Fellow Sharpshooters

Soon to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, Brian Downey’s Antietam on the Web blog started out “as a small personal project” that has steadily grown into a sweeping and comprehensive storehouse of knowledge devoted to the “bloodiest day in American history”. As its popularity has grown, more and more visitors have contributed photographs and biographical sketches of their ancestors who fought there, with some paying the “last full measure of devotion” on that blood soaked battlefield.

Here is Mr. Downey’s introduction;

Antietam on the Web (AotW) is presented for your enlightenment and enjoyment. I first put it online about January 1996 as a small personal project to help me collect, organize and visualize the vast amount of information available about the great Civil War battle, but it has grown well beyond that, both as an exercise in history research and as a Web project. AotW is not associated with any public institution, nor is it affiliated with the US Park Service or the Antietam National Battlefield Park. Although the Park may be my favorite spot on the planet.

My core mission is to collect and disseminate biographical information about as many of the soldiers who were present as I can. The rest of the website is supporting that mission by providing content and background to the stories told by the soldiers' actions and lives.
 
Questions about the Battle?
I'm happy to try to answer your questions or hear your comments about the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg. If you have a question, though, please do look around the site or consult the site search for help finding the answer first before contacting me.
You may also check our brief FAQ (frequently asked questions) page for help.
And if you'd like to do more research on the battle on your own, I can recommend our bibliography as a place to find authoritative resources.
I'm particularly interested in hearing about people who were present on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. If you have family history, documents, or photographs of such a person, please get in touch. If you are tracing your Civil War-era ancestors, generally, I may be able to help point you to sources and methods of research, but may not have time to do the research for you. Again, give me a shout, and I'll see what I can do.

The link to the Second United States Sharpshooter’s provides a small, but essential, description of the regiment’s actions at Millers Cornfield and along the Hagerstown Road the morning of September 17th. The page includes links to maps, battlefield tablets, the chain of command and weapons used. But the most interesting section is the list of 32 men who became casualties. Each Sharpshooter has a short biography listing their state of origin, pre-war life, enlistment and service, and wounds or death at Antietam, and if their body was recovered for burial in their home state. Brian White contributed 4 photographs.

Here is the link for the Second U.S. Sharpshooters: https://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?unit_id=154&from=results

Those wishing to learn about the other independent Sharpshooter companies at Antietam, here are the links:

Second Minnesota Sharpshooters: https://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?unit_id=522

Andrews Sharpshooters: https://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?unit_id=520

Colonel Walter Phelps (brigade commander) after action reports of South Mountain and Antietam.: https://antietam.aotw.org/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=250

For those of us have visited Antietam and walked in the footsteps of the Sharpshooters that fateful morning, Mr. Downey’s blog is an excellent guide.

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association