A Deadly Struggle

An estimated 100,000 U.S. and Confederate soldiers clashed at Antietam on September 17, 1862. During the battle in the Miller Cornfield, Sergeant William H. Paul of Company E, 90th Pennsylvania Infantry, recaptured his unit's fallen flag from a Confederate soldier and carried it through the remainder of the fighting. Paul later suffered a wound at Gettysburg that prevented him from continuing as flag-bearer, and he received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Antietam on November 3, 1896. Some of Antietam's most horrific fighting took place in the Miller Cornfield, where Lieutenant Colonel Alexander "Sandie" Pendleton of Major General "Stonewall" Jackson's staff remembered an intense storm of shot, shell, canister, and bullets. Private Julius F. Rabardy of Company K, 12th Massachusetts Infantry, who also fought there, was shot through the right thigh by his own men and later recalled dragging himself around a tree while exposed to the fire of both sides.

Keedysville, Maryland · United States