“[First Lieutenant] Stewart formed [his section] in front of Dr. Miller’s barnyard, on the right (west side) of the [Sharpsburg] pike, looking south, and within 30 or 40 yards of the fence separating the Cornfield from the pasture-ground.  The tall corn was full of the enemy’s skirmishers and sharpshooters, and Stewart’s section had three men killed and 11 wounded in a few minutes, when Capt. Campbell brought up the other four guns and all of the caissons – the battery then being equipped with 12 caissons. 
    “…[Dr. Miller’s farm] buildings were on a slight knoll, which descended just beyond the barns and strawstacks somewhat abruptly into the creek bottom or flat, which at the time was filled on both sides of the pike with large fields of tall corn nearly ripe.  The fence along the pike was a low stone wall, but next to the position of the Battery, and hardly 100 feet in front of it, the Cornfield was fenced off from the pasture by a rail fence quite densely grown up with briars and bushes, forming a complete screen. 
    “The Battery was formed on the brow of this knoll, so that they could hardly depress their muzzles enough to reach the line of the fence with their canister.  From this fact much of their canister went over the Rebels who lay behind this fence and rattled harmlessly through the corn beyond.  This distance from where the left gun was posted to the nearest part of the cover where the Rebels were was only 28 paces.  It seems almost incredible that any man could have escaped in a battery working in an open field, with veteran infantry under dense cover sharpshooting at it within 28 or 30 paces!  Capt. Campbell was hit in the neck, shoulder and side almost as soon as he got into the position, and the command of the Battery devolved on Stewart, who was then the only commissioned officer present.  The Sergeants, Corporals and Cannoneers fell in every direction so rapidly that the working of the guns was seriously impeded, but the remaining men filled up the gaps as well as they could and stuck to the position like grim death.
    “At this moment Gen. Gibbon [the commander of the “Iron Brigade”] came into the Battery, and seeing the Gunner and No. 3 on the gun that was in the road both shot down he took charge of the piece and acted as Gunner and No. 3 together during several rounds.  His escape was miraculous, as he wore the full uniform of a Brigadier-General, and the enemy was so close that they could not help discerning his rank, unless the smoke obscured him.  His example had a great effect on the men, and became one of the cherished traditions of the Battery. 
“This terrific and unequal contest resulted in the Battery driving the enemy’s infantry out of their cover; but, as the latter were immediately reinforced, the Battery was limbered up and hauled off without the loss of a single gun or caisson, through some of the guns had only two horses left.  They went into position again on another part of the field, and were engaged at other times during the day, but not in any such manner as here.
    “The causalities of the Battery in this part of the action were nine killed and 31 wounded, including Capt. Campbell, and of the wounded three afterward died.  Thus a loss of 40 killed and wounded was suffered by a battery having about 100 men present for duty.  There were one or two instances were batteries, which were run over and captured by the enemy, suffered greater loss, including prisoners; but there was no other case during the whole war, in either army, where any battery lost 40 men killed and wounded in a square stand-up fight, out of 100 present, and not only held all their guns, but actually went into action with them again the same day!  Among the killed was Sergeant Joseph Herzog, who was shot through the lower part of the abdomen, from side to side.  When taken back to the field hospital, which was Dr. Miller’s barn, the Surgeon told him that his would was necessarily fatal, and that he had but a few hours to live.  Being in great agony, poor Joe remarked, “If that is the case, Doctor, those few hours are not worth living,” whereupon he deliberately drew his revolver and shot himself through the right temple. 
    “This fighting at Antietam settled the reputation of Stewart’s Battery in the Army of the Potomac.  After that its name became a synonym for pluck and resolution.  Stewart always showed an especial affection for the boys who had stood by him in that awful carnage, and the recruits who came later had to content themselves with the second place in his regard.  This was a matter of course, and Stewart would not have been the man he was if he failed to appreciate the heroic devotion of his veterans of Antietam.  The old Battery afterward got into a good many tough places, such as Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Bethesda Church, etc. [...] not to mention Fredericksburg and Petersburg.  But the recruits of 1863, even with Gettysburg on their records, always took off their caps to the old Antietam boys whenever there was a campfire debate about prowess, and cordially yielded the palm to the iron veterans who had braved the butchery of that fatal Cornfield on the Sharpsburg Pike.”