Road to Antietam: Rockville to Germantown

I thought that the third day would be my worst. From experiences in running, hiking, working under the power lines (in college) and basic training, I have found that the third day, the fatigue sets in, the soreness is complete, and sometimes you get into a little funk. Well I was lucky enough to feel all of that and to have intermittent rain too. I remember from the Ward Benton letters, that the men from Company I, 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry had some bad days. On 31 August 1862, Benton writes that George Hall, Odelle Chittenden, and Henry B. Dudley could not keep up with the march and Henry Parmelie and Sam Seward went to the hospital.

I agree that some days are better than others. I was pleased that the two things that I worried about, my knees and my back held up nicely. I was not prepared for the blisters that formed on my feet. My goal for the rest of the hike is to not make them a limiting factor although I had to slow my brisk 3 miles per hour to 2 miles an hour. I have two twenty mile days ahead of me and I hope that the pain is not too much.

I realized that although I seem to be on the correct road most of the time, like the Post Road in Connecticut, I think that the old turnpike went through the town, whereas the new turnpike skips some downtowns and historic districts. With that revelation, I took a detour into Rockville to check out the ‘Old Towne”. What I found was surprising. Although General McClellan brought his army through here on his way to Antietam, and General Meade also passed through on his way to Gettysburg, very little is made of either event. Instead, much is made about General J.E.B. Stuart’s raid on the Union rear guard in 1863. On another note, there are more plaques and statues related to General Braddock’s excursion through this route to Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War than all of the events of the Civil War. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Maryland was a state that sent sons to die to both secede from and to preserve the Union.

Getting back to the Ward Benton letters, in that same 31 August letter he writes one of the longest, most coherent sentences I have ever read. Today we would use bullets to list his complaints:

• Woken at 3 a.m.

• Two crackers (hardtack?) and coffee for breakfast.

• Told to leave gear (tent, blanket, overcoat, and other equipment) and given a rubber blanket instead.

• Marched to Chain Bridge and then miles further.

• Marched to a fort but told to stay in the rifle pits (foxholes) unprotected instead.

• No food but bread and salt pork.

• A wet day ahead and a wet night too.

But he ends this list by saying “But we hope for better things.”

Ward Benton finishes his letter with a premonition. I often ask students the term do we use when an author gives a hint to the future in fictional works. They usually all answer with the term “foreshadowing.” I then ask them what they call it when a writer or person does this in non-fiction. A few know the word for this. So a couple of weeks before the Battle of Antietam he writes:

“We think and talk of and about the friends we love at home very very often and

wish to be with them, but if it is the Lord’s will that we remain here we are

willing although we may be called to do and suffer. I hope and trust that you will

daily pray for our reunion but if we meet not here I hope we meet in a better

world where partners are unknown.”

(I am sure that the Biblical scholars out there can will find verse that Ward Benton is referring to here.)

I hope for better days too. I am now getting worried that I will not be able to finish. The good news about the blisters hurting so much is that they took my mind off of my sore back. I am not looking too far ahead, but if I can get up early tomorrow and put a smile on my face, I am sure that I can make it to Frederick. But even today, when I was feeling my worst, I took off my hat and realized that it was covered with apple blossom petals. I thanked the Lord for that little gift. I am happy with the results so far, I am only sorry that I missed my wife’s birthday. She is my biggest fan and I hope she knows that I will always be hers.

I was please to have some visitors today. I will not give you his name, but I did see him drinking from a bubbler. Please see to photo gallery to figure out who I am talking about. The really neat picture taken of me hiking was also done by him.

I want to end by saying that I hope and pray that I was correct in saying that the third day is the worst. I tried to sing marches to myself today because the other songs were not cutting it. I ended the day by singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from the Monty Python movie “Life of Brian”. If you know the movie, it probably wasn’t a good sign ;-)

Semper Fidelis,

Dennis