our next and final speaker is a

great historian and friend. kevin pawlak. so kevin is a historic site manager for prince william county's office of historic preservation. he is also a licensed battlefield guide at antietam national battlefield in harpers ferry national historical park. he's a graduate of shepherd university and has authored six books on the american civil war, including shepherdstown in the civil war, one vast confederate hospital, which really forms the core of what kevin is going to speak about today. now, i will say not part of kevin's official biography, but he undoubtedly knows what's coming. we share two things in common. we both. oh, yeah, like we both obviously have a great passion for history and we are both diehard fans of the buffalo bills. so you for cleveland.

so, you know, i'm just saying. so go bills. all right. please join me in welcoming kevin pawlak. for all those who booed the bills. what do you have against a team that has no super. come on. almost an hour, chase. so i'm convinced that's. that's going to be the end of me on this world. when the bills win the super bowl. but it's a great pleasure to be here with you all this afternoon and really like to thank jonathan. i can't remember when i first met jonathan. it was probably out of bills fan commiseration group of some sort, but it been great to see what he's done. the mccormack civil war institute. this is actually my first time here at the conference. and jonathan, i've just admired what you've done and doing a great job for your staff and volunteers and students here as well. so kudos to of you for putting on a real great program today. now i'm glad the book raffle

happened beforehand because, you know, usually as a store and you don't like to stand between somebody and as the speaker but in a room full of historians i really did not want to stand between all of you and books. so i'm glad that's over with because i'm sure you can all add more books to your library. so what i'm going to do this afternoon is a little bit be a bit of a different talk than the three that you've previously heard. i'm going to look specifically at one town in the shenandoah valley during the course of really just a week of the civil war. and that's, of course, the town of shepherdstown was in september 1862. shepherdstown, virginia but of course, now today it is part of shepherdstown or it is part of west virginia itself, which, of course, i had the great pleasure of living in that town and still refer to it as home many times. so while we're before we get into september of 1862, specifically with shepherdstown role in, the maryland campaign just want to provide some. and while thinking about this and what makes anybody care

about the history of one small town along the potomac river during just a week of its long storied history, not only in the course of the civil war, but throughout all of american history. and thinking about it, i think part of the reason that this is such an important story to be told is that shepherdstown, then the residents there today and back then had a very great awareness, the history and the story of their town. and i think that lent so much of the material that i used in my book and others have used to telling the story of shepherdstown experience as a hospital town. now, having said that, of course, thousands of towns across the united states during the course of the civil war became which what to shepherdstown. they were used as hospitals, home were taken over and used as hospitals, public buildings the same. but i think shepherdstown awareness of history makes it a little bit more of unique study when it comes to how these large battles can affect nearby civilian populations. so shepherdstown history dates back to 1762, really the first

recorded settlement in the area was in the 1730s, but depending on where you live in west virginia, it's either shherdstown or romney that are the oldt towns. and of course those two towns always le to fight back and forth with each other for that designation. but the town was established officially alongde of romney in 1762, right along the potomac river, near a that was known as packhorse ford. it was a native american crossing that we'll talk about a little went by a different name during the course of the of the civil war and especially september done already in september of 1862. but as i mentioned shepherdstown had a great awareness of its history and that really started early on in the town's history in 1775, 98 militiamen of berkeley county, which is what shepherdstown was a part at the time, started their beeline march to boston in july of 1775, from a grove outside of shepherdstown. those 98 soldiers or militiamen march 600 miles in 25 days, up

boston, it became known as the beeline march in 1787, one of the first trials of a steamboat was run in the potomac river at the bluffs, the base of the bluffs of by james rumsey. so if you to shepherdstown today you will see a very tall monument. a lot of people think that's a war monument instead of the rumsey monument to james rumsey himself in 1790, shepherdstown was actually proposed as a possible location for the capital, the new united states. and of course, of ultimately lost. out to washington, d.c. but the town continued to grow and flourish throughout the late 18th century and into the 19th century. and ultimately had a population of about 1200 people by 1860, of which just under 200 were enslaved individuals. overall, though, even though shepherdstown did continue to grow and sat at a crossing point of the potomac river, citizens referred to the town. they said it was almost as if the town had been forgotten in the bottom of somebody's pocket. and they said it was always nine

miles from everywhere. it was a an expression that they used their in town, that it was always right at the center things, but it was always kind of forgotten and as well. and that changed pretty dramatically in october of 1859, when 12 miles down the potomac, of course, john brown's raid on harpers ferry on october 16th to the 18th local militia very reacted to brown's raid from neighboring communities like martinsburg charles town. even frederick, maryland, sent some of its militia down to suppress brown's raid. shepherdstown as well, though soldiers marched down to town and as soon as the militia of shepherdstown made their way out of their own town down to harpers ferry, rumors spread quickly up the potomac river that john brown's next intended target was shepherdstown after harpers ferry. so these people had to live in really almost experience, not four years of civil war, but six years of civil war. when you factor in raid and the fear that that engendered the area and then of course the eventual professionalization of the southern militia and shepherdstown militia was pretty

