It was September 17, 1862, near Antietam Creek, when Union troops under George McClellan chased and attacked General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the area of Antietam Creek.  Robert Dawes, A young man from Maine had volunteered and was in the front lines that day.  He along with thousands of others was wounded that day, and as the battle raged on he was left for dead as he lay unconscious and bleeding.  He woke up in the middle of the night a day later surrounded by rotting corpses and being disoriented, wandered off of the battle field in a southerly direction until he came upon a farm house where he drank from the rain barrel and the collapsed against the house bleeding badly from a nearly severed left arm and a sword wound in his chest.  He remained un discovered until the next morning when the young widow cam out to feed her chickens.