23,000 men had been killed, wounded, or listed as missing, the single bloodiest day in the history of the United States. The Battle of Antietam was the culmination of the Maryland Campaign of 1862, the first invasion of the North by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. After this assault, Pendleton retreated and reported to General Lee that his position and all of his guns were lost. As his men entered the East Woods, they presented an excellent artillery target, "almost as good a target as a barn." Alexander Gardner photograph. The 4th Rhode Island came up on the right, but they had poor visibility amid the high stalks of corn, and they were disoriented because many of the Confederates were wearing Union uniforms captured at Harpers Ferry. A small Confederate force, positioned on higher ground, was able to delay Burnside for three hours. Battle of Antietam: Chronology and Aftermath - The History Reader The fighting was so gory Sunken Road earned a new name: Bloody Lane. Antietam on the Web. [67] However, the commanding terrain across the sometimes shallow creek made crossing the water a comparatively easy part of a difficult problem. Within days of the Union disaster at Second Bull Run, U.S. Pres. Sears, p. 173, cites 75,000 Union troops, with an effective strength of 71,500, with 300 guns; on p. 296, he states that the 12,401 Union casualties were 25% of those who went into action and that McClellan committed "barely 50,000 infantry and artillerymen to the contest"; p. 389, he cites Confederate effective strength of "just over 38,000," including, Union: 12,410 total (2,108 killed; 9,549 wounded; 753 captured/missing); Confederate: 10,316 total (1,546 killed; 7,752 wounded; 1,018 captured/missing) according to Sears, pp. After two hours and 2,500 casualties, they were back where they started. General Robert E. Lee also recognized dissent among Lincolns ranks and hoped a battle victory on Union land might topple Lincolns congressional support and help secure the Confederacy once and for all. National Military Site Blackford's Ford from the Maryland side of the Potomac. The day before, at the Battle of Antietam, Lee's force. The former was significant because a large portion of Lee's army was absent from the start of the battle of Antietam, attending to the surrender of the Union garrison; the latter because stout Confederate defenses at two passes through the mountains delayed McClellan's advance enough for Lee to concentrate the remainder of his army at Sharpsburg. Central Intelligence Agency.The Battle of Antietam: A Turning Point in the Civil War. It was an operational conception that relied upon careful timing and close supervision. Unfortunately for the Union men, this meant retreating down the bluffs and cliffs, 50-70 feet high, and escaping across the open river under Confederate fire. Robert E. Lee was personally against secession and slavery . The fifth objective Lee mentioned was achieved with qualified success. "We would scarce choose to be in the gallery, when one of the women bending over them should recognize a husband, a son, or a brother in the still, lifeless lines of bodies, that lie ready for the gaping trenches. Some Confederate politicians, including President Jefferson Davis, believed that the prospect of foreign recognition would increase if the Confederacy won a military victory on Union soil; such a victory might gain recognition and financial support from the United Kingdom and France, although there is no evidence that Lee thought the Confederacy should base its military plans on this possibility. For the next seven hours there were three major Union attacks on the Confederate left, moving from north to south. Snell, Mark A. Updated: November 28, 2022 | Original: October 27, 2009. Proper support would have enabled the Federals to crush Lees centre, but VI Corps (under Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin) and V Corps (under Maj. Gen. Fitz-John Porter), held in reserve, were not allowed by McClellan to move forward, and the opportunity passed. Cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee guarded Lees crossing at the ford while the rest of the Confederate cavalry rode to Williamsport. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton consisted of the brigades of Maj. Charles J. Whiting and Cols. Beyond the immediate military objectives, Lee had concrete political goals: to influence the approaching Congressional elections in the North, to impress Europe with a sense of Southern military power, and to detach Marylanda slave state that had rejected secessionfrom the Union. Most military historians have strongly criticized McClellans conduct of the battle, and his orders for September 18 indicate that he expected another attack by Lee. The Battle of Antietam National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Antietam National Battlefield P. O. His division lost about 1,000 men. [52], By midday, the action had shifted to the center of the Confederate line. Hooker attempted to gather the scattered remnants of his I Corps to continue the assault, but a Confederate sharpshooter spotted the general's conspicuous white horse and shot Hooker through the foot. He increased the pressure by sending his inspector general, Col. Delos B. Sackett, to confront Burnside, who reacted indignantly: "McClellan appears to think I am not trying