Corn harvest in Maryland starts the second week of September, continuing until the third week of October. According to accounts of the battle, The Cornfield had not yet been harvested, yet looked like this by the end of September 17, 1862: "... every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the [Confederates] slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before." (Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker)