behind AotW

(Stetson Company)

Anniversary weekend at the Antietam battlefield, Harry Smeltzer came upon the stone honoring Lieutenant Colonel John L Stetson. Stetson was killed at the head of the 59th New York Volunteer Infantry, at the farthest reach of the disastrous Federal Second Army Corps advance into the West Woods on 17 September 1862.

Harry also suggested that Colonel Stetson might have been related to John Batterson Stetson, inventor of a world famous cowboy hat and founder of the company still making them today. Pull this thread, says he …

A couple of weeks back Dmitri Rotov made note of Moe D’Aoust’s piece about Burnside and his bridge in the latest Civil War Illustrated. It is nice work.

But it was Dimitri’s posted photo of John Moulder Wilson that caught my eye. A Medal of Honor recipient and on General McClellan’s staff at Sharpsburg, he needs a profile on AotW. Seeing his face was a goad for me to get to him.

Curious, first, about the source of the picture, I followed a link to John M Wilson’s bio on Wikipedia, where it also appears.

Horse Artillery Officers (J. Gibson, 1862, LoC)

It’s a detail from one of three group portraits of horse artillery officers of the Army of the Potomac taken by James Gibson on the Peninsula in the summer of 1862. That’s “Jack” Wilson in the back row above, standing third from our right.

Looking for more about him, though, got me three Wilsons for the price of one…

Huzzah! for Don Caughey (Crossed Sabers) who’s put together a great series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on the Union Cavalry expedition out of the trap that was Harpers Ferry on the night of 14 - 15 September 1862. He’s done a really nice job in illuminating a poorly understood episode in the Maryland Campaign.

Maryland Heights (left) from Harpers Ferry, 1865 (J. Gardner, coll. Library of Congress)

As a kind of supplement to those posts, I’ve scanned some pictures of the prominent officers of that force. You know I like to see the faces.

I’ve also made an attempt at drafting a map of the route they took from the Ferry to Greencastle…

It has been another banner week for emails from descendants of battle veterans. This time the AotW Mailbag brings a pair of Old Bay State soldiers to the fore. Though from different Regiments and background, each had significant War service subsequent to the Maryland Campaign of 1862 where both were wounded–Sergeant Henry W Tisdale on South Mountain and Corporal Lewis Reed in the Cornfield at Antietam.

South Mountain from Boonsboro (A. Waud, Sept 1862, Library of Congress)

There’s much to learn from Lewis Reed and Henry W. Tinsdale, thanks to the efforts of their families.

Some of my Antietam boys are much better known for action elsewhere. One such celebrity was Henry Reed Rathbone (1 July 1837 – 14 August 1911). He’s at the far left in this famous scene from 1865:

Currier & Ives–Assassination of President Lincoln (1865, US Library of Congress)

At the fatal shot

[i]nstantly, Major Rathbone sprang upon the assassin. Booth dropped the derringer, broke from Rathbone’s grasp, and lunged at him with a large knife. Rathbone parried the blow, but received a deep wound in his left arm above the elbow. Booth placed one hand on the balustrade, to the left of the center pillar, raised his other arm to strike at the advancing Rathbone, and vaulted over the railing. Rathbone again seized Booth but only caught his clothing…