my best to carry this bridge; you are the third or fourth one who has been to me this morning with similar orders. Engle, Stephen Douglas. The Maryland Campaign was over. Although Lincoln had intended to do so earlier, Secretary of State William H. Seward, at a cabinet meeting, advised him to wait until the Union won a significant victory so as to avoid the perception that it was issued out of desperation. However, in a strategic sense, despite being a tactical draw, Antietam is considered a turning point of the war and a victory for the Union because it ended Lee's strategic campaign (his first invasion of Union territory). National Park Service.Why did Lee Enter Maryland? McClellan went into camp around Sharpsburg. Between 1545 and 1600, the Confederate division commanded by Major General Ambrose Powell Hill begins arriving on the field, after completing a seventeen mile march from the Harpers Ferry area. The Cornfield, an area about 250 yards (230m) deep and 400 yards (400m) wide, was a scene of indescribable destruction. 16870. Cowie, Steven. (Civil War battles often had one name in the North, which was usually associated with a prominent nearby physical feature, and another in the South, which was usually derived from the town or city closest to the battlefield.). Gen. Abram Durye's brigade marched directly into volleys from Col. Marcellus Douglass's Georgia brigade. George McClellan has been severely criticized by his contemporaries and by historians for the slowness of his strategic movements and for his customary battlefield caution. Lincolns cabinet feared releasing the Emancipation Proclamation at that time would seem desperate and be difficult to enforce, so Lincoln decided to wait until another decisive Union victory. Gens. [82] Losses from the battle were heavy on both sides. McClellan had around 50,000 in position on September 17, with many more on the way. I feel that I have done all that can be asked, wrote McClellan to his wife on 20 September, in twice saving the country.. If this broken sector of the Confederate line were exploited, Lee's army would be divided in half and possibly defeated. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2011. Hooker's objective was the plateau on which sat the Dunker Church, a modest whitewashed building belonging to a local sect of German Baptists. [87] The president was even more astonished that from September 17 to October 26, despite repeated entreaties from the War Department and the president himself, McClellan declined to pursue Lee across the Potomac, citing shortages of equipment and the fear of overextending his forces. I have gone to fight for their freedom and for their interests in the future.. Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's army pulls away from Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and heads back to Virginia. Here occurred the fighting in the Bloody Lane, a sunken road north of Sharpsburg, which French and Richardson eventually carried. Fighting dies out on the Confederate left by 1030. the most deadly fire of the war. Antietam changed the military character of the war as well. But, like Lee who fought to a draw at Antietam, though outnumbered 2 to 1 the statue stood its ground. General Robert E. Lee also recognized dissent among Lincoln's ranks and hoped a battle victory on Union land might topple Lincoln's congressional support and help secure the Confederacy once. There is no further activity of significance anywhere on the field. A Savage Continual Thunder. 8000 men started the assault, 4000 men made it to a half way point, and only 2000 troops pushed up to the end of the Confederate line because of mounting causalities and the difficult terrain. Retreat from Antietam: The Battle of Shepherdstown, September 19-20, 1862, Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association. -Soldier in the 4th Texas. Close to 10,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded during those first four hours of fighting. However, with word of Jackson's capture of Harpers Ferry on September 15th, Lee decided to make a stand at Sharpsburg. After taking the bridge at about 1:00 p.m., Burnside reorganized for two hours before moving forward across the arduous terrain--a necessary and critical delay. Gen. Nathan Kimball, included three veteran regiments, but they also fell to fire from the sunken road. The massing Confederates pushed the Union troops back across the river near Shepherdstown on the 20th. PDF The Battle of Antietam - U.S. National Park Service The second attack, more raw recruits under Col. Dwight Morris, was also subjected to heavy fire but managed to beat back a counterattack by the Alabama Brigade of Robert Rodes. 0830:Major General Edwin Sumner brings Sedgwicks division of Federal II Corps into the east woods; severe fighting continues. He ought to have ordered a night movement on the evening of 13 September, and as commander-in-chief he should have personally made certain that aggressive pursuit took place on the following day, after the engagements of South Mountain and Cramptons Gap had been fought. McClellan overestimated the size of Lees force, assuming that Lee had nearly 100,000 troops in his command, and insisted that the fall of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on September 15 allowed an additional 40,000 Confederate troopsin his inflated estimationto fight at Antietam. