The National Park Service's online Index to the CMSR lists a Corporal (not Colonel) Z. W. CANTLEY who was enrolled in Company G, 1st Texas Infantry. Unfortunately, the Index does not tell us anything about this soldier's service highlights. I did note that his "rank out" was that of Private. You should obtain a copy of this soldier's Compiled Military Service Records which will perhaps confirm that he did die of his wounds received at the Battle of Antietam and where.

The name "Z. W. CANTLEY" does not appear in the Fort Delaware Society database. However, thousands of able bodied Confederate POWs were brought to Fort Delaware after the battles of South Mountain and Antietam in September 1862. The Dix-Hill Cartel, agreed to at the end of July 1862, impacted the treatment of Confederate POWs captured in the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Those captives sent to Fort Delaware were paroled within two or three weeks of their capture and delivered to Confederate authorities on the James River in Virginia for exchange.

Steven R. Stotelmyer of Sharpsburg, Maryland has published a very useful work entitled "The Bivouacs of the Dead: The Story of Those Who Died at Antietam and South Mountain With Histories and Rosters of Antietam, Washington, Mt. Olivet and Elmwood Cemeteries" (Toomey Press, Linthicum, Maryland, 1992, reprint 1997). However, I did not find the name "Z. W. CANTLEY" listed for any of these cemeteries in Stotelmyer's appendices.

The Confederate dead who perished in battle or shortly thereafter in nearby army field hospitals were generally buried on the field where they died. These remains were excavated in the post-war years and taken to Washington Confederate Cemetery (a subsection of Rose Hill Cemetery) in Hagerstown, Maryland.

From Stotelmyer's work: "The wounded Confederate soldier of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 usually followed one or two paths after the battle. Those taken prisoner at South Mountain or Antietam recuperated from their wounds in a field hospital. These hospitals were established in the churches and barns of the local community. Those that could be transported were taken east to Frederick, Maryland, and then on to Baltimore as prisoners of war. Those who were fortunate enough to withdraw with the Confederate Army made their way across the Potomac River to Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). Some of these wounded perished and were buried in local cemeteries, including Mount Olivet at Frederck, Maryland, and Elmwood at Shepherdstown, West Virginia."

The convalescent wounded transferred to Baltimore would have been promptly delivered to Confederate authorities at Aiken's Landing on the north (west) bank of the James River. These men would have been examined in Wayside or Receiving Hospitals in Richmond and treated further or furloughed as paroled prisoners of war. In November 1862, the delivery point was switched to City Point (modern day Hopewell, Virginia) and Petersburg became a receiving hospital complex for the returning sick and wounded.

This prompt return of the sick and wounded, as well as the able bodied, opens up a number of possibilities. Your starting point has to be a copy of the soldier's Compiled Military Service Records which you can obtain from the Military Records Research Service (see link at top of this page) which supports this website.

If you can document that Private/Corporal "Zeb" Z. W. CANTLEY was mortally wounded at Sharpsburg and died in a nearby field hospital of his wounds, Steve Stotelmyer will be interested in adding his name to the appropriate roster.

Let us know what you learn!

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
Website: www.fortdelaware.org
E-Mail: society@fortdelaware.org