well armed by april of 1861, when it became part of company b of the second virginia, part of the stonewall brigade. but governor henry wise was actually pushing a lot of arms right along to those towns along the potomac river, including shepherdstown, to try and prevent what he termed as another invade taken by abolitionists such as john brown. so shepherdstown was really ready for war by april of 1861, though it could not really understand, like so many communities across north and south did not really understand just what war was ultimately going to be like and would ultimately do to their towns and to their their way of life there in shepherdstown war really hit hard, though early on for shepherdstown in june of 1861, while confederate forces occupied harpers ferry as they began pulling back away from the potomac river line, some of those confederate forces burned the bridge, the covered bridge that connected shepherdstown, virginia to sharpsburg,

maryland. just on the other side, about three miles on the other side of the potomac river. one of the soldiers involved in that was henry kidd douglas, whose family actually owned property on the maryland side of the river. and he said for him, war really hit home when. he looked through the burning flames of that covered bridge and he saw family's home just on the other side of the river. and, of course, that connection had now been severed, at least there at the covered right at shepherdstown. but they still had the connection of the ford about a mile downstream as well. then with shepherdstown essentially, least from the confederate perspective, sitting on international border of sorts with the river, there was always activity along the border. union pickets maintain positions on the north bank or on the maryland side of the potomac river. there were gangs of ruffians and civilians who of course did not like being under the watchful eye of federal soldiers, predominantly shepherdstown loyalties lay with the confederacy, though not entirely there were some exceptions to that, but nonetheless, every once in a while shepherdstown

civilians would walk down to the potomac river and they would take pot shots at the union pickets across the river. and so in august 1861, about a mile downstream at a large cement mill that was owned by confederate alexander butler, soldiers of the 13th massachusetts infantry crossed the potomac river and burned the mill to the ground to avoid these civilians using them to take pot shots at the federal soldiers. this came a head even further in december of 1861, when colonel link of the 12th indiana infantry wrote a letter to the town council of shepherdstown saying that his men were under fire from shepherdstown civilians and that if they did not stop their own civilians shooting on union pickets, then winc would have no other choice than to bombard the town. and so shepherdstown town council very quickly got to the root of the matter and they banned all alcohol sales in the town. no, that was pretty. and apparently it worked also i'm sure links threat had something to do with that also then finally in may of 1862 fun

fun little civil war occurred between sharpsburg, maryland was again not entirely, but predominantly unionist. and just three miles down the road from there is predominantly confederate sympathizing shepherdstown. for whatever reason, it's a bit unclear as to exactly what happened, but is a bit of a tiff between the two communities, the civilians of sharpsburg. a bunch of ruffians grabbed war of 1812 cannon that was sitting in town square they wheeled it to the heights, maryland, overlooking shepherdstown and threatened to bombard the town. ultimately, they never did, but this goes to show you that throughout the early days of the civil war, as one of shepherdstown civilians put it, said, we were always in and out of the war, but nothing ever really permanently stuck there. now, that would change by september of 1862, maybe. now we're not going to have time to go into the entirety of the maryland campaign today. i'm certainly not going to do that. but just wanted to throw up a map there for you showing the

movements of the armies during the course. the maryland campaign from september 2nd to september 20th. and of course, you can locate shepherdstown. it's one of those near one of those explosions on, the far left hand side of the map. and you'll notice how close it is to sharpsburg, of course, where the battle of antietam would be fought. so shepherdstown first, real initial action, if you will, into the serious side of the vil war came in the days leading up to the first major clash of the maryland campaign and that was the battle of south mountain. this came it was actually almost really a happy note for, shepherdstown civilians, because as the confederate was moving, you can the arrow that says jackson moving across the potomac river at williamsport and then sweeping down toward harpers ferry. many or at least some of the men in jackson's command, natives of shepherdstown, or at least they had in shepherdstown. and so as they were passing close to the town, they would come and stop and visit with their family. and in some cases, this was the last instance that some of these soldiers had to see their

friends and family there in shepherdstown. but that was immediately an eye opening thing for the of shepherdstown because now they knew that these large armies were heading in their direction. and of course it would just be a fleeting moment that they'd get to see their friends and family before ultimately those men had to rejoin confederate ranks and continue their march toward harpers ferry itself. one of the soldiers who came down to visit his family was the gentleman that you see there on the left. he was a confederate surgeon, william selman parr, and was his name. and he had cousins and an aunt living in downtown shepherdstown home still stands there today. for those of you familiar shepherdstown, it's near the train station, right across tommy's pizza, but you can still see it today. it's marked as many of the homes in shepherdstown are. but dr. parr and lived in barbourville, virginia, more down in the central part of the state. he was a surgeon in confederate artillery battery and he took some time during this march to harpers ferry to again leave

