Background information and commentary by Andrew Carroll: Desperate for a decisive triumph and anxiously watching an aggressive Robert E. Lee and his Army march into Maryland, President Lincoln reluctantly placed the Army of the Potomac under the control of George McClellan. And McClellan, despite having considerably more troops, thought he was outmanned and proceeded tentatively, allowing Lee the time to concentrate his forces at Sharpsburg, Maryland. The two armies descended upon one another at Antietam Creek on September 17, 1862 with unprecedented fury. Union soldier Elijah Beeman was one of 23,000 casualties -- Union and Rebel forces combined -- in and around Antietam. Well aware that he might not survive, Beeman sent the following letter from a makeshift hospital to his family back in Warren County, Ohio. (This letter is published for the first time, in its entirety, in WAR LETTERS.)

Dear Friends,

I suppose you have heard of the hard fighting that has been going on since Sunday morning last and I suppose are very anxious about me. I am sorry to tell you that I was wounded very severely on the first morning of the fight through the breast and lungs and I cannot tell how it may terminate for me. I think there are very poor hopes of my recovery, but if it is the Lord's will I may. And if I should die I am perfectly resigned to the will of my heavenly father….

I was wounded about three miles from Middletown and brought back here and am lying in the German Reformed church of this place which together with all the other churches and many houses has been turned into hospitals for the wounded. We are made as comfortable as can be expected and very kindly treated. The ladies of this place are doing all for us that they can to nourish us and make us comfortable. The lady who has been kind enough to write for me, has tried to do all she can for me. Do not my dear friends let my condition trouble and fret you. I your dear son and brother send my best love to my dear parents and my sister and all…

From your affectionate son and brother

Elijah Beeman

The nurse who penned the letter on Beeman's behalf added a note at the bottom:

Though I am a stranger to you and you are strangers to me I thought that it might be a comfort to you to add a few lines to what I have written for your son. Ever since This hospital has been here I have been attending and trying to do what I could for them and at first became interested in this young man and I shall do all I can for him as long as he is here and would like very much to see him get well though he is perfectly resigned to the Lord's will.

Beeman's letter to his family was his last; he died a week later.

NEXT WEEK: A letter about guerilla warfare in the Civil War.