January 17, 2014

**Antietam Friday**

I’m an orderly sort of person. I like to visit major battlefield stops in a neat row: Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and so on. I guess I’m like that at Antietam too, because I tend to gravitate toward the “major” sites known for brutality and glory. One of these places is David Miller’s unobtrusive cornfield, forever known after 1862 as the “Bloody Cornfield.” And the name is more than apt.

The first photo is self-explanatory . . . I like the range of earthy colors and fields broken up by the typical wooden fences that are a veritable battlefield icon. The second photo, one of my favorites, shows the David Miller barn. Standing at this spot in 1862, you probably wouldn’t have been able to see the barn . . . the cornstalks would have towered in the foreground. The only thing modern about this photo is the network of power lines. Take them away in your mind, and you’ll see much of what the soldiers saw as they knelt and fought and died in the corn.

**HONORED TODAY**

PVT. TALLIS E. MCCAIN

Co. G, 29^TH Ohio Infantry

Born 1843 --- Died August 12, 1863 at age 20

Pvt. McCain enlisted at the age of eighteen, surviving nearly two years before reaching his final moments at Gettysburg. He was wounded in the thigh and later taken to Camp Letterman, but his situation failed to improve and he died on the 12^TH of August. He was buried at Gettysburg’s National Cemetery months later.





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