ranks and go and visit with his family and friends. now, part had left behind his pregnant wife and one of his infant children back at home. and so during the course of the conversation between william and his cousins, his cousins tried to convince and say, write your wife and tell her to come up here to be with us so that not so far away from everybody. and one of his final letters that's unfortunately not dated pardon. and wrote to his wife indicating to her, you know, the family is offering you to come up here to stay with and then he wrote a note at the bottom of that letter to his infant daughter and said, daddy's little emma must know her daddy when he comes home and unfortunately, of course, when you often read those in civil war letters, you know that there would be no coming home and that would soon enough be the case for dr. parham. but this moment, joy, that these civilians had seeing their friends and seeing their family was all of a sudden taken away and ripped away from them. just a couple of days later, when the heavy sounds of cannon

off in the distance echoed up the potomac river valley into shepherdstown town itself, civilians very quickly tried, clamor to get on roofs, getting the highest windows of their homes to look out in the distance and learn whatever they possibly might be able to about what was happening. this is a view on the right here you can see from the of the rumsey monument today and that furthest mountain range you can see in the distance is the south mountain range and they were able to see battle smoke rising up from south mountain again. they could hear all of this and one civilian put it were drawn to watching this battle at a distance. all day long. and then, of course night fell the sounds of gunfire stopped and the civilians were left to wonder what happened as civilian wrote that night, we knew almost nothing except that there was fighting, that it must be very heavy, and that our friends were surely in it somewhere. things fell quiet again on

september 15th for the civilians of shepherdstown. it wasn't until later on that day when the signs of trouble now began to show up literally at their doorstep. following the battle of south mountain, in which there were 5000 casualties suffered between the two armies, confederate general robert e lee decided it was time to take his army out of maryland and abandon his campaign. the best way of doing that was to march west from south mountain make for the potomac by way of sharpsburg and cross potomac river, about a mile downstream at bowlers, ford, which is just off the actually you can see it at the bottom of the map there on the left hand side where it's marked for you can see those two lines going across the potomac river itself. now, ultimately, of course, because we have the battle of antietam robert e lee made the decision to not bring his army all the way across the potomac river back into virginia, but instead to stop and make a stand at sharpsburg. so the majority of lee's army

stopped at sharpsburg just a few miles away from shepherd's town. but the wounded from the fighting that south mountain and the stragglers continued, making way toward shepherdstown itself, which had become the designated hospital gathering point for the army of northern virginia. y shepherdstown. nobody ever, of course, lists why the confederates show shepherdstown. but looking at a map, it seems pretty simple. shepherdstown is very close to the battlefield at sharpsburg, but it's far enough away that it's not going to come under fire. of course, there's plenty of buildings. sharpsburg excuse me, in shepherdstown as well, that could be taken over. and used as hospitals to provide for those wounded soldiers. and most importantly, there's two great water sources at shepherdstown and of course, the potomac river and the very bucolic town run that still runs right through the middle of the town today. and powered a lot of its mills. now, again, shepherdstown, civilians on the night of september 14th were left with question marks of what happened. we heard all this fighting at south mountain, harpers ferry. where did the armies go and are

any of our friends casualties of that fight that are on their way back in this direction? they didn't get that answer until late in the morning of september 15th, when hundreds of wounded confederates began to arrive across the potomac river and then making their way up the steep bluffs running east from shepherdstown and coming into the town itself. and now shepherdstown civilians jumped into action as hundreds, if not thousands of civilians dead during the course of these military battles and these military campaigns to try and offer a helping hand as best as they possibly could almost immediately, some of the homes on the eastern end of town, including the pa and home became so with wounded that there was not enough in that house for wounded soldiers and. so they had to move some of the wounded soldiers outside of the house itself. but slowly, one by one, more and more homes and buildings on the east side of shepherdstown began to fill up with wounded soldiers. of course, this was something that shepherdstown civilians were completely unprepared for,

and it showed in some of their early accounts, one of the greatest accounts of shepherdstown time, not only september of 1862, but during the course of the war, comes from a series of letters excuse me, diary from natalie, who was on the right side. she's the young one on the right side of the picture. years old. in 1862, she describe watching a patient be operated on, having a bullet removed his wrist without any anesthesia being used on the patient. and she noted how the surgeon performed very heroically in doing that. the soldier sat there very stoically as bullet was being removed from his wrist in the wound was being mended. the soldier handled it just fine, though. as nedda admitted, she almost fainted. and so she had to go and run and open the door to allow some air in so that she wouldn't pass out. another woman in town became very queasy from the sights and sounds and smells of all of

this. she stumbled around, grabbed hold of a railing before yelling, oh, i hope if i faint, someone will me into a corner and let me lie. after the initial shock, those shepherdstown civilians began to have their hearts hardened by these views now of what they had seen of hundreds of wounded, bloodied soldiers, tired, exhausted soldiers coming into their town. and they began to almost immediately leap into action, not only opening up their homes, but also now cooking, writing letters for them, organizing the wounded as best as they possibly can. and this became the ordeal that town over the course of the next couple of days. of course, that flood of wounded would only grow a couple of days later, following the bloodiest single in all of american military history. though shepherdstown was not under fire during the course of the action the civilians and citizens could hear those shots being fired almost as if they were being fired at them. one confederate artillery man who was camped just outside of

