granite eleven feet five inches in height topped by a twelve inch high ball.  Twelve inch diameter discs  representing the badge of the First Corp,  are carved on the east and west sides of the monument.  Bronze #1’s were inserted in the center of these carved discs when the monument was erected.   

The stone work was done by the National Granite Company of Montpelier, Vermont.  Bronze pieces which include the numbers on the east and west sides, the coat of arms of the State of New York and a bronze plaque on the front were made by John Williams, Inc., of New York.   

Unfortunately sometime between 1917 and the present the bronze number 1 on the east side of the monument has disappeared.  It is my hope to work with the staff at Antietam National Battlefield and the Western Maryland Interpretive Association/Antietam Partners  to restore the monument to it’s original glory by having the missing #1 on the east side replaced.

As soon as I have more information on the cost and how and where to submit donations to repair this monument I will be updating this blog so stay tuned!  Seems like a worthy cause to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.  

    

Color Sergeant George A. Simpson & the 125 Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at Antietam

 The 125 Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was recruited in Blair, Huntingdon and Cambria Counties in response to President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 men July 1862.  The regiment was organized and trained at Camp Curtin before mustering into federal service for 9 months at Harrisburg, PA., on August 16, 1862 and departing for Washington the same evening.  By August 18th the new recruits were in Virginia, first  at Hunter’s Chapel and then at Fort Bernard where they remained until September 6, 1862.  On the 6th they marched to Rockville, MD were the regiment was brigaded with the 5th Connecticut, 10th Maine, 28th New York, 46th, 124 and 128th Pennsylvania and attached to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 12th Corp, Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Joseph K. F. Mansfield.  The corp left Rockville on the 6th and  headed west arriving east of Antietam Creek in western Maryland on September 16.  

On the evening of September 16, 1862 the 125th Pennsylvania crossed Antietam Creek  at fords near the upper bridge.  They camped on George Line’s farm, east of the Smoketown Road and  about a mile in the rear of Major General Joseph Hooker’s lines.  At dawn the regiment moved out with the rest of the 12th Corp toward where Hooker’s troops were engaged with Confederate soldiers.  The men deployed in Samuel Poffenbeger’s woods and marched in a southwesterly direction toward where the Smoketown Road intersects the Hagerstown Pike.  After exiting the East Woods the regiment was fired on by the 5th Texas which resulted in the death of private James Hunter of Company A.  The regiment continued their advance, finally ending up in the West Woods where they were hotly engaged and finally, after suffering heavy losses,  forced to retreat.  

As documented in History of the One Hundred Twenty-Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers 1862-1863, published in 1906:

“In the retreat from the said west woods, the regimental colors of the 125th were saved through bravery worthy of special mention. The color-sergeant, George A. Simpson, was shot and instantly killed and five of the color guard went down; then 

Eugene Boblitz, of Company " H," rescued and carried them for a distance, when he was badly wounded and handed them to Sergeant Walter W. Greenland, of Company "C,"  from whom Captain Wallace received them, and carried them to the rear of the battery which we were ordered to support. Meanwhile men were falling thick and fast as leaves in autumn. 

Hospital Steward J. Fletcher Conrad, stated to the writer that when attending an encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, a few years since, he met a Confederate officer, who detailed the circumstances of the carrying of the regimental 

flag by Captain Wallace, and said that the Captain must have led a charmed life, as one hundred rifles were aimed at him without effect.”

Casualties for the 125th in their baptism of fire were heavy, 5  killed, 42 wounded and 17 missing.  A number of the dead including Color Sergeant George Simpson are buried at Antietam National Cemetery.  

On September 17, 1904 the 125th Pennsylvania Volunteers held a reunion at Antietam Battlefield and dedicated a monument to the regiment.  This monument is west of and behind the Dunker Church.  The granite monument, as described in Pennsylvania at Antietam published in 1906,  “A Color Sergeant with his regimental flag partly unfurled to the breeze, with eagerness written in every line of his manly face and lithe body, with hand on the sword by his side, ready to spring forward at the command to lead his comrades anywhere and everywhere they are ordered to go”  bears the likeness of Color Sergeant George A. Simpson.

