Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was born in New Haven, Conn., December 22, 1803. His early education was obtained in the common schools of his state. At the age of fourteen he entered the military academy at West Point, being the youngest of a class of forty. During the five years of his course, he was a careful and earnest student, especially distinguishing himself in the sciences, and graduating in 1822, second in his class. He was immediately promoted to the Corps of Engineers, in which departmen

Why has there been so much difficulty in identifying the right locality? There has been no difficulty, none whatever, among those who knew the facts. The errors have all come from the ignorant, the imaginative, and those who have poor memories. It will be easy, especially for one standing on the ground while reading these pages, to see that very few except the 10th Maine would witness the event, as we were so nearly isolated and almost hidden. We made very little account at the time, of what is

In 1889, the 1-10-29th Maine Regiment [3] Association made an excursion to the various battle fields in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia where the regiment had fought. Friday, October 4th, was the day of the visit to Antietam. Not one of the company had been there for twenty-five years, yet on arriving in East Woods we readily and surely identified the fighting position of the regiment, which was known as the “Tenth Maine,” at the time of the battle. We found that the west face of the woods h

The 12th Army Corps, Mansfield commanding, marched on the Boonsboro pike, late at night of Sept. 16th, from “the center” through Keedysville to the farm of George Line (G. Lyons on the old maps) and there rested till daybreak. Gen. Mansfield slept on the west side of a fence which ran south from Line’s garden to woods. His bed was the grass and his roof a blanket. The 10th Maine was on the east side of the fence (see map ), and some of our boys who indulged in loud talk were ordered by the Gener

It has been stated that the 10th Maine was the extreme left of Hooker’s command (1st and 12th corps) during the 40 minutes, more or less, the regiment was engaged. The Confederate troops opposed to us and to our neighbors [14] on the right were from Hood’s division. [15] The 4th Alabama was the right regiment of all, and they came up the Smoketown road from the West Woods in a hurry. On reaching East Woods they deployed and advanced “in line.” On nearing the woods Maj. Robbins met what he unders

We will next look at the Official Reports bearing on the subject. (See Vol. XIX, Part I, Official Record, War of the Rebellion, U. S. Gov’t printing office.) I. In Lt.-Col. Fillebrown’s [17] report (10th Maine) there is no mention of the event, nor is there anything else that has the merit of being both true and worth recording. (See page 489.) Ordinarily he was one of the most genial and accommodating of men; but when sick and vexed, as plainly he was when he made that report, he could dash off

A singular phase in this case is the fact that none of Gen. Mansfield’s subordinate commanders excepting Gen. Crawford, and none of Mansfield’s staff, witnessed the wounding. In the three days he was our commander none of us saw a staff officer with him. It was only a vague memory of a lost and forgotten general order, and the reference to “Captain Dyer” in the General’s memorial volume, [19] that suggested the possibility there was a staff. In 1890 to ’94 I made a special and persistent effort

The next question that arises is, why did Gen. Mansfield suppose the 10th Maine was firing into Union troops? While the corps was waiting in the vicinity of Joe Poffenberger’s, (marked 6:20 on the map) from about 6:20 to 7:20 A. M. , Gen. Mansfield was seen frequently by almost every soldier of the corps. In hundreds of letters, from the various regiments and batteries, there is a common agreement that the General was moving around the field continually. He seemed to be everywhere. Although he a

In this narrative it has been impossible to avoid frequent reference to myself and to my regiment, but there is nothing in the Mansfield incident of special credit to any of us. We were there and saw it; we live and can prove it; this is the whole story in a nut shell. I have always regretted that I left the regiment even on so important a mission. At the time, I supposed it was only to be for a moment, and that with three field officers on duty I could be spared. As for the regiment, we succeed

The following map is based upon one issued November, 1894, by the “Antietam Board.” This in turn was based upon the so-called “Michler” map from the office of the U. S. Engineers, which, while correct in the main, has many errors of detail, and it is not likely that all of them have yet been discovered by the Board. Indeed, one object of the Board in issuing the map, was to invite criticism and corrections from the soldiers and others. The positions of the troops cannot be shown with anything li