shepherdstown, said september 17th at times, artillery fire was so fierce and heavy that it sounded like one continue a roar of thunder rumbling and rolling across the sky the musket tree fire was equally severe and raged almost incessantly. all day and its hideous deathly crash vied with the deafening roar of the thundering artillery. it is utterly incomprehensible and perfectly inconceivable how mortal men can stand and live under such an infantry fire. as i heard today, judging from the way the musket tree, the whole surrounding air between, the lines must have been thick with flying led the young girl became the laureate, the main storyteller shepherdstown role in september 1862 was mary berenger mitchell, who was just 12 years old in that month and that week that she would turn to the worst week of shepherdstown experience during the course of the war. she was also known as minnie mitchell, many as the young

there on the right with her mother and younger sister. mitchell wrote years later, in a popular account that eventually was published in century magazine and became part of the battles and leaders of the civil war series. she said, on our side of the river, there was noise, confusion, dust, throngs of stragglers, horsemen galloping about wagons blocking each other and wrangling in a continual din of shouting, swearing and rumbling in the midst of which men were dying, fresh, wounded, arriving surgeons amputating limbs and, dressing wounds, women going in and out with bandages, lint medicines, food, an ever present sense of anguish, dread, pity and. i fear, hatred. these are my recollections of antietam. as night fell, the sound of gunfire quiet down and the flow of wounded streaming back across the potomac river, slow to the civilians of shepherdstown. once climbed on to the top of

their to catch the lights of thousands of campfires lighting the way between the antietam battlefield and shepherdstown knowing of course they knew that that would bring more and more wounded to their little town, mitchell said of that night. we sat in silence, looking into each others, tired faces. there were no impatient words, few tears, only silence, and a drawing close together, as if for comfort, we were almost hopeless, yet clung with desperation to the thought that we were hoping. but our hearts we could not believe that anything human could have escaped from that appalling fire. of course, those were wounded. approximately 17,000 wounded soldiers between the two armies overall, 23,000 casualties on september 17th, in about 12 hours of fighting. that's about one person every 2 seconds for 12 straight hours, about 4000 killed outright on the day of the battle. and then about 17,000 wounded

overall, about 8000 of those wounded were confederate wounded. and so throughout the day, on september 18th, shepherdstown status as a hospital pretty much remained the same. the trickle of wounded were coming into the town, but on the night of september 18th, robert e lee made decision to now bring his army out of maryland and back into and his crossing point to bring his army back into virginia was just a mile downstream from shepherdstown. it was a chaotic night amidst ranks of the army of northern virginia as they tried to get as many of the wounded soldiers onto horses, into wagons. but ultimately, the the medical corps of the army of northern virginia woefully inadequate in terms treating those 8000 wounded that it suffered during the course of the maryland campaign. and so there are accounts of soldiers trying to or rent somebody's horse. there's officer one great account of a confederate officer who said he got off his horse to go run into a field and talk to

a few of his men. and by the time he got back, his horse was stolen from them by a wounded soldier who was looking to not be left behind and not be left. federal hands all told about. 500 confederate wounded were left behind between the fighting at south mountain and at sharpsburg. but by now, the morning of september 19th, the remainder of robert de lee's army was back across the potomac river in its entirety, and shepherdstown, a town of about 1200 people, became inundated with anywhere from 6 to 8000 wounded soldiers. so you can see the cry was for more room, which i think pretty much sums it up nicely. literally every building in town was used. there's a great that goes around and i found this writing my book or really before i started writing the book and when i had moved to shepherdstown, the church you see there on the left hand of the screen, trinity episcopal church, this is looking down what's now called german street in shepherdstown at the time of the war.

and the church still stands today. but there's a great story. and i think it's just that a story that goes around the town that the every building was used as a hospital. but there is so much so many wounded soldiers, many shattered souls that a building needed to be set aside as a hospital for the soul. and so that was trinity episcopal church. so i have found that there is no contemporary evidence of that at all. and i have a really hard time believing that if soldiers are literally sitting on and in the streets, that shepherds town civilians would not open up. one of its largest buildings to house wounded soldiers. so more than likely, it is true that every single building was used across the street from trinity church, stood and still stands. the home of dr. john quigley. there were several doctors in town who were pitching in and helping the confederate medical staff treat as many of these wounded soldiers as possible. quigley 34 wounded soldiers crowded into his home, and no doubt they scattered throughout

