On September 15, 1862, “the entire 2nd Corps was camped on or near the Pry property and the spring served as a welcome source of fresh water for the soldiers.” From the Pry House Field Hospital Museum.
“America had never seen a day like it. 12,410 young men from the North were dead, dying, wounded or missing. And 10,700 Confederates, or approximately one of every three engaged had fallen on the fields between the village of Sharpsburg and the Antietam Creek.”
From Antietam Hospitals by John W. Schildt, published by Antietam Publications, Chewsville, Md. 1997, 1986
Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862
“At 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 17, the men of the California Regiment were awakened for an inspection of cartridge boxes. An hour later, each man drew 40 cartridges to supplement the 40 he held in his cartridge box. The boys stuffed the extra ammunition into pockets and haversacks and tried to get some more sleep. But little sleep was to be had, for reveille sounded between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. . .”
The full account of the participation of the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Battle of Antietam can be found on eHistory.
Following are excerpts from Report of J. T. Owen, Colonel, Commanding Brigade, after having assumed command of the brigade subsequent to the wounding of General Sedgwick:
Camp near Sharpsburg, Md., September 21,1862
“I have the honor to report that the brigade took up its line of march from its encampment on the south side of Antietam Creek on the morning of the 17th instant, about 8 o’clock, and, having forded the same, deployed into line and proceeded at a quick march to the front {the West Woods}. . .
The brigade was subjected to a crossfire from a battery posted on the enemy’s extreme left. As the brigade reached the top of the hill, I noticed many of the regiments to the left of Sedgwick’s division falling back in great confusion, and immediately suggested the propriety of moving the brigade obliquely to the left. Immediately after the brigade was halted and dressed, it was subjected, in common with the other two lines, to a most terrific fire of infantry and artillery, notwithstanding which the officers and men behaved with remarkable coolness, and though the ranks were thinned by the enemy’s deadly aim, the gaps were quickly filled and an unbroken front maintained. . . .
The panic which I had observed on the left ultimately spread along the line, and the impetuous advance of the enemy’s column threatened to turn our left flank. At this juncture, General Sumner appeared in person in the midst of a most deadly shower of shot and shell, and an order was received to fall back. With some confusion upon the left, the brigade retired.. . .
“I regret to say that the casualties were very great, amounting in all to a loss in killed, 89; wounded, 370; and missing, 109; total, 468 [568.] As this is the first occasion of this brigade having fallen back in battle, I beg leave to state in its defense, and as a matter worthy of discussion in a military point of view, whether the disaster was not attributable to its having been placed in too great proximity to the other two lines, and thus, while intended to act as a reserve, subjected to as deadly a fire as those it was intended to support.”
James Kinsella, Company C of the 71st Pennsylvania, was among the 370 wounded in the West Woods.
“John Sedgwick’s division of the Union Second Corps had crossed the Antietam at the Pry Ford, marched through the Kennedy and Neikirk farms to a bloody encounter in the West Woods. In the space of thirty minutes 2,500 men in Sedgwick’s division were dead, wounded or missing. . .
A Hagerstown newspaper said the area was “one vast hospital.”
From Antietam Hospitals by John W. Schildt.
Many of the Second Corps’ wounded were brought to the Hoffman Farm, pictured.
From Terry Reimer, Director of Research, Public Relations Coordinator, National Museum of Civil War Medicine to Bruce Ingram:
“I found James Kinsella listed in a CD-ROM, As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam by John H. Nelson. The database says Kinsella was wounded in the right side and was treated at the field hospital on the Susan Hoffman Farm on Keedysville Road. The information comes from the Army Corps Hospital Registers at the National Archives (Record Group 94, Entry 544).”
During the Battle of Antietam, this farm appeared much as it does now. It provided aid for over 800 federal troops, most of whom were from Sumner’s Second Corps. In a report of the Sanitary Commission which reviewed conditions at the field hospitals, the Hoffman Hospital was rated as excellent. Doctors Doughtory and Hayward supervised this hospital.
Docents at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum indicated that James Kinsella would have been treated in the barn with the other enlisted men and probably recovered there until transfer to the Baltimore Hospital where he remained until February 1863.
Below is a picture of the U.S.A. General Hospital, Patterson Park, Baltimore, Md., where he might have been taken. (We are still researching this aspect of James Kinsella’s life to determine if this is where he might have met Hannah Moffett and returned to Baltimore after the War to marry.)
Fort Patterson on Hampstead Hill at Patterson Park became a military hospital in 1863 – 65. The U.S. Christian Commission in 1864 reported that this institution had a capacity of 1,200 patients. It occupied the site of the present Patterson Park.
Searching for James Kinsella: Irish Yankee 