LEE’S IMPERFECT PROCLAMATION
S DAWN BROKE OVER the Sharpsburg battlefield on September 17, 1862, the Georgians and North Carolinians of Brig. Gen. Roswell Ripley’s Brigade lay in a meadow belonging to local farmer Samuel Mumma Jr. Mumma’s farm stood only about 100 yards to the brigade’s north. After the Army of Northern Virginia arrived and the prospect of battle seemed imminent, the 58-year-old Mumma, his wife Elizabeth, and their 10 children left the property on September 15. They took with them some silverware and clothing, but left everything else, believing naively that soldiers would not consider pilfering things that didn’t belong to them.