the yard as well, up and down the steps. also. and quigley and his family did best that they possibly could to care for these wounded soldiers that had suddenly found a place of refuge in, their simple home just up the street from quigley home and trinity episcopal church was the rectory, which still stands. it's a building you see on the, right. it was the home of the reverend of trinity church, charles wesley andrews, and andrew's wife, sarah, wrote from her window on september 19th, right from the parlor window, which is the first window to the left of the door, as you're looking at it in view again, the house still you can stand right in the street where she was about it. she said, i am writing at parlor window and ambulances filled with wounded who fill every home in this place. she talked about well seeing a constant stream of ambulance is moving through the town and again the cry was always for more and more room. eventually, the large 18th century tobacco warehouse was

down along the potomac river, had to be opened up for wounded soldiers, but it became even worse. shepherdstown civilians were building a their town hall. it was still incomplete. by 1862. this is currently the administration building of shepherd university. it's known as mcmorran hall today, but it was the town hall then the outside of the building, the core. the building had been completed, but the inside, when you opened the doors, it was just beams across the floor. there were no floorboards yet. but as more and more wounded soldiers flooded into town again, cry was for more and more room shepherdstown civilians grabbed any boards they could possibly find through them, over the beams and town hall scattered some straw across. the floor laid planks in between boards to try and again create as much indoor space as possible for these wounded soldiers. some great stories come out of this as well of stories of humanity. you know this is one of the incredible things about studying the civil war and about studying

warfare is that warfare is? i would argue the worst that humanity can do to one another. but in times like this, you also see cases of the best humanity can do to one another of people stepping up and emergency situations to care for these soldiers. but these soldiers were really starting to put a drain on shepherdstown resources not only were all these buildings being used, all of the wells in town were being pumped dry, or any time they were being pumped and water was coming out, it was very muddy water. and this the case at a pump that was known as grant's pump that stood nearby the quigley home out in front. it's no longer there today. this is a picture of another down along mill street is still there. of course, you can't pump your water of it today, or at least i wouldn't suggest doing that. but nonetheless, as these hundreds of soldiers crowding around these pumps there at grant's pump, an old man came wandering out of house nearby. his name, elijah rickard, and he

was known as locksmith and shepherdstown. he was actually so good at his craft that he was tasked with making the shackles for john brown just a few years earlier. so record locks are still quite an item to find in. and the shepherdstown museum has a few of those, but nonetheless record grab one of his locks. he grabbed a chain this old man making his way, shuffling his way through this thirsty, tired, probably angry confederate soldiers that are looking for. and he went in between of them, went up to the pump wrapped the chain around it the handle to the pump itself took his lock chained it shut to allow the water to recharge. now, as you might imagine, those confederate soldiers probably weren't too happy about this, but they were so impressed by the bravery of this man and what he done that they cheered and laughed as rickard went about his task of of trying to manage shepherdstown resources. and apparently according to the story, rickard monitored this

until and basically removed his lock. the water had had been recharged in the pump itself. shepherdstown role as a hospital was temporary and i was constantly perplexed at looking through records in the national archives and library of congress and was at the time the museum of the confederacy trying to find records to substantiate the claim that. there were anywhere from 6 to 8000 wounded soldiers who were there. and unfortunately, those records just don't exist because was never meant to be a permanent hospital was just a pass through. ultimately, as wounded soldiers were brought down to winchester and then even further south to stanton and richmond beyond. but because of shepherdstown temporary as a hospital, these records weren't kept. and so it was hard to figure out the numbers exactly. but that 6 to 8000, that number that's typically used, that was only in shepherdstown that number was only in shepherdstown for less than 24 hours because on september 19th, as that town is being flooded with wounded soldiers, the confederate army

fallen back across the potomac river, the army of the potomac, the federal army is going to pursue from sharpsburg, the potomac river, and they are going to deploy artillery pieces, dozens of artillery pieces on the maryland bluffs overlooking the potomac river. and here's a wartime view taken sometime probably in 1862. this looking from maryland across the potomac river into shepherdstown can still get pretty close to this view today. the cool thing is those bridge, piers, that you see in the middle of the potomac river, those are the bridge piers for the covered bridge that was burned in 1861. those piers are still today in the middle of the potomac river. cool. some of those tobacco warehouses that you see just to the left of those bridge, piers. so nonetheless, once the federal army arrived opposite shepherdstown, they encountered the rearguard of lee's army there at bowlers ford. and lee's army was making a wide movement around shepherdstown itself. they didn't move through the town because the town was so

clogged with thousands of wounded. and so as these federal gunners spied confederate columns beyond the town, they opened fire. and unfortunately, many of their shells fell short and landed in the town itself, what had threatened to happen to shepherdstown in december 61 now became reality shells, came crashing into buildings through through chimneys, knocking and wood throughout the area and just making this already chaotic scene an absolute scene of pandemonium. what happened at sharpsburg, the of september 18th, with confederate soldiers trying buy any way to get out of sharpsburg that now duplicate itself and shepherdstown soldiers were upwards of in some cases $100 to rent a carriage or a buggy to get out of town. while the shelling commenced. and you can see, as mary bender mitchell put it, i love this line. it is curious much louder. guns sound when they are pointed at you and that was the case

