John Banks Looking for Lt. Crocker at Battle of Shepherdstown-- Part 2: 'Beaten, Dismayed, Wild With Fright'

Like I said, John Banks gets down and dirty (and in this case with the copperheads) with his person.  he goes there and experiences.

He goes out to where the battle was fought and he's standing there with the Potomac River about 15 yards away and a steep bluff to the other side of River Road where he is standing.  He can imagine what a treacherous place this would be for even veteran troops, but especially for the "rookie" 118th Pennsylvania, the Corn Exchange Regiment.

This is their first real action.  They are described as "beaten, dismayed, wild with fright" where they now find themselves.  Atop the bluffs they had already fought with muskets that proved defective.  Some had plunged to their deaths off those bluffs.

Under these circumstances. Lt. Lemuel Crocker and others hastily beat a retreat under fire across a mill dam to the Maryland side of the Potomac River.  (They were on the Virginia side  (now West Virginia).  You can still see the remains of that dam stretching across the river.

Others huddled alongside the river by Boteler's Cement Mill kilns where some were even killed by friendly Union artillery fire from across the river.  John Banks said:  "You can still see those ruins, too, if you're mentally prepared for the copperheads."

Hard to get More Real Than This.  --Old Secesh