On the morning of September 17, 1862, as the Battle of Antietam began in Sharpsburg, Maryland, Union General Joseph Mansfield waited to lead his ten thousand troops into action. When Joseph Hooker called for support, Mansfield pushed his men into the fighting and rode across the field positioning and encouraging them. Seeing some of his soldiers firing into a wooded area recently occupied by Union troops, he charged forward waving his hat and ordering them to stop, only to discover through his field telescope that the gray-coated soldiers ahead were Confederates. As he tried to prevent friendly fire amid intense combat, his horse was shot, and Mansfield himself was struck by a Confederate bullet that pierced his lung. Carried from the field on a blanket, he said, "I shall not live! Oh! My poor family!" and died twenty-four hours later. Five days after his death, his funeral service began at the brick house that had long been his home. The house had been built about 1810 by Samuel Mather, father of Mansfield's wife, Louisa Mather, while Mansfield had grown up next door before entering West Point at age fourteen. A career Army officer, Mansfield served in the Corps of Engineers, earned distinction for bravery in the Mexican War, and became Inspector General in 1853. His hometown received his body with church bells, black crepe on Main Street buildings, and a long funeral procession. After the Civil War, baseball flourished in Middletown, and in 1868 Benjamin Douglas, Jr. organized the Middletown Mansfields in honor of Joseph Mansfield. The team briefly played professionally in the National Association in 1872 before financial troubles ended it, though catcher Jim O'Rourke later reached the Baseball Hall of Fame. Main Street, once fashionable for homes, gradually filled with businesses, including the Mansion House, opened across the street in 1828 and later replaced by other commercial uses before its demolition in 1978. Mansfield's home remained in the family for many years, and in 1959 the Middlesex County Historical Society bought it when it faced demolition for a parking lot; it now serves as the Society's museum with Civil War artifacts from local soldiers and rotating exhibits on community history.

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Photo: Michael Herrick