there in shepherdstown. so this flood of 68,000 wounded very quickly dissipated. these soldiers ran out of town looking cover looking to get out of range of the federal guns and the of wounded dropped down to maybe just a couple of hundred at this point in the war only the more seriously wounded that could not be moved at this point we're still left behind in shepherdstown and some of them would remain there. all the way until january of 1863. so shepherdstown town's main ordeal was over. but of course, their job, the role of these civilians was not over in terms of taking care of the wounded who were still left there in the town itself. and during the course of that, there were many great connections and bonds that were formed between these strangers, confederate soldiers, places as far away as florida that now found a with the civilians of shepherdstown itself. and again, the civilians as you can see, one confederate soldier put it, they were angelic in their ministering to the

civilians, did whatever they could to provide comfort for these wounded soldiers. sarah paige andrews, the wife of charles andrews, saishkept two pots on the fire at all times with soup for soldis. she helped to sew clothes for them, provide bandages and rip apart clothe anything like that, anything that shepherdstown civilians could do to try and alleviate this situation for these wounded confederate soldiers, families formed, bonds as well. thomas clark, a soldier in the fifth florida who was mortally wounded at antietam on the 17th, died there in shepherdstown. he's buried in the cemetery today, which we'll talk about in a little bit. but the caretakers for thomas clark managed to narrate a write a letter that clark narrated to clark's wife, her to try and come up shepherdstown to be with him, to come get him. and of course, that ultimately never happened. and so when clark died, these caretakers who unfortunately we don't know exactly who they were, just kind of an anonymous family in shepherdstown, they a

piece of clark's hair. and they sent that letter back. clark's wife in florida again, clark still rests there in shepherdstown soil. the man on the left that you see there, wyatt aiken. heas colonel of the seventh soh rolina. he was in the left breast around the dunker original newspap reports actually in south carolina indicated that he had been killed during the battle. instead,is brother was able to get him out of a precarious tuation. he was in a barn being treated in a barn on septbe17th. and as soon as his brother david out of that barn, a union struck e rn and burned it to the ground. of course, on accident, but it claiming the lives of dozens, if not of wounded confederate soldiers there outside of sharpsburg. aiken was taken back to shepherdstown. he was ultimately cared for in the antler hotel, which is the historic shepherdstown museum today. that's the building you see on the right hand side of photograph. and you can see the spire as of

modern day mcmorran hall, the town hall there that was just the street from the town hall today. and again, i encourage you, if you get a chance to go to shepherdstown, go and check out the historic shepherdstown museum in the that they tell of the town's entire history. but nonetheless, that's where david aiken cared for he was not one of those confederate soldiers to get out of town because he was so wounded. so eventually, once federal patrols came into town, he was paroled and left in town to cared for. and one of the local civilians, a young lady by the name of ella harper, who was primarily tasked with caring for aiken. and while aiken was in her care, aiken received a letter from his wife that she had just given birth to a child and david aiken actually wrote her back with a suggestion for a name and it was the name ended up being emma harper aiken named the harper name of course coming, from ella harper, his caretaker there. so these bonds were formed

complete. strangers now found themselves in the hands of other complete strangers. and these incredible bonds were formed. this was not the only case of a confederate soldier naming a child after their caretaker there in shepherdstown. but of course, this was not all sunshine roses for sure, for anybody, for the civilians. shepherdstown, though, despite that, confederate soldiers were still very thankful for what they did. soldier of the texas brigade actually put an advertisement in one of the newspaper in houston in october of 1862 that said, god bless the ladies of virginia. such will be the prayers of the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of the texas brigade for when the gallant wounded retracting, there were three steps from the bloody battlefield of sharpsburg across the river to shepherdstown. the ladies in the vicinity came out into the public streets with wash bowls, soap and towel, and there, before high heaven, exhibited that peerless nobility washing and dressing the wounds of our soldiers.

again, i say, god bless the ladies of virginia. now, unfortunately, shepherdstown would take, of course, quite a hit from its buildings being used as hospitals. the scars of those wounds would be left bloodstains, the floorboards, buildings damaged by the artillery fire and the amount of wounded confederate soldiers in shepherdstown would bring death to shepherdstown families as well. i mentioned dr. john quigley, who had 34 wounded soldiers being cared for in his his daughter julia, 24 years old, helped to care for those wounded soldiers. and in the process, she contracted scarlet fever and what was described as a disease of the throat. and her father wrote in a journal entry on october 4th, 1862, the day after her passing her sufferings were harrowing. i hope i may be spared to witness such another death either in my own family or in any other so far. quigley is the only one i've been able. julia quigley that is is the

only one i've been able to track down that has probably a direct connection to contract and disease from those wounded soldiers and dying of that. but i would be willing to bet that there were certainly more. so the question became for shepherdstown civilians. what to do with all of these wounded soldiers and a farm just outside of town became. the new stranger's graveyard as they described where these dead soldiers would be buried. these, of course, were completely ad hoc. there were nothing planned. one of the burials, one of the first burials there in the new strangers graveyard, it was dr. william parr. and again wrote those letter to his daughter and his wife just a few days before, of course, he would never make it home to see his infant daughter and his expectant child. he was buried amidst the bombardment of shepherdstown. it's and ultimately that's where all of the dead would be brought to. some of them were probably initially buried right in town itself. and then later on they were moved further outside of town.

