On its 25th anniversary, PBS re ran the Ken Burns documentary on the American Civil War.
With my interest in old bicycles and Col. Albert Pope being the father of the American bicycle industry, I wanted to know more about his military record and service with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Albert Pope joined the 1st company, 35th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment on August 27th, 1862, as a second lieutenant. By the time Albert would return to civilian life just a short three years later, he had endured extreme hardship and hunger, led thousands of men into battle, escaped death in desperate circumstances and fought within yards of such legendary Generals as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Ambrose Burnside.
He fought in the battles of Antietam, Fredricksburg, and Vicksburg.
Pope kept a journal, and to just get an idea of the man and the times he lived, here is one excerpt from the battle of Antietam.
" As we advanced up the hill, we met ambulances full of wounded and men on strechers being borne off the field. The cannonading was awful, the rattle of musketry very sharp.
We halted behind a fence, the men threw forward their pieces, the long line projecting over the fence. The rebels were piled up in the woods pretty thick. We had to step over them and walk through rebel blood."
The battle of Antietam would match General, George McClellans Union forces against the army of General, Robert E. Lee, and would claim 23,110 dead, wounded, or missing: and would be the bloodiest day of the entire War.