Baptized
by Fire: The 125th Pennsylvania at Antietam, Part 3
By
Ranger Daniel Vermilya
This is the third of a three part series on the 125th
Pennsylvania Infantry at the Battle of Antietam. You can read parts one here,
and part two here.
Just as their
experience in battle had been new, the aftermath of Antietam brought unforeseen
experiences for the men of the 125th Pennsylvania. Many searched the
battlefield to look for their dead and wounded comrades on the war torn
landscape. The morning after the battle, Private Robert Cozzens of Company F
made his way to the Dunker Church to search for his comrades who had fallen.
Before reaching where his company fought, Cozzens came across the body of
George Simpson, laying as though he was still holding the Regimental Colors in
death as he had in life. After Confederates stymied several attempts to remove
Simpson’s body during the day, that evening Simpson’s remains were brought back
into Union lines.
On the evening of
September 18th, Captain William Wallace made his way to the Hoffman
Farm, where some of the wounded and dying from the regiment were being treated.
Wallace wrote of this visit with great emotion, contrasting the terrible sights
with the higher calling to which he and his men were dedicated:
My visit to the
barn hospital when darkness set in left some unfading memories. The amputated
limbs strewn about outside made a ghastly sight under the glare of the
torchlights, and the audbile sufferings of the maimed and wounded comrades and
the comatose condition of others would have made the vocation of a soldier for
empty honor or fame utterly abhorrent to me. But we were actuated by higher
motives, and the righteousness of our cause justified the sacrifice.[1]
Among the wounded
in that barn was John Randolph Simpson, the brother of George Simpson. After
being severely wounded in his retreat from the West Woods, Simpson had been
helped to the Hoffman barn by a comrade, and there he lay in agony for several
days. Surgeons initially diagnosed his wounds as being mortal, but upon
reexamination, it was determined that Simpson could survive if given the proper
care at home because none of his major organs had been damaged.
While
John Simpson struggled for life, his father needed to be told what had become
of his sons. J. W. Curry, a
reverend and first cousin of George and John Randolph Simpson who was with the
125th in an unofficial capacity, sent a letter home to his Uncle
John Simpson, informing him of the fate of his two sons. The letter, dated
September 19, told George Simpson’s grieving father that his son was shot down
“while nobly bearing forward the ensign of his Country.”[2] While he had
hoped to bring the body home to Huntingdon, Curry noted that due to the warm
weather, decay had begun and he was forced to purchase a coffin and bury George
on the field.
Despite Curry’s
best wishes for eventually bringing his cousin’s remains home, it was at
Antietam where George would remain. In 1916, a much older John Randolph
Simpson, by this time an accomplished attorney in the Huntingdon area, came
back to visit the same field where his brother had been killed. After touring
the countryside with his family, Simpson went to the National Cemetery where he
visited his brother’s grave. The Cemetery Superintendent informed Simpson that
one year before his visit another member of the regiment had come to pay their
respects to their fallen color bearer. Upon seeing the grave, the old soldier
broke down in tears. He asked that Simpson’s grave be adorned with flowers each
year on Decoration Day, and he provided some funds to this end. That veteran
was none other than Private Eugene Boblitz of Company H, the man who had picked
up the flag after Simpson had fallen in battle at Antietam, only to be shot
down himself.[3]
Stories
such as these tell of the significance that the Battle of Antietam had for
these green soldiers from Pennsylvania, a significance that extended for the
rest of their lives. The men would go on to serve out their nine month
enlistment in the Union army, only seeing significant combat again at
Chancellorsville. The regiment mustered out of Federal service on May 18, 1863,
though many of its members would again volunteer their services as Pennsylvania
Emergency Militia during the Gettysburg Campaign.
More than four
decades later—on September 17, 1904—the survivors of the 125th
Pennsylvania met near the Dunker Church on the fields of Antietam to dedicate a
monument to their shared sacrifices, a monument adorned with a statue of George
Simpson bravely clutching the regimental colors. Several men who had been
instrumental in the formation of the regiment and had fought bravely in its
service were there to dedicate the monument with speeches and remarks. Among
these men was the former Captain of the regiment, William Wallace. In his
remarks, he harkened back to the formation of the Company that he had raised in
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, quoting both Shakespeare and Scripture, noting both
that “there is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will,”
and “in all our ways [we]should acknowledge Him, who doeth according to His
will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.”[4]
Wallace went on to introduce his friend and former Lieutenant, Theodore Flood,
the same divinity student who had prayed with Wallace many years earlier in the
back of his Huntingdon office. When introducing Flood, Wallace noted that he
was a man who had “received his baptism by fire near this spot.”[5]
While Wallace was
speaking of only one man with these words, they applied to all of the
Huntingdon Bible Company, and to the 125th Pennsylvania as well. The
story of this company and this regiment is one of faith and courage in the
midst of terrible suffering and slaughter. Only one month removed from their
homes and farms, these men had their baptism by fire on the now peaceful fields
surrounding the Dunker Church. Of the many green regiments in the Union ranks
at Antietam, the 125th Pennsylvania performed as bravely and
effectively as any. Their experience at Antietam ranged from the success of
boldly taking a valuable position at a crucial time in the battle to the depths
of facing a withering Confederate counter attack. For the men of Company C,
having left home with a Bible in one hand and a musket in the other, they
acquitted themselves well on America’s bloodiest day. At Antietam, their battle
cry of “In God We Trust” led them forward into a tempest of death and despair.
As their call was taken up by the rest of the 125th Pennsylvania,
these men declared that the same faith and determination which had drawn them
from their homes and into the army would likewise draw them into one of the
bloodiest and fiercest firefights of the entire Civil War. Their baptism by
fire at Antietam is one that should not soon be forgotten.
[1]
O.R. Vol. 19, Part 1, 177.
[2]
J.W. Curry letter to John Simpson, September 19, 1862 (typed transcript),
Antietam National Battlefield Library, 125th Pennsylvania File.
[3]
“J.R. Simpson, Esq., Visits Antietam”, Huntingdon Globe, June 22, 1916.
[4]
William Wallace, September 17, 1904, in 125th Pennsylvania, 220.
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