but this became the burial ground for about somewhere in the neighborhood, 115 dead confederates that died in shepherdstown after they were back from the battle of antietam itself. so i like to say that shepherdstown has never really forgotten its past and that's obviously a good thing. in the room of historians it's always a great thing that we like to hear, but shepherdstown is really event, if you will, on the world's stage of history was this week in september 1862, and i've pondered question as to why that was for a while, and i really don't quite have an answer unfortunately, but i just have a few guesses. but one, one thing is that this was such a real tangible experience for shepherdstown civilians that affected everybody in town and of town. and as they continued leaving town in those days and weeks, months following september of

1862, they always had a very real reminder of this town had gone through. whenever they passed by the headstones of those hundred and 14 confederate soldiers that were buried in the strangers graveyard caring for those graves became a part of shepherdstown identity. i argue that it did not want to forget its weak as a hospital in 1867, the town's residents founded the southern soldiers memorial association. by the next year they dedicated the cemetery as the confederate cemetery. that's now a part elmwood cemetery, which is a conglomerate of many cemeteries put together. that's where you can find them. on june six, 1870, 3500 people gathered to witness the dedication of the monument that you see in the center of the picture there for years after every june, the town's residents returned to the cemetery to take care of the graves to lay flowers at the graves and to never forget what happened. soon enough, of course, mother nature would take its toll on

those wooden headstones. by 1884, the headstones that you can find today replaced the wooden headstones against cementing in the mind of the people of shepherdstown their experience in september of 1862. but for as much as these people might have wanted to have forgotten about what had happened, they never could. looking through shepherdstown newspapers every year in september, it seemed like they popped up a new recollection of somebody who was living in the town that time and was able to provide side of the story about who they cared for and what they experienced. the bonds that were established between the families of shepherdstown and families soldiers from hundreds if not thousands of miles away, continued one of the confederate soldiers that was brought into shepherdstown, and that ultimately died. there was cared for by the licklider family, and that was captain smith, who you see in the top left corner of the hampton legion. he was wounded in the area of the cornfield. on september 17th. smith henry smith died there in

shepherdstown in the immediate aftermath of his death, the licklider family returned. smith saw sash and some of its other personal effects to. smith's widow and continued. the families continued to exchange all the way until the patriarch of the licklider family died and henry smith's widow passed away as well. but that story never ended, or at least it did not end with the passage of those two family members. in fact, on may 31st, 1918, henry infant son, who was probably just than one year old when his father passed away, a man named waddy, who you see in the bottom left, smith traveled back to shepherdstown to visit the family that cared for his father, and they were able to spend some time together. the licklider sisters were able to provide stories of his father's last moments there at shepherdstown. and again, the family took smith

out to his father's grave where he said that he expressed great appreciation of the kindness of those who had kept it green. all these years and those who had cared for. and so these bonds that were forged in september of 1862 lasted for decades. beyond that, until the other the next generation of those families of those soldiers ultimately began to pass on. and those stories faded into memory. but the memory in shepherdstown really never faded and still has not. to this day, many of the buildings that were used as hospitals, again, basically every building was used as hospitals, but some of them are specifically marked today, including mcmorran hall, molder hall, which sat across the street, which is now a sweet shop. you go get donuts in the in the they're always appetizing right. the only war trail sign in downtown shepherdstown, specifically about shepherd's town's role. a hospital in september of 1862

as the shepherdstown newspaper put it in talking about the process of decorating these confederate soldiers graves every june, they said, as long as written accounts are preserved, this integral part of our beloved town's heritage will be remembered. and for shepherdstown civilians, they could never ultimately what mary bettinger mitchell described as that town's most and tempestuous week of the war. thank you all very much. and if we have time, i'll be happy to answer any. any question one way in back there. mike's coming. so do you think people moved from away from shepherdstown

after the wounded started going to their town because of the stress and pressure help? yeah. there certainly some of that some civilians did try to get out of town. even before the town was taken over and used as a hospital to just get away from the fighting. of course, they had idea that the armies would stop at sharpsburg and fight there instead of at shepherdstown. and so there was a lot of worry about that. there were some civilians, like the andrews family, that had family outside of town as well. and they were writing them don't come into town because, a, you're there's no place for you. you're not going be able to stay anywhere and be you probably going to get there anyway because the flood of of wounded soldiers that was moving out of the town and moving through shepherdstown but i don't of any civilians that moved out from that and i was never able to really find a financial impact of what this did to shepherdstown. but surely the war tested shepherdstown but again no more than than that one week in

september 1862. no. you talked about how went from a town of 1200 to all the thousands who came in how did they do that logistically like to even feed those guys they really didn't they tried the best that they possibly could, but there was no way. it just the town was physically mental financially because of this, because the town just did not have the logistics to be able to house even for 24 hours, 6 to 8000 people ultimately. but every crossing point was used. ferry boats were put into and pressed into service canoes were found to ferry troops across the river. and then once they get to shepherdstown again, the main problem that the civilians had was just finding more room for all these people to feed them.

