We went to where 'the big one' played out in Gettysburg in 1863 last week. This week, we are back in our home state exploring a pristine historical treasure just a short car ride from the Baltimore/Annapolis/DC area. If you are near Hagerstown or Frederick, it is literally a hop, skip and a a few gallons total. As part of the US Department of the Interior's National Park Service, the Antietam battlefield is an excellent day trip if you are looking for fresh air, exercise and some perspective.Fought almost a year before Gettysburg in September of 1862, the Battle of Antietam represented the bloodiest day of combat on American soil, and offered a chance to test the tactics and skills of the armies who would later battle north to Gettysburg, and then back through lower Virginia and Georgia-for the precious few who survived unmaimed. Admission to the battlefield is free; the park is open rain or shine, and closes at dusk.
During early September, 1862, Confederate general Robert E. Lee positioned his army along a ridge west of Antietam Creek. They had crossed a strategic ford across the Potomac River from West Virginia/Harper's Ferry areas, crossed through the town of Sharpsburg in lower Maryland, and took their positions on the ridge with the town/exit ford behind them, and Antietam Creek in front of them. The ground was strategically very good. However, after a brief skirmish the night before in the East Woods area, on September 17th, Union forces under General George McClellan attacked from the north and north-west hitting what was the far left flank of the Confederate line. Witnesses report the first Union skirmishers drew gunfire even while stars still were shining in the barely dawn sky.
The first arena of death at dawn was "The Cornfield" area, south of the North Woods and west of the East Woods, where Union forces had bivouac-ed and organized the evening before. For three hours The Cornfield's 24 acres was the forum of some of the most gruesome fighting in US history. Entire regiments and brigades were literally torn to pieces in a matter of moments.
Confederates would fall back to re-inforce their center around a worn down old farm path that would soon enter American lexicon as "Bloody Lane." Union forces seized two farm properties and began to advance against the Union center, but the 'Sunken Road' became a pre-dug grave for hundreds of men. Confederates pounded Union troops for over three hours until about noon when the Union finally was able to take the 'Sunken Road' area. We will provide some actual battle pictures in addition to our own to show the carnage left in this 10 yard or so wide ditch of death. Confederates would start pulling back to higher ground around their right flank and the southern outskirts of the town of Antietam.
For the Union to ultimately win the day, they would need to get forces across Antietam Creek's three bridges in order to turn the Confederate right and force them south-west back across the Potomac. The epic clash of Burnside's Bridge is the action most likely remembered by any who know about Antietam. As our pictures will show, the Union had an almost impossible task of crossing a ten yard wide, 50 or so yards long, bridge that was guarded by a bluff manned by 500 Confederates from Georgia. Despite the odds {especially if you walk the steps these troops took to get to the top of that bluff}, after several charges, Union forces pushed the Confederates off the bluff and sent them into retreat. Only reinforcements from General A.P. Hill's Light Division, arriving just in time after marching from Harper's Ferry, stemmed the Union advance and drove the troops back to the lower bridge/'Burnside's' Bridge area.
The battle ended at about 6:00 p.m. with lines only slightly changed. However, of the nearly 100,000 troops engaged, about 23,000 were killed, wounded or missing. This is in just over 12 hours of combat. Late on September 18th, Lee had regrouped enough that he could conduct an orderly retreat/advance in the other direction back across the Potomac into West Virginia to fight again another day {with great success at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia, where he lost his beloved, most trusted general, Stonewall Jackson-who was shot by friendly fire while patrolling his lines at night-only a couple months before the crucial Gettysburg campaign}. We will do our best to add some more specific details about our photos after some dinner, but basically the battle path is shown from the bottom photos {The Cornfield area} to the middle {Bloody Lane/Sunken Road} and top {views from both sides of Burnside's Bridge}. Now get out there with the family and enjoy some history and good health!!