Stephen H., Jr. Bogardus, letter
June 5, 1863
“We arrived at Boonsboro… and took breakfast at the United States Hotel… While the horse was being fed we took a stroll through the village. Several of the Federal troops were buried in the churchyard in this place with handsome headboards… After stopping here about an hour we started for the battlefield, passing through the village of Keedysville. It was at this place I stopped after I received my wound, and I called at my former quarters to see the folks, who appeared very glad to see me. We drove about 3 or 4 miles further… to the Dunkard’s [sic] church at which place was the heaviest fighting on the right, and near which I was shot… the old church shows where the heaviest fighting took place. One shell went entirely through it leaving a hole at either end through which a large man might crawl with ease. It is also perforated with bullets and solid shot in many places. How it was left standing is a great wonder. The trees surrounding it, for it is in a piece of woods, are nearly all injured more or less. Nearly every one shows the scars of the contest. Many of them have been broken off at the tops, while the ground is still strewn with branches that were shot off in the fight.”
Author
Name: Stephen H., Jr. Bogardus
Unit: Purnell's Maryland Legion, Co. H
Document Information
Type: Letter
Subject(s):
- Military/Battles
Event Location: Boonsboro, Keedysville, Sharpsburg, Washington Co., MD
Document Origin: Keedysville, Washington Co., MD
Notes
Stephen H. Bogardus, Jr. volunteered his services to the state of New York after attending a rally that was advertised in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle in 1861 - shortly after the beginning of the Civil War.
Source
Stephen H. Bogardus to The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle. June 5, 1863. Joel Gregory Craig, ed. Dear Eagle: The Civil War Correspondence of Stephen H. Bogardus, Jr.. Wake Forest: Sojourner Publishing, Inc., 2004.