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Jackson, by way of an overnight forced march, reached Sharpsburg on the afternoon of September 16, effectively doubling Lees strength. For other uses, see, Confederate soldiers on the Antietam battlefield as they fell inside the fence on the Hagerstown road, September 1862 by Alexander Gardner, Confederate horses lay dead and artillery caissons destroyed on Antietam battlefield. Burnside has been widely criticized for ignoring this fact. Hill's division, to arrive from Harpers Ferry. In Europe, France and Great Britain anxiously watched Americas War Between the States. Box 158 Sharpsburg, MD 21782 . Although McClellans command style lessened the direct possibilities of disaster, it was still a considerable gamble for Lee to risk one of the Confederacys principal armies on his reading of McClellans character. As the Confederate wounded streamed into Shepherdstown and the surrounding area, and Lees army pushed on in its retreat, Brigadier General William Pendleton was ordered to guard the ford to prevent a Union pursuit. Soon afterwards the Federal divisions of Brig. In 1979, the National Park Service purchased and restored them. The struggle seemed to have lost its innocence, for the staggering casualty lists and the savagery of a single days fighting graphically illustrated that the war as an undertaking was a massive and serious concern. Hooker had approximately 8,600 men, little more than the 7,700 defenders under Stonewall Jackson, and this slight disparity was more than offset by the Confederates' strong defensive positions. Franklin appealed to McClellan, who left his headquarters in the rear to hear both arguments but backed Sumner's decision, ordering Franklin and Hancock to hold their positions. After an improvised truce for both sides to recover and exchange their wounded, Lee's forces began withdrawing across the Potomac that evening to return to Virginia. (Corby would later perform a similar service at Gettysburg in 1863.) Eicher, p. 363, cites 75,500 Union troops. Tell them they must be good boys and help father all they can, wrote Woodford. The battle was over on the Confederate right before Burnside fired a shot, and Lee was able to shift nearly all of his troops from his southern wing to support Jackson in the north. After a brutal struggle over what came to be known as the Cornfield, Hooker was repulsed with the loss of a quarter of his men. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. On September 18, Lee ordered the Confederate army to withdraw from the battlefield and retreat back to Virginia. [11][12] Although the Union army suffered heavier casualties than the Confederates, the battle was a major turning point in the Union's favor. He intended to launch a simultaneous diversionary attack against the Confederate right with a fifth corps, and he was prepared to strike the center with his reserves if either attack succeeded. McClellans forces streamed through the South Mountain passes to find Lees army, which numbered perhaps 11,000 men on the afternoon of September 15, occupying the heights north of Sharpsburg. However, for the men engaged in the battle it was considered a significant event, particularly for the new troops of the 118th PA. American Battlefield Trust (Map by Steven Stanley). Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up. Its lead brigade, under Col. Harrison Fairchild, containing several colorful Zouaves of the 9th New York, commanded by Col. from WVU and a B.A. Original description claimed "Battlefield of Antietam on the Day of the Battle" September 17, 1862; however, see Frassanito, pp. Leading off the fourth attack of the day against the sunken road was the Irish Brigade of Brig. If McClellan could drive through these passes before Lee could reunite his army, the Army of Northern Virginia could be destroyed in detail. Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller's Cornfield, and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. The course of the conflict would not only retain the Republic, but it would also ultimately destroy slavery. Despite having the advantage, he allowed Lee to retreat without resistance. The South had lost 10,316 troops, and the North had suffered casualties of 12,401. He failed to supervise adequately the entirety of the Army of the Potomac. "[98], Capt. Site identified by Frassanito, pp. Burnside, on the southern end of the Union lines, had received his orders late and acted on them later still. 36672. Lee, indeed, escaped destruction. Brig. American Civil War: Battle of Gettysburg. The Unions claim of victory at Antietam and Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation are thought to be why Republicans held the House in the 1862 mid-term elections. This was the first time that many Americans saw the realities of war in photographs as distinct from previous "artists' impressions". XIX part 2 (S# 28), p. 621; Luvaas and Nelson, pp. