Brother vs. Brother

Near here, the 6th Maryland Infantry of the Union made its penetration of the Confederate fortifications. Major Clifton K. Prentiss, a 29-year-old from Baltimore, helped lead his unit in the Breakthrough before falling wounded by a rifle ball in his chest. Some distance away and a little later in the battle, Private William S. Prentiss, who served in the 2nd Maryland Battalion, a Confederate unit, also suffered a severe wound that required the amputation of his right leg. William and Clifton were brothers. As in many families from border states like Maryland, the Civil War drove a wedge between these two young men, and their service in opposing armies brought them together on this battlefield under tragic circumstances. The Confederates had created a narrow opening in their fortifications to allow pickets to move back and forth from their posts, wood-gathering parties to collect timber, and men to use latrines located in front of their works. A number of these gaps existed along the Confederate line. The earthwork running perpendicular to the main fortifications is the remains of a traverse, an engineering device that originally connected with another section of earthwork to create an L-shaped fortification behind the main line to protect the narrow opening. During the Breakthrough, Union attackers saw these gaps as a potential path of least resistance.

Virginia · United States