Staff Writer

Seen now, the fields, woods and streams around Sharpsburg, Md., are tranquil, bounded to the west by the Potomac River and to the east by a low chain of mountains.

But nearly 150 years ago, the landscape around Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek was the scene of the single bloodiest day of combat involving American soldiers, and possibly where George J. Waterhouse, a teenager from Scarborough, died fighting for his country.

Waterhouse and other war dead will be commemorated May 31 on Memorial Day in Scarborough with a 10 a.m. parade that begins at Scarborough High School and services afterward in front of Maine Veteran’s Home off Route 1. The observance concludes with an open house at noon at American Legion Post No. 76 on Manson Libby Road.

Waterhouse was mustered into duty Aug. 21, 1861, as a member of the 7th Maine Infantry Regiment, according to records at the Scarborough Historical Society. He joined Company C, comprised of soldiers from the Portland area and one of 10 companies throughout Maine in the regiment, according to The Civil War Reference Network.

The regiment formed a month after Union forces were routed by Confederate soldiers at the first Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Va.

Sent first to Baltimore, the regiment of more than 1,500 eventually deployed to northern Virginia on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., according to Maine state records.

In spring 1862, the regiment joined the invasion force of Union troops commanded by Gen. George B. McClellan in the Peninsular Campaign, a failed attempt to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., by advancing north and west from Yorktown and Williamsburg.

The state website lists battles at Yorktown and Williamsburg as the first time the regiment, commanded by Maj. Thomas Hyde, saw combat. From April through June 1862, the regiment fought in at least five battles before the invasion was called off and Union soldiers returned to northern Virginia.

According to The Civil War Reference Network, camp life took its toll on the regiment through illness and infections. Poor health conditions were common in army camps: More than 250,000 Union soldiers died from disease and infections, while 110,000 died fighting, according to www.civilwarhome.com.

In September 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched an invasion of Maryland, and the 7th Maine Infantry joined in a pursuit that culminated with the Sept. 17 battle at Antietam.

An estimated 75,000 Union soldiers tried to corner 51,000 Confederate soldiers in and around Sharpsburg after several days of skirmishes in mountains north and west of Washington, D.C.

By the end of the day, there were more than 23,000 casualties on both sides in what was called a tactical Union victory because Lee’s invasion was ended.

The 7th Maine Infantry Regiment entered the fight about midway through a 12-hour battle spread over about eight miles of woods, pastures, cornfields and Antietam Creek.

The men entered battle with soldiers from New York and the 10th Maine Infantry as soldiers on both sides charged and counter-charged. The regiment rushed through farm fields and over corpses of fallen Confederate soldiers.

For more than four hours, until late in the afternoon, the regiment pressed south and west, past a portion of a sunken road that became known as Bloody Lane. Confederate forces were retreating to Sharpsburg before reinforcements arrived from Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, according to the National Park Service battlefield website.

The see-saw battle the regiment faced culminated with a bloody charge against a larger force Confederates concealed in farm buildings. Somewhere in the day’s combat, Waterhouse went missing.

Waterhouse was one of 753 Union soldiers reported missing after the battle, according to The Civil War Reference Network. More than 2,100 union soldiers were killed and more than 9,500 wounded in the battle.

On the Confederate side, more than 1,500 soldiers died, more than 7,500 were wounded and more than 1,000 reported as missing or captured.

While the website www.usmemorialday.org says there are differing accounts of how Memorial Day began, it cites the first official observance coming from an order by Gen. John Logan in 1868 to decorate graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

Records of the 161 Scarborough natives who served during the Civil War are inconclusive about how many died in uniform, but at least six men are listed on records at the historical society.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219