Samuel Griffin's grandsons at Antietam

The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, climaxed the first of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s two attempts to carry the war to the North. About 40,000 Southerners were pitted against the 87,00 man Federal Army under the command of Gen. George B. McClellan. And when the fighting ended, the course of the American Civil War had been greatly altered. ------After his victory at Manassas in August, Lee had marched his Army into Maryland hoping to find vitally needed men and supplies (remember Maryland was a southern state) McClellan followed. On September 14 at Turner’s, Fox’s and Crampton’s gaps, Lee tried to block the Federals. But because he had split his army to sent troops under General Stonewall Jackson to capture the Federal Arsenal at Harper Ferry, Lee could only hope to delay the Northerners. McClellan forced his way through, and by the afternoon of September 15 both armies had established battle lines west and east of Antietam Creek near the town of Sharpsburg. When Jackson’s troops reached Sharpsburg on the 16th, Harpers Ferry having surrendered the day before, Lee consolidated his position along the low ridge that runs north and south of the town.------The battled opened at dawn on the 17th when Union Gen. Joseph Hooker’s artillery began a murderous fire on Jackson’s men in the Miller cornfield north of town. “in the time I am writing.” Hooker reported, “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before.” Hooker’s troops advanced driving the Confederates before them, and Jackson reported that his men were “exposed for near an hour to a terrific storm of shell, canister, and musketry.”------About 7 a.m. Jackson was reinforced and succeeded in driving the Federals back. An hour later Union troops under Gen. Mansfield counterattacked and by 9 o’clock had regained some of the lost ground. Then, in an effort to extricate some of Mansfield’s men from their isolated position near the Dunker Church, Gen. John Sedgwick’s division advanced into the west woods. The Confederates struck Sedgwick’s men in both flanks, inflicting appalling causalities.------Meanwhile, Gen. French’s division moved up to support Sedgwick but veered south into the Confederates under Gen. Hill posted along an old sunken road . For about 4 hours bitter fighting raged along this road (afterward know as bloody lane). Confusion and sheer exhaustion finally ended the battle here and in the northern part of the battlefield generally.-----Southeast of town, Union Gen. Burnside’s 9th Corps had been trying to cross over the bridge on Antietam Creek since 9.30 a.m. Confederate troops had driven them back each time. As the day wore on more and more Confederates units were taken from Burnside’s front and moved to support the severe fighting surrounding Jackson’s troops. Finally at 1 p.m. the Federal troops forced their way across the bridge. Burnside’s Corps moved to the other side of the creek and after a delay to form up their line began to move forward with great success against the weakened Confederate lines. By late afternoon they had driven the Confederates back almost to Sharpsburg, threatening to cut off the line of retreat for Lee’s decimated army. Then in one of turning events in the war about 4 p.m. Gen A.P. Hill’s division, left behind by Jackson at Harpers Ferry to salvage the captured Federal property, arrived by surprised on the field and immediately entered the fight. They struck Burnsides troops in the flank with terrible results. Burnsides’ troops were driven back to heights near the bridge that they had taken earlier. The Battle of Antietam was over. More men were killed or wounded at Antietam than on any other single day in the Civil War. The next day Lee began withdrawing his army across the Potomac River. ----- This is where our story starts the story of 8th Connecticut Regiment. While the main effort was being made to force a crossing at the bridge over Antietam Creek The 3rd Division, of which the 8th Connecticut was a part, forced a second crossing wading across Antietam Creek some distance below the bridge and engaged the Confederates units stationed along the slopes overlook the creek. After forcing their way across the creek the units of the 9th Corps required a considerable amount of time to organize into battle formation. As the attack moved forward the 2nd Brigade under Col. Harland was ordered to attack a battery of artillery. Of the four regiments in the brigade only the 8th Ct moved forward taking the Confederate battery. This action placed the 8th CT in a position in advance of the rest of the whole Union line. It was at this point in the battle that the famous attack by A.P. Hill’s Division, coming up from Harpers Ferry, exploded against the flank of the 9th Corps and the exposed 8th Ct. ------From the Confederate reports of the battle we take the following. “When A.P. Hill’s Division was announced as approaching the field Toombs was directed, that as soon as Gregg’s Brigade arrived and relieved him, to move this command to the right of his own division. Before Gregg arrived he received an order to move immediately to meet the enemy, who had already begun his attack on Jones’s Division. He quickly put his command in motion, and fell back to the Harper’s Ferry Road where he was met by another order to hasten his march as the enemy had broken the line of Jones’s Division and were nearly up to the road without a Confederate soldier in front. At this point Toombs was joined by the 20th Georgia, and the entire command went double-quick along the road, passing the 7th Virginia, which had fallen back, and in a short time the head of the line passed the narrow cornfield and saw the abandoned guns, and the 8th Connecticut “standing composedly in line of battle,” about 120 yards from the road, APPARENTLY WAITING FOR SUPPORT. ………Little’s battalion was in advance followed by the 17th Georgia, 15th Georgia and a large part of the 20th in rear. All, however made a short line, and Col. Benning, when he thought the rear had not quite cleared the cornfield, for he did not desire to see the enemy to see how short his line was, halted the head of his line opposite the right of the 8th Connecticut and ordered it to begin firing: “the rest of the, line as it came up, joined in the fire. The fire soon became general. It was hot and rapid. The enemy returned it with vigor, and showed a determination to hold their position stubbornly.”” ------ While most of the 9th Corps was pushed rearward the 8th Ct was driven sideways and swept from the battle field. The regimental monument, at the battlefield site, notes that of the 400 men present 190 were killed or wounded. Two members of the Connecticut 8th Regiment were brothers Ellis and Emerson Stevens from Killingworth (Ellis / Mercy Griffin / Worden / Samuel / Samuel). Their family history is posted on the Blog. Ellis and Emerson’s letters, written to their father, have survived the ages and are housed in the Connecticut State Library. On the 24th of September Ellis writes from Sharpsburg, noting that he received a wound above his knee, he writes, “We have had two very hard fights with the rebels and whipped them lost a good many men the rebels lost a good many also”, “ you can get the particulars of the fight in the papers better that I can write them”, “Em (Emerson) did not come with us he had no shoes”. Countless pages have been written on the horrors of Antietam. In the same collection of letters are several from their sister Sabra were she expresses her fears to their father that the boys will not survive the war. Ellis voiced nothing of those horrors to his father. Ellis writes that his brother was spared the ordeal of Antietam for wont of a pair of shoes. The great irony here is that their father, Daniel, was a shoemaker. Ellis and Emerson were also at Fredericksburg with Burnside where they were both wounded again. They were later joined by their brother Francis and were part of the final days of the war at Petersburg, Virginia. Ellis died at the young age of 42 possibly as a result of the trauma of the war.------ I hope to some day put a number on the members of the extended Griffin clan that fought in the Civil War. It is not a small number. Our ancestry paid a steep price for our American heritage. I have also documented one single branch of James Needham Griffin’s family that fought for the Confederates.------ I invite every branch of the family to submit their Civil War histories to the Blog.