                      125th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Monument

Honoring Union Soldiers: The GAR and it's Affiliates

The Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization composed of union veterans of the civil war,  was founded April 6, 1866 at Decatur, Illinois.  Amongst other things, the GAR's, influence lead to the creation of Old Soldiers Homes in many states which eventually evolved into the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There were several affiliates to the GAR including the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was made up of women who were wives or blood kin of union veterans, and the Woman’s Relief Corp, Auxiliary to the GAR, which welcomed women who were not related to veterans.   These organizations supported union veterans, their widows and orphans and in addition to other charitable works also erected monuments throughout the nation in honor of union soldiers.  There are a number of these monuments in Idaho.   

                  photo courtesy of Idaho State Historical Society

This statue of President Abraham Lincoln rests on a granite base given to the state of Idaho on February 12, 1815 by the Ladies of the GAR, Department of Idaho.  The statue was originally placed in front of the Old Soldiers Home in Boise.  It was later moved to the VA Hospital.  In 2009 on the 200 anniversary off Lincoln’s birth the statue was relocated and rededicated south of the capitol. The statue designed by Alphonso Pelzer is one of six replica of the oiriginal cast in 1898 and placed in Lincoln, New Jersey.   

This monument, which cost $137, was erected at Pioneer Cemetery in Boise, Idaho and unveiled on May 9, 1896 by the Woman’s Relief Corp of the GAR, Phil Sheridan Post.  It is dedicated to the memory of the unknown union dead.

Another monument dedicated to the unknown dead by the Fremont Post of the Woman’s Relief Corp, Auxiliary to the GAR, is found at Riverside Cemetery in Emmett, Idaho.  

This monument was erected by the Phil Sheridan Post, Woman’s Relief Corp, Auxiliary to the GAR in 1923 in memory of the union veterans of the civil war.  The monument stands prominently over graves of union veterans buried in the “Silent Camp” section of Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.   

   

Disaster at Packhorse Ford: The Corn Exchange Regiment's Baptism of Fire

Shiloh and I often walk along the towpath of the C & O Canal which extends for 184.5 miles along the east side of the Potomac from Georgetown to the headwaters of the Ohio River.  We park below the bridge at Shepherdstown and amble downriver, usually to Packhorse Ford, before turning around and heading home.  Packhorse Ford, also called Botler’s and/or Blackford’s Ford is a historic crossing on the Potomac River approximately 1 mile downstream of Shepherdstown.   On the evening of September 18 and early morning of September 19th, following the Battle of Antietam, the badly bloodied Army of Northern Virginia crossed into Virginia via this ford.  Union troops followed and the Battle of Shepherdstown was fought here on September 19 and 20, 1862. 

                                               Packhorse Ford  from the Maryland side of the River

The Battle of Shepherdstown seems to be another footnote in history that little is known about although the book “Shepherdstown: Last Clash of the Antietam Campaign September 19-20, 1862” helps to rectify that.  The tragedy of the Battle of Shepherdstown lies with the 118th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment better known in history as the Corn Exchange Regiment  because they were sponsored by the Corn Exchange of Philadelphia, PA. 

The Corn Exchange Regiment was recruited at Philadelphia in early August 1862 following Lincoln’s call for another 300,000 men.  The regiment trained at Camp Union  before being mustered into federal service on August 30, 1862 and heading to Washington. On September 12, the newly minted soldiers of the 118th Pennsylvania were incorporated into the 1st Brigade, 1st Division 5th Corp, Army of the Potomac under Major General Fitz John Porter.  They marched with the Army of the Potomac to western Maryland where they were held in reserve during the Battle of Antietam.  On September 19, the regiment march west with the 5th Corp toward the Potomac in search of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia.  They bivouacked near the river on the night of the 19th and were up early on the 20th with orders to cross the river and engage the enemy.  

