Button from 11th Connecticut Camp, Antietam

Button from 11th CT Camp, So. Mountain, Antietam. Click photo and "Detailed Description".

This is a coat-size brass Eagle button which was recovered from a 11^th Connecticut Infantry campsite at South Mountain, just prior to entering the nearby Battle of Antietam. The button remains in very nice condition with a great green patina to the brass. The full shank is still on the back and there doesn’t appear to be a backmark.

 

The 11th Connecticut had never been in a major battle before. These Nutmeg Statesmen were under the command of the brilliant 26-year-old Col. Henry Kingsbury, who had graduated 4th in his class at West Point in 1861 (a good deal higher then the last in that class, George Armstrong Custer).

 

At the Burnside Bridge, the 11th was supposed to charge across the bridge while an entire brigade under Col George Crook supported them. Crook’s brigade got hopelessly lost and provided no support at all, leaving the doomed Connecticut men to the guns of Toombs’ Georgians.

 

The 11th tried to fight it out as best they could. Capt. J.D. Griswold led his company to try to splash their way across the creek – but was gunned down as he hit the opposite bank. The rest of the 11th tried to fire back at the 2nd Georgia, but they were well concealed and under cover, giving the Federals very little to aim at. The men from the 11th however fell left and right, out in the open in this close-range fight.

 

Col. Kingsbury took a bullet to the heel, another shot to the leg. As his men helped him back to the rear, he was shot in the shoulder, and finally in the abdomen. He would die within a day. He’d never meet his son, Henry Jr., who was born in December. The 11th Connecticut lost a third of their men in this failed attack on the bridge. Bloodied and leaderless, they fell back to the safety of the woods.                                                                                                                                                  

 

One can only wonder if the soldier who lost this button survived the actions at Burnside Bridge. Anyway, it is a great button with a lot of history. Today a monument is on the Antietam Battlefield to honor the 11^th Connecticut (see pictures).