Captain James Archbald led his Company, “I” of the 132nd Pennsylvania Infantry, in action at the Sunken Road – later called “Bloody Lane” at Antietam on 17 September 1862. Two days later he wrote a friend about it …

.. we were ordered forward to the crest of a hill [overlooking the sunken road] where we found the 108th New York; we walked over them, for they were lying down, with but few exceptions, firing from that position. Here we fought for four and a half hours, until we had fired 60 rounds and some of the cartridges of the dead and wounded.

Our bayonets were fixed for a charge upon the rifle-pits of the rebels and the corn-field occupied by them. Just at this point the Irish Brigade came to our relief and we were ordered to the rear …

His obituary is from the Scranton Tribune of 6 October 1910. His wartime picture, below, is from Hitchcock’s War from the Inside : the Story of the 132nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry … 1862-1863 (1904). Thanks to EJ Murphy for the pointer to Archbald via Twitter.

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