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- Feb 27, 2017
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As the men of the Stonewall Brigade marched through Sharpsburg the day before, E. E. Stickley, Grisby's aide, went to a house in town to get some water and food. He "began to feel wretchedly faint of heart," Stickley recalled, "for it seemed to me that the coming battle meant my certain death. I dismounted at the gate, entered the yard and garden, and got some water and tomatoes, but could not eat them. It was only by supreme effort that I conquered my fear and dashed hurriedly up and reported to our commanding officer on the line of march." Later that night, around 11:00, Stickley and an orderly tried to get some sleep in the field near the West Woods. "I had a new pair of buckskin gloves," Stickley remembered, "and some new clothes" -- spoils from Harper's Ferry. "We each got a stone for a pillow and laid it down. I put both of my gloves on the stone and spread a blanket over them. We tied our horses to our feet, as was the custom in an emergency. We then laid down with another blanket to cover us, and slept the sleep of the just."
They only managed a couple of hours of sleep when "fierce and active" skirmish fire awoke them. "We arose at the touch of Colonel Grigsby, who had stood by his horse all night. We untied our horses, which had been asleep too, packed up the blankets, and I then undertook to pick up my gloves; but the right-hand glove was gone, and I never saw it again."
As the sun began to rise to the east, Stickley went along the line to awaken the men. Pogue's battery moved to the front and opened fire. After firing a few rounds, Pogue withdrew his guns behind the line. "The spectacle now presented was one of splendor and magnificence, for as the enemy advanced we beheld one of the most brilliant displays of troops we had ever seen," Stickley wrote. "The Federals in apparent double battle line were moving toward us at charge bayonets, common time, and the sunbeams falling on their well-polished guns and bayonets gave a glamour and a show at once fearful and entrancing."
The men were under a heavy artillery fire from Federal batteries on the other side of Antietam Creek. The command was given: "Forward, charge bayonets, common time! March!" "The command was obeyed cheerfully and with vigor," Stickley related, "the men charging and firing as they went." Stickley was in the act of mounting his horse when a "shell struck and killed my horse and, bursting, blew him to pieces, knocked me down, and, of course, tore off my right arm except for enough flesh to hold its weight. I saw my horse about to fall on me where I lay. I jumped up and went straight to the brigade line of battle, and was caught by two of our men and thus prevented from falling. I was saturated with blood, my right side from the blood of my own person and my left from the blood of my horse. Now it was clear why I had lost my glove. I had no right hand on which to wear it."
As the brigade went into action, Stickley was carried to the rear. He eventually arrived at a field hospital where, later that afternoon, his right arm was amputated.
Source: Confederate Veteran
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