11. Antietam Battlefield

Thursday, July 18th - This morning Pat and I left Harpers Ferry and drove about 18 miles north into Maryland to what the Union soldiers called the Antietam battlefield and the Rebels called the Sharpsburg battlefield.  This battle is infamous as it is the bloodiest one day battle in American history with over 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing.  It took place on Sept. 17, 1862 (about 10 months before Gettysburg) and was the result of Gen. Robert E. Lee's plan to take the fighting into the north.  The Confederates had just defeated the Union at the Second Battle of Manassas and Lee wanted to keep the pressure on.  After crossing the Potomac and arriving in Frederic, MD, Lee sent half his men under Gen. Stonewall Jackson south to take Harpers Ferry so he would not have to worry about Union troops in his rear.  The Union Army of the Potomac under Gen. George McClellan headed west from DC and forced Lee's men back to the town of Sharpsburg where they took up position on some high ground just west of Antietam Creek. By this time Stonewall Jackson was back after capturing Harpers Ferry and his men took the left flank of the line while Gen.James Longstreet's men covered the center and right flank.

The first Union attacks were on the left flank and came through a cornfield followed by attacks from the East Woods, West Woods and the Sunken Road.  The first photo is of the Cornfield and the second of the Sunken Road.

After eight hours of fighting, none of these attacks succeeded though they did push the Confederates back some but at a cost of 15,000 casualties.  To give you an idea of how bloody it was, the First Texas Infantry lost 82% of their men fighting in the cornfield.  Then Gen. Ambrose Burnside's men attacked on the right flank trying to take a bridge across the Antietam Creek that is now called Burnside's Bridge.  After three hours of fighting the Union finally took the bridge as the Confederates protecting it were running our of ammunition.  Burnside's men crossed over but before they could progress very far Confederate reinforcements arrived and forced them back over the bridge. Here is a photo of the bridge taken from the Confederate positions.  You can see what an advantage they had as they were able to fire down on the bridge and the men trying to cross the bridge had no cover.

Despite over 23,000 casualties out of the 100,000 participants, the forces were, essentially, where they had started the day.  A total of six Generals were killed or mortally wounded in this battle.  The next day they gathered their wounded and buried their dead.

Lee had lost so many men and supplies that he withdrew back over the Potomac and the first Confederate invasion of the north was over.  Lee’s retreat to Virginia provided President Lincoln the opportunity he had been waiting for to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Here is a copy of a photo that was taken after the battle showing the dead and the Dunker Church that they fought around.

Here is the church today.

Today the fields have a total of 96 monuments to all of the units that fought in this battle.  The next photo shows the New York State monument and the smaller monument to the New York 20th Infantry Regiment.

This next photo shows some of the dozens of cannons that were scattered around the battlefield at the locations where artillery where stationed during the battle.

This is the Maryland state monument.  It is the only one that that commemorates men who fought for both the Union and the Confederacy as Maryland had men fighting on both sides.

Once again it was a very hot day so we limited our time out in the sun.  We toured this battlefield for about four hours and then we headed on to Gettysburg.