Let’s Go Shootin’

West Bend always has an article about the Civil War era. I enjoy this because I’m not a researcher. I have a friend in Grabill that says he is a relative of the author. 

I have talked about visiting the Antietam battlefield. My brother-in-law lives at Hagerstown, Maryland, which is just a few miles away, and was also occupied during the Civil War. The Southern army won some early battles, and and demanded a large sum of money from the Hagerstown people to spare the town. The people were able to placate them with much needed clothes and food. 

The area near the battleground is beautiful, with narrow roads and houses built right on the road. Beautiful stone fences for miles. Part of the draw for us was a beautiful church in the middle of the battle. The church was Dunkard, which was somehow linked to my wife’s Church of the Brethren.

This battle lasted only 24 hours, and 25,000 young men died. There were three stone bridges over a small creek. The most distinguishing feature is a lane, that was grooved out several feet deep that was filled with bodies of men trying to hide. There is a tower in which You can see For miles. A farm was also on the battlefield, and I can imagine the corn that was nearly ready for a harvest. 

One other contact was a battle, my son visiting from Illinois with his wife and 4 children, heard there was a reenactment in Shoaff Park. When we left the field was strewn with dead bodies. When we got home we discovered the children had pockets full of white packets. They had scoured the field and found it live caps that are used to set off the gunfire. 

Before we realize they were pounding on these with a hammer, which was great fun until someone got his hand burned. Guess that was the end of the war that day.

—James Neuhouser