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Colonel William Howard Irwin commanded a brigade in the Federal 6th Corps at Antietam, and is perhaps best known as the man who, possibly under the influence of alcohol, ordered a reckless charge by the 7th Maine Infantry there on Confederates on the Piper Farm.

He was wounded, sick, and “exhausted” when he resigned his commission in October 1863. He had hoped the President would appoint him Brigadier General, but that never happened …

… prior to the battle of Antietam Genl. Hancock officially recommended me for Brigadier Genl. + this was followed by the special recommendation of Major Genl. McClellan himself … My friends in the Army + Penna believe that my name has been studiously kept back from the President, or that some malignant enemy has poisoned his mind against me. You know my Dear McKean what my reputation as a soldier + a gentleman is + I know you will gladly bring my claim before the President. My military record is without a stain + altho’ I am no saint yet no dishonor or disreputable practice can be laid to my charge. Will you ask the President at once to write to me at Lewiston Pennsylvania?

He returned to the practice of law in his hometown of Lewiston, then, by 1873, moved his practice to Louisville, KY, where he married a society belle and had a son. Sadly, by 1885 his mental condition had deteriorated.

He died at the asylum in Anchorage, KY not long after at about 68 years old.

The news clip is from the New York Times of 15 October 1885.

The quotes here from a letter of his of 26 December 1862, from Baltimore, to Colonel J.B. [James Bedell] McKean, 77th New York, in Washington. It’s now at the National Archives among Letters received by the Commission Branch of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1863-1870, online via fold3 (touch to enlarge):

One of the saddest stories of Antietam is that of the vain heroism of the men of the 7th Maine Infantry on the Piper Farm at about 5 pm on 17 September 1862. Their ill-considered charge there destroyed the regiment as a fighting force and obtained little result.

[Battle Map #15 on AotW]

Their commander, Major Thomas Worcester Hyde of Bath, Maine, described it in his after-action report 2 days after the battle and refined his narrative in his later memoir Following the Greek Cross, or, Memories of the Sixth Army Corps (1894), which I’m excerpting here to accompany a new battle map on AotW.

Colonel Irvin [William H Irwin] of the 49th Pennsylvania commanded our brigade at Antietam. He was a soldier of the Mexican War, and had been wounded at Resaca de la Palma. He was a gallant man, but drank too much, of which I was then unaware.

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William Crosby enlisted as a Sergeant in the 7th Maine Infantry in August 1861, then an 18 year old student living with his parents and siblings in Bangor, Maine.

He was described as being 5′ 10″ tall, brown haired, with light complexion and blue eyes. No doubt about those eyes.

He was Captain of his Company by the end of the war, and also had service in the US Veteran Volunteers, and after the war, was a Regular Army officer until discharged in 1874.

This stunning photograph (touch to enlarge) is from the Maine State Archives and is online with nearly 2,500 other Civil War Era Soldiers’ Portraits through the Digital Maine project.