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- Feb 27, 2017
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Sometimes it's interesting to "see" the same event from the perspective of both sides.
The 125th Pennsylvania was a rookie regiment at Antietam. On the morning of September 17 they were in position near the Dunker Church. They stood alone as Sedgwick's division pushed toward the West Woods. One of Gorman's regiment's, the 34th New York, moved to support the Pennsylvanians. The Pennsylvanians were engaged with the remnants of Early's brigade in front. Kershaw's brigade struck their left flank in front while Barksdale's Mississippians hit their right flank. "When our regiment was ordered into the woods at Dunker church, our skirmishers had not advanced more than fifty yards when they were driven back and we opened fire," Private W. R. Strickler of Company F recalled. "A brigade of Confederates came up through the woods, with another coming up outside at a 'right shoulder shift,' double-quick into line."
According to Sergeant Charles C. Cummings of the 17th Mississippi: "We ran up the slope at a double-quick and at the crest of the hill, which we gained a little in advance of the blue boys, we met and routed them by a single fire. We got in the first work, and blue jackets lay thick as leaves in Vallambrosa after that discharge. The old flag fell also, but was quickly snatched up by a plucky boy in blue. It fell again and again was snatched up by another. A third time the flag went down and then we were pressing them so that it seemed our flag, until a Yankee ran back and slung it over his shoulder and ran past the Dunker Church, trailing its staff out in the open, beyond where they had posted a battery. Six of my company followed after the fleeing flag, seeking to capture it out in the open, and ran into the jaws of this battery before we knew we were "in it." Hamp Woods and Lieut. James rest there yet; Bill McRaven, Jerry Webb and I were spared...."
Lieutenant Thomas McCamant of the 125th Pennsylvania recalled: "In the retreat from the said west woods, the regimental colors were saved through bravery worthy of special mention. The color-sergeant, George A. Simpson, was shot and instantly killed and five of the color guard went down; then Eugene Boblits of Company 'H,' rescued and carried them for a distance, when he was badly wounded and handed them to Sergeant Walter W. Greenland of Company 'C,' … from whom Captain Wallace received them, and carried them to the rear of the battery which we were ordered to support. Meanwhile men were falling thick and fast as leaves in autumn."
Greenland
Theodore Flood remembered that "As we stood firing into the ranks of the enemy the second man to me, George A. Simpson, while bravely holding the flag aloft, was hit with a bullet from a Confederate gun, which pierced his brain, and he fell dead. A second man picked up the flag, and he was shot down. A third, and he fell; the fourth took it up, and he was shot and fell. Then Sergeant W.W. Greenland picked up the flag, stained with the blood of Simpson, and Captain Wallace, taking it in charge, carried it across the field to the rear of the nearest battery, and there he, aided by Captains Bell and McKeage and Lieutenant Thomas McCamant, rallied about two hundred of the regiment, who remained in support, while our batteries operated with deadly execution upon the enemy, during the rest of the conflict."
Captain William W. Wallace recounted, "As Walter [Greenland] was not one of the color guard, I relieved him of it [the flag], to use in rallying the regiment. The nearest Union battery, as closely as I can estimate the distance, from the spot where I took possession of the flag was about 400 yards, and to avoid being made too conspicuous a target for the watchful enemy across such range across that open field, I prudently kept the flag furled until I reached the rear of the battery nearest the cornfield, and there unfurled it for a rallying point for the scattered comrades."
The monument to the 125th Pennsylvania sits behind the Dunker Church on the "West Woods Trail." It commemorates the spot where George Simpson fell.
Deducation of 125th Pennsylvania Monument
September 17, 1904
(John Banks's Blog)
Bringing the