“A Thrilling Spectacle”

Second Corps, with 15,000 soldiers, was the largest corps in the Union Army of the Potomac. Its lead division went into the West Woods alone, while the other two divisions strayed to the south and passed in front of this point, marching from left to right. Confederate Colonel John B. Gordon watched as the men in blue formed an assaulting column four lines deep, with the front line at charge bayonets and the other lines at right shoulder shift, led by a brave Union commander superbly mounted in front while his band in the rear cheered them with martial music. To Gordon, their banners seemed untouched by the smoke and dust of battle, and their gleaming bayonets flashed like burnished silver in the sunlight. Antietam was the first battle for the 132nd Pennsylvania Regiment. As it approached the fighting, occasional shells whizzed by or overhead, and the men showed nerve and resolution, but when a shell smashed through some beehives on the Roulette farm, shells and bullets and angry bees proved too much for the rookies, and their officers struggled to get the regiment formed and moving again.

Keedysville, Maryland · United States