As told in the “History of the Corn Exchange Regiment 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers From the First Engagement at Antietam to Appomattox”, September 20 dawned bright and clear, the sun shone with mellow autumn radiance, the dew glistened on grass and leaves and the Old Potomac was calm and placid when the 118th formed on the west bank and began crossing the river.  The regiment crossed the river with other from the 5th Corp and were soon hotly engaged with veterans of A. P. Hill’s Light Division.  An order was issued to retreat which was either not received or ignored by the commander of the 118th Pennsylvania.  The regiment, which had never fired a shot prior to September 20, were hotly engaged with the rebels and soon found out their newly issued Enfield rifles were defective.  The Corn Exchangers fought bravely but were soon routed and forced to retreat down a steep embankment on the Virginia side of the river and across the river, while under fire.  The casualties were heavy, of 800 engaged the regiment lost 64 killed, 124 wounded and 94 missing in their baptism of fire.  

 At least eight soldiers from the Corn Exchange Regiment, including Ephraim Layman, are buried at Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, MD.  May they rest in peace in hallowed ground.

 Ephraim’s baptism of fire is described in the "History" cited above.  It typifies the experience of many soldiers in the Corn Exchange Regiment on September 20, 1862.

“Ephraim Layman, of (Company) I, had escaped from the bluff uninjured.  While hurrying along the edge of the river he was shot through the body and fell with his feet in the water. He lay in the same position until the following afternoon, when, under the flag of truce, he was removed to the Maryland side and subsequently taken to the hospital at Sharpsburg. There, a few hours after the ball had been extracted, he expired. Layman had not yet reached his majority. He was of excellent family, and enlisted from motives of the purest patriotism. His early training, earnest purpose and firm determination to be foremost in answer to all demands of duty, were indicative of a promising future.”

Least We Forget: Honoring American Soldiers on St. Valentine's Day

This bright sunny morning, which happens to be Saint Valentine’s Day, found Shiloh and I hiking the trails near Burnside Bridge on Antietam National Battlefield.  Birds were singing and spring was in the air although I expect it is at least a month away.   Burnside Bridge is an idyllic place and one can easily forget the tragedy that occurred here on September 17, 1862.  On that day in the vicinity of the bridge and in the hills and swales to the west 13,800 Union Soldiers of the 9th Corp of the Army of the Potomac were engaged in a horrific battle with 7,150 Confederates from Jackson and Longstreet’s command from the Army of Northern Virginia. There were 3,720 casualties, which included dead, missing and wounded soldiers.  This is only a fraction of the total casualties for the day which totaled 22,717 Americans and gives the Battle of Antietam the dubious honor of being the single bloodiest day in American history.

One can easily forget the suffering and sacrifice that occurred here when a hint of spring is in the air and Antietam Creek flows peacefully through the three arches of the historic rock bridge that spans it.  One also looses sight of the fact that these men and boys who were husbands, fathers, sons and brothers were also someone’s Valentine too.  So today in honor of Saint Valentine and in memory of those brave soldiers who perished here lets remember a few of them who rest in hallowed ground at Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD.

 Private John Hallowell, Company C, 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.  Mustered in 9/13/1861.  KIA, 9/17/1862, Battle of Antietam.   Grave # 3723.

Private Henry Shultz, Company F, 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Mustered in 10/16/1861. KIA, 9/17/1862, Battle of Antietam. Grave # 3582.

Corporal James Dowling. Company G, 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Mustered in 10/17/1861. KIA 9/17/1862, Battle of Antietam. Grave # 3583.

Private Peter Burke, Company K, 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Died 11/14/1862. Grave # 4041.


Both the 48th and the 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiments were engaged in the fighting at Burnside Bridge.  The 48th suffered 60 casualties including 8 killed, 51 wounded and 1 missing.  The 51st  lost a total of 120 men, 21 killed and 99 wounded.

