Maine Memory Network

After marching from outside Washington to Sharpsburg, Maryland, Garcelon wrote to his aunt on Sept. 26, 1862 of his disappointment in seeing drunken officers.

Most regimental officers received their commissions because of their status in their communities or their political or business ties. Some became good soldiers and inspiring leaders; other did not.

Garcelon described marching over a battlefield and having "seen trees all split and shattered by the cannon ball ... I have seen the graves of soldiers side by side and have thought how any homes are made desolate by one conflict ..."

He may have seen the results of the first Battle of Antietam, that was fought Sept. 17, 1862, only a week earlier.