Captain Nathan S Babcock of Company K commanded the undersized 77th New York Infantry at Antietam as senior officer present.
I entered the battle of Antietam Creek on the 17th instant with not more than 175 men all told, most of the regiment having been on picket for two days, a part of which joined us just as the brigade was ordered to charge upon the rebels … (from his Report)
This excellent photograph of him is from the New York State Military Museum, online from New York Heritage.
Babcock tried the Pennsylvania oil business after the war but “went under.” He then went West, settling in 1871 on a farm near Exeter, Nebraska. He’s circled in the picture below, from an Exeter Township history [pdf] in the Geneva Community Grange #403’s The Fillmore County Story (1968).
The 28th New York Infantry was reduced to four consolidated companies, about 65 men, by September 1862, and they were commanded at Antietam by Captain William Henry Harrison Mapes of Company C.
He resigned in November 1862 but he helped form a new unit in 1863, the 2nd NY Mounted Rifles, and was their Major when he was captured at Peeble’s Farm near Petersburg, VA on 30 September 1864. He was a prisoner into March 1865 and mustered out in August.
After the war he farmed in Kansas, and is seen here in a photograph in Charles W Boyce’s A Brief History of the Twenty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers, First Brigade, First Division, Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac (1896).
He was among the veterans who dedicated the New York State monument on the Antietam battlefield in 1920 and he died in 1932 at age 94.
This is Captain Samuel H. Sims, who led Company G of the 51st New York Infantry across the Lower Bridge at Antietam.
Among the many of his Company killed there was Private Thomas Stockwell. A few days later Captain Sims wrote to Thomas’s widow Caroline.
It is one of the finest such letters I’ve ever read:
It has become my most painful and unavoidable duty to announce to you the death of your husband. He was killed while in the faithful discharge of his duty at the storming of Antietam Bridge Maryland in the morning of September 17th, 1862. Our joy at gaining the victory that day has been restrained by our remembrance of the brave men who fell – the faces of our comrades once so familiar that are lost to us, and more than that, the grief that we know will be brought to the home of our noble brother who has rendered his life a sacrifice to prove his devotion to our country, flag, and constitution.
Your husband died at the moment of victory. Our Regiment with the Brigade had been ordered forward by Genl. Burnside to advance to the Bridge where the rebels were posted in strong force. They were the Brigade of sharpshooters called ‘Toombs Brigade’ consisting I believe of Georgia, S. Carolina and Mississippi riflemen. The action lasted about one hour before poor Tom fell. He heard as he died the shout of victory. A noble death! but to you a stroke which I fear no words of mine can render alleviation. I humbly pray to my God that he will be with you in your affliction.
His grave is in the valley near the bridge, fifteen of his comrades lie there with him. I have caused an inscription to be placed over him. A final statement of his effects will be sent forward today to Washington. I enclose a lock of his hair …
Sims was himself killed in action while rallying troops in the Crater at Petersburg, VA on 30 July 1864.
______
A transcription of the letter is from Stockwell’s bio sketch online from Green-Wood Cemetery.
Private John M Disbrow, Company D, 111th New York Infantry was barely 16 years old when he was killed by a gunshot in action on Bolivar Heights above Harpers Ferry sometime after 9 o’clock on the night of 14 September 1862 – probably by “friendly” fire from his own regiment, who fired at noises in the dark.
One of his messmates argued that he’d been killed by enemy cavalry:
You ask me about Disbro, I guess I can tell you as much as any one, about him, as I stood near him when he fell, and helped bury him. It is a mistake, his being shot by one of his own Company, as after he was dead, one of our Balls were tried to put into the hole in his head, & would not go. It was a Pistol Shot from a horse Pistol, in all probability by some of the Rebel Cavaraly, as we have no such arms. It is almost positive that he was shot by one of the Rebel Cavalry which attacked us in our Rear. It would be dreadful to think of his being Shot by one of his own comrades. It is universaly acknowledged that he was shot by some of the Rebel Cavalry.
This marker in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park talks about that night and the rookies of the 111th New York; photographed by Craig Swain.
