Antietam Photography

[greyson24]

I remeber a while back someone did a study of the uniforms of some of the casualties in the famous photographs at Antietam taken by Alexander Gardner. A few nights ago I read an article where the dead soldier at Devil's Den was possibly identified and was wondering if we could do the same for the famous photo taken along the Hagerstown Pike. I know most of these soldiers are from Starke's brigade and Louisiana men but nothing more. Maybe we can identify some of the men

in the photograph.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

This above photograph shows Confederate dead apparently on the Miller Farm (north of the Dunker Church), with the North Woods in the distant background, and the Hagerstown Pike to the right of the fence.

The below battlefield map (found in 'Landscape Turned Red' by Stephen Sears, at page 196) enables the location of the above photo to be readily plotted.

From the above map it can be seen that the Confederate brigades of Starnes and J. W. Jackson were in the immediate vicinity of the identified location in the photograph.

The relevant action is described in Sears's work at page 194 (with my underlining of the fence referenced):-

…"Pressed hard by Gibbon's spearhead, the Georgians were giving way when suddenly a new Rebel line rushed out of the West Woods and came slanting across the clover field. These were the 1,150 men of General Starke's two remaining brigades, led by the general himself. Their charge carried them to the stout post-and-rail fence along the turnpike, where they lay down and blazed away at the Yankees in the pasture beyond the road. At one point the battle lines were scarcely thirty yards apart.
Starke's counterattack succeeded in halting Doubleday's offensive, but – like Hay's Louisianians Tigers – only at the cost of being trapped in a murderous converging fire. His men were hit by musketry from the pasture and the Cornfield, by case shot rained on them from Battery B in the Miller barnyard to the north, and by sharpshooting skirmishers advancing on their flank and rear from the Federal foothold in the West Woods. General Starke was struck by three bullets and carried from the field; he would die within the hour. The Stonewall Brigade's Grigsby took over, a colonel in command of a division. The order was given to pull back to their starting point"…

B-G William Starke took over divisional command after B-G John Jones was wounded and personally led the two mentioned brigades to the wooden fence alongside the turnpike. These two brigades were Starke's own brigade (comprising the 1 LA, 2 LA, 9 LA, 10 LA & 15 LA, and the 1 LA Battalion) and Taliaferro's brigade under Col. James Jackson (comprising the 47 AL, 48 AL, 23 VA & 37 VA). Because of the lead position (see map) of Starke's brigade in the movement, thought it was more likely that the dead in the picture belonged to Starke's brigade – meaning they were Louisianians. But thought it possible too, that some of the pictured dead were Alabamians or Virginians who were members of Taliaferro's brigade.