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 instigated the American Civil War. Gen. Truman Seymour, began advancing through the East Woods and exchanged fire with Col. James Walker's brigade of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina troops. A History and Guide to Civil War Shepherdstown: Victory and Defeat in West Virginias Oldest Town. This small force had sustained five major attacks by McClellan's 87,000-man army--three in the West Woods and the Miller Cornfield, and those at the Sunken Road and the Lower Bridge--each time the outcome hanging in the balance. Lee's retreat to Virginia provided President Lincoln the opportunity he had been waiting for to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. After the Confederates abandoned their campsite around Frederick, McClellans army moved in. To further complicate matters, Republicans faced midterm elections in November of 1862, and their victory wasnt in the bag. Although an immediate Union attack on the morning of September 16 would have had an overwhelming advantage in numbers, McClellan's trademark caution and his belief that Lee had as many as 100,000 men at Sharpsburg caused him to delay his attack for a day. Following the defeat of Union Gen. John Popes Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac and moved into Maryland, occupying Frederick on September 7. Moreover, McClellan's headquarters were more than a mile in the rear (at the Philip Pry house, east of the creek). Gen. Robert Toombs, with two artillery batteriesdefended Rohrbach's Bridge, a three-span, 125-foot (38 m) stone structure that was the southernmost crossing of the Antietam. Command of his corps passed to Brig. Upon learning of the valuable find, an ecstatic McClellan reportedly exclaimed, Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home. He immediately moved his army in hopes of foiling Lees battle plans. But the plan went awry. Lee's campaign could win Maryland for the Confederacy, earn diplomatic recognition from Britain and France, and perhaps even force the Union to sue for peace. After receiving punishing fire for 15 minutes, the Connecticut men withdrew with 139 casualties, one-third of their strength, including their commander, Col. Henry W. Kingsbury, who was fatally wounded. And they had stalled Burnside's assault on the southern flank for more than three hours. But, although he outnumbered Lees troops by almost three times, McClellan did not pursue Lee. Col. Barlow was severely wounded, and Richardson mortally wounded. [93] In 2015, the Trust saved 44.4 acres in the heart of the battlefield, between the Cornfield and the Dunker Church, when it purchased the Wilson farm for about $1 million. The Battle of Antietam pitted Union General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac against General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. The significance of the battle was not Lees withdrawal, but McClellans lack of pursuit. "Stonewall" Jackson's capture of Harpers Ferry and McClellan's assault through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Battle of South Mountain. This cannonade between the artillery lasted for a couple of hours while Union infantry from the 5th Corps under Fitz John Porter came up and got into position on the Maryland side of the river. In fact, however, McClellan had two fresh corps in reserve, Porter's V and Franklin's VI, but he was too cautious, concerned he was greatly outnumbered and that a massive counterstrike by Lee was imminent. Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's Right Wing or Command consisted of the following divisions: Maj. Gen. Thomas J. But after several unexpected and demoralizing Union losses, including Major General John Popes sound defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, it became clear the Confederacy wasnt going to be easy to crush. Hill's Light Division, currently embarked on an exhausting 17 mile (27km) march from Harpers Ferry. (The ford at Williamsport, Maryland, was 10 miles (16km) northwest from Sharpsburg and had been used by Jackson in his march to Harpers Ferry. The battle was over by 5:30p.m. On the morning of September 18, Lee's army prepared to defend against a Federal assault that never came. "The sun," a soldier wrote, "seemed almost to go backwards, and it appeared as if night would never come." Hearing this news, General Thomas Stonewall Jackson ordered A. P. Hill to turn back and take his force to Shepherdstown to protect the crossing. While Col. George Crook's Ohio brigade prepared to attack the bridge with the support of Brig. They were aided by three brigades of D.H. Hill's division arriving from the Mumma Farm, southeast of the Cornfield, and by Jubal Early's brigade, pushing through the West Woods from the Nicodemus Farm, where they had been supporting Jeb Stuart's horse artillery. 5500 more Union and Confederates had been killed or wounded during these three hours of combat in and around the Bloody Lane. D.H. Hills men had fought the Battle of South Mountain and had already been fully engaged three times on this day; Hill would lose some two-thirds of his entire command, including 25 of 34 field officers. McClellan had saved Washington and driven the invading rebels back south. Still, it endorsed the idea that the war wasnt just about states rights but also stopping slavery. Gen. Max Weber, was quickly cut down by heavy rifle fire; neither side deployed artillery at this point. Antietam encouraged Lincoln to make public the Emancipation Proclamation in a presidential decree of 22 September 1862, to take effect from 1 January 1863. Previous: The battle began at dawn with a furious assault on the extreme Confederate left by Hookers corps.
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