Second Day: Battle of Shepherdstown-- Part 1: Back Across the River with the 118th Pennsylvania

Now, we come up to where the 118th Pennsylvania and Lt. Lemuel Crocker enter the battle.

As the sun rose on the morning of September 20 over their camps on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, Union soldiers finished their coffee and fell into ranks to again cross the river.  Once over, they headed to Shepherdstown along a narrow road,

They passed a tall bluff and an abandoned brock building that had once housed a cement mill.  A dam across the river at this spot diverted water to help power the mill.  (This is where the 118th Pennsylvania really Saw the Elephant.   As they advanced, they became aware of the approach of many enemy soldiers (A.P. Hill's division)

Other units were crossing the river as well, including Colonel James Barnes' brigade of Major General  George W. Morrell's division.  This included  a green regiment, the 118th Pennsylvania that had left Philadelphia for war just three weeks earlier after just barely a month of training.

The Philadelphia Corn Exchange, a financial market that speculated in agricultural futures, paid for their equipment and a $10 bonus for each man and the unit  had been nicknamed the Corn Exchange Regiment.

At the Battle of Antietam they had been kept in reserve and had not yet "seen the elephant."

Hey, That's What I Say.  --Old Secesh