"The Bigness of War"

"The Bigness of War". Lt. William Wood, 19th Virginia Infantry. General Robert E. Lee gathered his Confederate army on the ground high ground ½ mile in front of you. The Lower or Burnside Bridge is a mile to your left, the Upper Bridge is 1.8 miles to your back right, and the site of the Middle Bridge is .3 mile behind you. Lee defended the Boonsboro Road and the Middle Bridge primarily with artillery, placing over thirty guns on the ridge in front. Union artillery lined the ridges behind you, and some of those guns were brought forward to this hilltop., Standing on the far ridgeline and looking toward you, Confederate Lt. William Wood of the 19th Virginia Infantry described how he was "impressed as never before by the bigness of war. For miles in something of a semi-circle the enemy had batteries of heavy guns planted on every hill... and it seemed that every gun opened every minute. The smoke rolled backward to the mountains, but their destructive shot and shell were falling, it would appear, on every foot of land.", Col. James H. Childs 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. James H. Childs Of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry was in temporary command of Averell's Brigade at Antietam. He was leading the brigade across the Middle Bridge onto the Newcomer Farm when he was struck in the hip by an artillery round that killed two soldiers and four horses., After his wounding, Col. Childs continued tending to his military duties, then sent a message to the surgeons that "if not attending to any one whose life could be saved, to come to him, as he was in great pain." He died less than an hour later leaving a widow and three children home in Pittsburgh. There is a monument to Col. Childs across Rt. 34 from the Newcomer house.