The monument to the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment at Sharpsburg is on the south side of Cornfield Avenue (39°28’51.2″N 77°44’43.7″W; map), 800 feet east of Dunker Church Road. It marks the site of events described by Parham in a letter to his mother on September 22, 1862. He writes of four men listed on the monument in red text below, three officers and one enlisted, who were killed or died of their wounds in this action.
Front of Monument:
Mississippi
11th
Mississippi
Infantry Regiment
Law’s Brigade
Hood’s Division
C.S.A.
Dedicated 2012
on the
Sesquicentennial
of the battle
Duty brought them to the field
Honor led them into Battle
Valor covered them with glory
Duch amore patrie
The love of my country leads me
West Side of Monument:
The men of the 11th Mississippi
first engaged the Federals in
the East Woods the evening
of September 16, 1862. In that
action Colonel Philip F. Liddell
commanding was mortally
wounded. The regiment withdrew
for rest that evening to the
shelter of the West Woods
behind the Dunker Church. The
men were cooking hoecakes
at daylight the next morning
when the battle reopened in fury.
Ordered into line as part of
Col. Evander Law’s brigade
they swept across the Hagerstown
Pike and despite heavy casualties
drove Gen. James Rickett’s Division
back over D.R. Miller’s clover
pasture and crossing this point
through the cornfield.
The Mississippians advanced
to a fence at the north edge
of the Cornfield where they
encountered fresh Federal
troops of Gen. George Meade’s
division and were unable
to hold their position. Law’s Brigade
fell back to the West Woods.
Lt. Col. Samuel Butler was fatally
wounded and Major Taliaferro Evans
killed in the charge.
Thus the 11th Mississippi lost
three successive commanding
field officers in the action.
One hundred nineteen men of
the 11th Mississippi were killed,
wounded or missing after two days
of battle on these fields.
Rear of Monument:
Companies of the 11th Mississippi
Company A – University Greys
University of Mississippi
Company B – Coahoma Invincibles
Friars Point
Company C – Prairie Rifles
Okalona
Company D – Neshoba Rifles
Philadelphia
Company E – Prairie Guards
Crawfordsville
Company F – Noxubee Rifles
Macon
Company G – Lamar Rifles
Oxford
Company H – Chickasaw Guards
Houston
Company I – Van Dorn Reserve
Aberdeen
Company K – Carroll County Rifles
Carrollton
East Side of Monument:
Mississippi
Men of the 11th Mississippi
who were killed or died
of their wounds in this action
Commanding officers
Col. Phillip F. Liddell
Lt. Col. Samuel L. Butler
Major Talieferro S. Evans
2nd CPL Lewis T. Fant Co. A
PVT Anderson Reeves Co. A
PVT Robert N. Taylor Co. A
CAPT James K. Morton Co. B
PVT William L. Gillian Co. C
PVT William T. Kidd Co. C
PVT John I. King Co. C
PVT Jesse Spray Co. C
2nd SGT Isaac G. Perry Co. D
PVT William J. Donley Co. E
5th SGT Joseph C. Howarth Co. E
5th SGT James Feemster Co F
2nd LT William K. Wiggins Co F
PVT Hezekiah Turner Co G
PVT Richard K. Laughlin CO H
PVT John M. Pulliam CO H
2nd CPL John P.F. Stribling CO H
PVT Joseph W. Aiken CO K
PVT Benjamin C. Elam CO K
PVT Samuel M. Hemmingway CO K
PVT Francis M. Hoover CO K
4th SGT James H. Petty CO K
Sources: Monuments at Antietam, 26th Letter: “Pure Southern Air of Virginia” (September 22, 1862)
Parham's Letters 