Joseph K. F. Mansfield, Brigadier General of the U.S. Army / A Narrative of Events Connected with His Mortal Wounding at Antietam, Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862

A concise military biography traces a West Point graduate’s career as an Army engineer and staff officer, his service in the Mexican War, later duty as Inspector General, promotion to brigadier general during the Civil War, and his mortal wounding at Antietam. The bulk of the narrative is a regimental eyewitness account from members of the 10th Maine, who challenge numerous rival claims about the precise spot where he fell, analyze causes of error in later recollections, and describe an 1889 excursion that identified terrain features, positions, and battlefield traces while noting that few contemporaries marked the place or recorded the event.