that's the i mean, you get in there. yeah, it's going to be grabbing things out of gardens again. the only real detail that specifically mentioned feeding was just keeping on the fire at all times and trying be able to provide enough food. but that food obviously wouldn't have lasted too long in a town of 1200 people, that food's going to be all gobbled up real fast by all those hungry, wounded confederate soldiers know there. got one down here. i really your presentation i found it really insightful. i saw some of those numbers that ran what the massive spike and the the increase in the population with the advent of the wounded amounted to roughly. a 667% increase in popular asian which was staggering. but one thing i just wanted to ask from your perspective is

that there was a lot of towns, if you where they became known war or hospital communities and whatnot where would you say shepherdstown maybe bring on that list of problems? most prominent hospital city cities or vice versa, maybe for lack of a better term? i would say not very high actually. the grand scheme of things you other cities of course both north and south are huge hospital facilities just rattling off of washington, richmond, even winchester and beyond. so shepherdstown is experience. i guess it was not necessarily unique. there are hundreds of towns that were taken over and used as hospitals and it was a relatively quick experience for them, but that didn't the the fact that it was quick didn't lessen the the of it and just how much the an impact that on the town and the civilians of the town itself. so really i mean in the grand

scheme of things you know i wrote a whole book about it but it's not all that important for the story of the war. and it's certainly not one of the largest hospital towns either. and again, it's a hospital town for from september to january, really months, and that's it. whereas you have some of these other cities that are hospitals cities for, you know, the entirety of the war in some cases. so i mean, just just one case study of one of those hospital towns. yeah. yeah. another question over there. you mentioned the woman who died, you know, from illness. do have any sense or is there statistics about the resulting mortality rate increase or remain the same for the citizens before the influx?

and then even up to a year, the influx. so as most of these diseases take somebody out. absolutely. i don't for shepherdstown specifically, but gentleman has just came out with a a year ago, steve cowie called one hell comes to sharpsburg and it is an excellent study of the community of sharpsburg during the maryland campaign and he a lot of really good work. i'm a historian not a scientist but he looked into the water tables around sharpsburg and that they're very shallow and that because you have thousands of soldiers being buried in those bodies decomposing that got into the water supply. and then you that water supply that's now been infected is being drank by sharpsburg citizens. and so he does have a lot of statistics in there indicating that there was a spike in civilian deaths as a result of not the army, the army, the potomac remaining in the sharpsburg area for six weeks following antietam. but from all those dead bodies

being buried there. now, shepherdstown didn't have thousands of soldiers buried there and ultimately, of course, they were buried in one graveyard, whereas that was not the original case outside of sharpsburg. but i was actually just going back my files to get ready for this. and there is second person i've been able to identify that maybe, you know, it's hard to say actually, wesley andrew's wife dies in january of 1863, so who knows? i mean, it could be just that it was her time, but it might also be that, you know, she caught disease, some lingering or lingering disease from the time that the town was used as a hospital. so there's definitely got to be a lot more digging into that. and i will be the first to admit as a historian and not a statistician, i might not be the best one for it. but if anybody wants to take on math, i'm bad with numbers. so we're happy to have somebody else help me out. all right. we got one more question over here. you're going to work out in.

i feel inappropriate telling you this because it's not really a question but a statement. but you that person who died of scarlet and it gets very close to my own family because until they had sulfa. in the 1930s, there was really little or no treatment for for scarlet fever. up to 35% of these people died. i had a brother who i never met who had the disease in the thirties at that time, sulfa was being used as experimental treatment in the hospitals on individual patients. they never knew who was going to get the drug or not and my brother who i knew was one of those that that didn't get it and did die. and my wife, my left here is

convinced that i'm alive today because she to replace that boy who died. so it's interesting concept of all who knows if that's true and it may be inappropriate state that but we didn't really have any treatment for that until the 1930s. right but yeah, you're absolutely right. and you do bring up a good point one of the things that i found is that makes this story so as again happens in thousands of communities across the north is in there all and they all had the same feelings that we now maybe we're not under fire, things like that but you know we we can sort of sympathize with some of these these feelings that these these people had. and just this year, i mean, about some large cataclysmic event in our and just how we reacted to whether it happened far away or nearer to home and so it was just it was very changing for me. i'm frame myself as more of a military and this book was not that at all and it was very i will difficult sometimes to get through some writing of this and

some of these these stories because. it was something that i could almost feel that these people were experiencing. so, yeah, it does hit close to home, definitely. but thank you all very. and then turn it back over.