roughly instructed at school, and at a proper time was trained to the business of his father. He was soon distinguished for faithfulness, industry and integrity. The manly qualities of his character won for him the esteem and affection of his fellow citizens, and with great credit to himself, he filled various offices of trust to which his townsmen were always glad to elect him. On the 15th of June, 1847, he was married to Miss Sally, daughter of Hon. Lemuel H. Arnold, who, with a family of five children, survives him. At the breaking out of the rebellion, he was moved by an ardent patriotic feeling, which would not permit him to remain at home at his ease while so many of his fellow countrymen were hastening to the scene of duty and danger. He gave up his business, exercised his influence in raising troops, commenced by himself the study of military subjects, and upon the organization of the 2d Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteers, was commissioned Captain, June 1, 1861. The regiment was actively engaged in the battle of Bull Run, and there Captain Rodman won his first laurels in the field. He was especially distinguished for his coolness and valor and gained the approving notice of his superior officers, whose high respect he had previously secured by his unwearied faithfulness in the discharge of duty in the camp. Soon after the organization of the 4th Rhode Island regiment, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel, his commission dating October 19, 1861. Eleven days after, October 30th, he was promoted to the Colonelcy. Here his administrative and executive abilities were particularly marked, in the high degree of discipline and efficiency to which he soon brought his regiment. It became one of the best in the Army of the Potomac, and greatly assisted in gaining for Rhode Island the reputation which she holds among her sister States for the excellent character of her troops. When General Burnside was appointed to the command of the North Carolina expedition, he solicited and obtained the 4th Rhode Island for a portion of his army. The services which Colonel Rodman and his regiment rendered in the battles of Roanoke Island and New bern have already been enumerated. The gallant charge which they made in the last named action gave Colonel Rodman a wide celebrity and attracted the attention of the War Department at Washington. He was accordingly promoted to Brigadier General, his commission dating April 28, 1862, a few days after the surrender of Fort Macon, in operations against which Colonel Rodman had been engaged. Upon the reorganization of General Burnside's command, General Rodman was appointed to the command of a brigade. Returning home on sick leave soon afterwards, he spent a few weeks at his residence in South Kingstown. He rejoined the army on the 6th day of August, reporting to General Burnside at Fredericksburg. He was assigned to the command of the third (General Parke's late) division, and in that capacity entered upon the Maryland campaign. Here, as elsewhere, his courage and skill were abundantly proved. He led his division at South Mountain and again at Antietam with the same gallantry which he had displayed at Newbern. Shunning no danger, avoiding no duty, he was everywhere fearless and always faithful. He received his death wound in the final struggle that took place beyond the bridge of Antietam, near the close of the battle. He fell in the front with his face to the foe. He was borne from the field and carefully attended. Removed to the house of Mr. Rohrback, near Sharpsburg, close by the scene of the fight, nursed by his wife, tenderly treated by the best available medical skill, he lingered for twelve weary and painful days, and, on the morning of the 30th of September quietly breathed his last. He retained all his mental faculties to the latest moment. Knowing from the first, that all which friendship and affection could do was not sufficient to save his life, he was perfectly submissive and thoroughly trustful. Not a complaint or murmur escaped his lips, though he was at times suffering great pain from internal bleeding. But he endured all with the calmness and composure of a brave, true and Christian His Bible was his daily companion, and, after he fell, it was found beneath his uniform stained with his blood. man. He was particularly kind-hearted, of great nobility and manliness of character, of a pure Christian faith, and possessed to a degree not often witnessed among those who have been trained to middle age in the pursuit of a civil life, the capabilities and tastes of a good soldier. He brought the fidelity, which characterized him in business and domestic life, to the duties of the army, learned both how to obey and to command, and made himself by his own unwearied exertions a sagacious and skillful officer. His career is an additional illustration of the words of the poet: "The path of duty was the way to glory; He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting He, that ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Through the long gorge to the far light has won His path upward and prevailed, Shall find the toppling crags of duty scaled Are close upon the shining table lands, To which our God Himself is moon and sun.' * Soon after General Rodman's death, General Burnside testified to the estimation in which he held his late friend and companion in arms, by the following order addressed to the Corps: "The Commanding General announces to the Third Division the death of their late commander, Brigadier General Rodman, caused by a wound received at the battle of Antietam. One of the first to leave his home at his country's call, General Rodman, in his constant and unwearied service, now ended by his untimely death, has left a bright record of earnest patriotism undimmed by one thought of self, Respected and esteemed in the various relations of his life, the army mourns his loss as a pure-hearted patriot and a brave, devoted soldier, and his division will miss a gallant leader who was always foremost at the post of danger." CHAPTER IV. AFTER ANTIETAM. THE HE morning of the 18th of September found the two hostile armies still confronting each other. General McClellan had been reënforced during the night, in numbers sufficient to cover the losses of the preceding day. But the right wing had been so badly shaken, and, to a degree, demoralized, that it was not deemed advisable to attack. General Burnside expressed the opinion that our army ought to renew the battle, for the enemy had been worse shaken than we, and an assault upon his position promised every success. General Burnside visited General McClellan's headquarters to urge this course, declaring that "with five thousand fresh troops to pass in advance of his line, he would be willing to commence the attack."* But the commanding general of the army was not disposed to recommence the strife, and though General Morell's division was sent over to relieve General Burnside's more advanced troops, there were no orders to attack. General McClellan thought the responsibility too grave, and dared not take it. On the other hand, the enemy was in no humor for more fighting. The 18th was accordingly spent by both armies in quiet. The wounded were collected and cared for, the dead were buried, and new dispositions for further movements made. Possibly the battle might have been renewed on the 19th; but General Lee did not wait for any such contingency. During the night of the 18th-19th, he quietly moved his entire army, with the exception of some wounded men, all his serviceable artillery, Report of Committee on the Conduct of the War. Part I. p. 642. wagons, ammunition and supplies across the Potomac, and took post on the opposite bank, near Shepherdstown. He retired at his ease, wholly unmolested. "He leaves us," says an army correspondent,*"the debris of his late camp, two disabled pieces of artillery, a few hundred of his stragglers, perhaps two thousand of his wounded and as many more of his unburied dead. Not a sound field piece, caisson, ambulance, or wagon; not a tent, box of stores, or a pound of ammunition. He takes with him the supplies gathered in Maryland. and the rich spoils of Harper's Ferry." General Lee seems to have been satisfied with the result. At all events, he put a bold face upon it, and declared that History recorded "few examples of greater fortitude and endurance than" his " army had exhibited." At daylight on the 19th, therefore, at which time it had been determined to renew the battle, our troops found that there was nobody to fight. The enemy had disappeared. Our cavalry started in pursuit, but found, on reaching the Potomac, that batteries of artillery were frowning upon the opposite bank and forbidding further progress. General Charles Griffin, with a detachment from his own brigade and that of General Barnes, was sent across at dark on the evening of the 19th, and captured several pieces of artillery. A subsequent reconnaissance on the 20th, was attended with severe loss, and the reconnoitering party was driven back by heavy forces under the command of General Hill. Our troops recrossed the river, and for the time all hostilities were mutually suspended. It is not within the province of this volume to discuss the military questions which have arisen respecting the issue of the battle of Antietam. There can be no question, however, that the result, so far as General McClellan was concerned, was seriously to impair what little confidence the country reposed in him after the disasters of the Peninsula. Even many of his friends, who had been willing to excuse the want of suc New York Tribune, of Sept. 22. |