behind AotW

This cannon – one of six like it on the Antietam National Battlefield – commemorates Brigadier General George Burgwin Anderson, CSA, who was wounded in the ankle near this spot along the Sunken Road (“Bloody Lane”) at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. It seemed a minor wound at first and he went home to North Carolina to recuperate. After about two weeks his leg was amputated due to infection and he died on 16 October 1862. He was 31 years old.