behind AotW

Dang. I’ve been under a rock the last two months.

Proof?

How many blogs are there with “Antietam” in the name? Well now there are two.

Man-about-Sharpsburg Stephen Recker has begun his own in conjunction with his Virtual Antietam site.

Among his many other connections to the battle, Stephen is an infamous collector of related photographs and reunion ephemera. He’s posted a couple of pieces already, among them this ribbon from the 1891 reunion of the 130th Pennsylvania Infantry at Sharpsburg. I’m looking forward to more!

Sorry to take so long to find your new blog Stephen, and welcome to the ‘sphere. If I had known you were coming, I’d have baked a cake.

Ranger John Hoptak reports being

finally ready, officially, to launch my effort to restore the 48th PA Monument at Antietam by replacing the sword missing from the statue of General Nagle

Get the details from the supporting A Monumental Task blog, and find your way to help this righteous project succeed, won’t you?

Happy birthday, General.

Private Patrick Hughes, 4th New York Volunteers (by E. Stauch, 1863, collection NMHM)

I hope Patrick felt as good as his expression suggests … his wound looks awful in this vivid image. He was painted propped up in a bed at Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington DC in January 1863 shortly before his discharge from Army service. It had been about 4 months since he’d been shot through the head at the Battle of Antietam. There, a Confederate minie ball had bored through the top of his skull and exited from the back, leaving gruesome-looking wounds, but surprisingly little long-term damage.

Private Hughes‘ story offers some small insight into Civil War medicine and gives me a chance to give the soldier and his unit a little air time.