Phoenix R. Briggs: The Story of Sherman and the Old Corporal

I feel I have know Phoenix Randolph Briggs since childhood, probably because as a youth I  stood in the two room log cabin he built with partner John C. Fox and then have watched the structure slowly deteriorate until it became an unrecognizable pile of decayed logs and scattered shingles.  As a graduate student working on a MA in History I delved further into his life while writing a history of the Marshall Lake Mining District in Idaho County, Idaho.  Recently I discovered Phoenix was a civil war veteran and had been admitted to the Old Soldiers Home in Boise, Idaho dying there at the age of 73 in 1911.  I made a pilgrimage to find his grave at Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise and placed a flag there on Memorial Day.   This is his story as it has unfolded before me over more than 40 years.   

Phoenix was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania December 29, 1837 the eldest child of Thomas and Margaret (Hamilton) Briggs.  His father had immigrated to the U. S. from Ireland.  His mother was of Scottish ancestry.  The Briggs moved to New Jersey for a short time. In 1842 the family went west to Illinois and settled in Mercer County where Thomas took up farming.  By 1950 there were seven children including 4 boys Phoenix, Anamuel (Manuel), Daniel & George  and three girls Elizabeth, Margaret & Maria.  

Phoenix was educated in Illinois & became a carpenter.  In August 1862, while living in Berlin farming, he enlisted in Company C 102nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry along with  92 other men and officers from Mercer and Rock Island County.  At the time of his enlistment and election as one of 18 company corporals Briggs was 25 years old and stood 5 foot 10 inches tall.  He had sandy hair and grey eyes. Phoenix's younger brother Manuel M. Briggs enlisted in the 102nd Illinois with his older brother.  He was wounded on May 21, 1864, but would remain on the rolls and muster out with the regiment.  

The 102 Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was mustered into federal service September 1-2, 1862.  In October the regiment was attached to Brig. Gen. William T. Ward’s Brigade of Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Dumont’s 12th Division, Army of the Ohio, commanded by Don Carlos Buell.  The regiment marched through Kentucky to Gallatin, Tennessee where they spent the winter and spring of 1863.  In June 1863 the 102nd moved to LaVergne, Tennessee where they guarded railroads  until February 1864.  In February the 102nd joined up with Maj. Gen W. T. Sherman’s Army Group in northern Georgia, later participating in the Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea and through the Carolina’s. The regiment participated in the Grand Review in Washington D. C., before mustering out and being discharged in Chicago Illinois June 14, 1865.

After the war Phoenix lived in Iowa and Missouri.  He married, started a family, and in 1879 moving to northern Nebraska where he declared for a homestead. By 1900 he had divorced his wife Martha and was living in Dixie, Idaho with his mining partner John C. Fox. 

On June 7, 1902 partners Fox and Briggs located two quartz mining claims, the Sherman and the Old Corporal.  These claims and a handful of others including the Sherman # 3-5 and the Old Corporal # 2, were developed by Fox and Briggs until Phoenix’s death in 1911.  The claims, which were sold by Phoenix’s son to Leif T. Holte in 1915, ultimately became the Golden Anchor Mine which was one of Idaho’s top lode gold producing mines while operated by Holte and again in the 1930’s.  The mine ceased operations with the outbreak of WWII and has only seen limited development and/or assessment  work completed since then. 

                                                                 600 Level Crosscut Golden Anchor Mine 1978

I never thought much about the names Briggs had given to his mining claims until I found out in 2009 he was a civil war veteran and had marched to the sea with Sherman.  Then everything came full circle and the names came to symbolize the significance of both the mining profession and the civil war in both Phoenix Brigg's life and my own.  

                 Yours truly hand tramming at the Golden Anchor Mine in 1989.

• John C. Fox was born in Pennsylvania December 28, 1848.  He died November 23, 1932 in Grangeville, idaho, age 83, occupation gold miner.    
• Phoenix was a member of the IOOF and the General Hancock Post, No. 28 GAR in Grangeville, Idaho. Around March 1911, Briggs "suffered a stroke of paralysis, involving his right side and vocal organs", and he was taken to the Old Soldiers Home in Boise, Idaho by his son Harry S. Briggs. He died on April 4, 1911 and is buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.