Shamed at Sharpsburg: The Court Martial Case of Alfred Ransom Courtney

A postwar portrait of Alfred Ransom Courtney
(courtesy of George Seitz, findagrave.com)

As September 17, 1862, wore on, Robert E. Lee realized he would need as much help as he could find. Robert Chilton, a staff officer of Lee's, wrote a dispatch in the midst of the battle to artillery chief William Nelson Pendleton, requesting “fifteen or twenty guns, suitable for our purposes…with a sufficiency of ammunition.” Lee stressed to Pendleton: “We want ammunition, guns, and provisions” as the battle intensified.[1]

One artillery officer who had plenty of capacity to help Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia in this respect on September 17 commanded a battalion of artillery (four batteries)—Maj. Alfred Ransom Courtney. The 28-year-old major’s roots in North America dated back to 1620. “With an ancestry in whose veins flowed Scotch and English blood so pure,” wrote one of Courtney’s associates, it was no surprise that Courtney “developed in a high degree characteristics of intelligence, integrity and courage.” Courtney passed his bar exam before the Civil War began. He became a lieutenant in one Confederate battery at the outset of the war before receiving command of his own battery in July 1861.[2]

From Antietam Creek to Stones River: Two Victories that Saved the North and Reshaped the Nation

The summer and winter of 1862 were hard times for the North.  Confederate offensives from Maryland to the Mississippi River sat at the peak of Union setbacks in the summer of 1862.  In the end, these offensives were turned back at Corinth, Perryville, and Antietam Creek; the latter also serving to redefine the nation and the war as it now sought to end slavery in the United States due to the Union victory on the banks of Antietam Creek.  Abraham Lincoln stated that he issued the proclamation strictly “as a military measure” and as such, only slaves then in territories that “the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States…” would “be then, thenceforward, and forever free….”

Thoughts on Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Antietam

I realize that I am a day late with this post but must say that after recovering from what proved to be a great weekend at Harpers Ferry and Antietam, I am truly glad to say that I was a part of it all!  When I first became interested in the Civil War in the spring of 2002, never did I imagine that I would participate in the events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, a battle that changed the course of the war and changed the nation forever.

Briefly, I took part in the living history programs at Harpers Ferry all weekend, including a very touching moment at the site of the pontoon bridge over the Potomac River where 1,500 Union cavalrymen escaped Jackson's Confederates at Harpers Ferry 150 years to the minute as the escape was getting underway (more on that in an upcoming post).  During the 150th Anniversary of the bloodiest single day in American history, I participated in the all day battlefield hike, which nearly 600 people attended (again, more on that in a later post).  Great job and thank you to everyone at both parks for making the weekend one of the most memorable of my life.