America's Bloodiest Day

Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland

On Sunday Tim and I left the interstate behind to drive the winding, hilly backroads to Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland.  General Robert E. Lee hoped for a decisive victory when he crossed the Potomac River to take the Civil War into Northern territory.  Such a victory, he hoped, would secure the financial backing of England and France for the Confederate South.  

General Robert E. Lee's Statue at Antietam National Battlefield

Instead of a victory, however, Lee and his forces wandered into the bloodiest one-day battle in U. S. history when Union forces surprised them at Antietam on September 17, 1862.  Over 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing at the conclusion of the 12-hour battle, more causalities than seen during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined.

Exhibit about President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation at Antietam Visitors Center

President Abraham Lincoln was hoping that his commander, General George B. McClellan, would soon gain a decisive victory, enabling Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation from a position of strength rather than one of desperation.  Five days after McClellan's victory at Antietam, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862.  Taking effect on January 1, 1863, the Proclamation freed four million enslaved Americans in the rebellious Southern state and gave the Union war effort two goals:  preserve the Union and end slavery.

The Pry House was used by Union General George B. McClellan as his Headquarters.

On September 13, 1862 a Union soldier, investigating the recently vacated campground of Confederate General D. H. Hill, found wrapped around three cigars a copy of Lee's Special Order 191.  

A re-enactor's tent near Dunker Church

This order outlined Lee's plans to invade the north.  It noted the routes and division of Lee's 40,000 soldiers into three columns.  General Stonewall Jackson's command was to attack the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry, General James Longstreet's column was to move towards Boonsboro, MD while General D. H. Hill was to provide the rear guard as the Confederates moved north from Frederick, MD.  

When the Union Commander, General George B. McClellan, read through the orders, he exclaimed, "Here is the paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home."  

A Union re-enactor near Antietam's Dunker Church

Although our visit occurred a month after Antietam's sesquicentennial reenactment on September 15-17, 2012, Tim and I still found several re-enactors scattered throughout the battlefield who were more than willing to tell the story of their particular area of the battle.  

Tim warms up at the re-enactors' campfire.

One man told us about the scouts who drew quick maps of the area that they took back to their commanders.  Later, after the battle occurred, other men made more detailed maps to document the actual battle for Congressional investigations.

The Cornfield

As Tim and I drove through the battlefield with a self-guided tour map to aid us, we learned about the 24-acre cornfield where soldiers from both sides fought.  Union General Joseph Hooker remarked that "Every stalk of corn...was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife."  During the fighting in the cornfield, approximately one soldier fell every second.

Dunker Church

Near the cornfield was Dunker Church which was the focus of several Union attacks against the Confederate's left flank.  Oddly enough, this church served a pacifist congregation of German Baptist Brethren.  At the end of this bloody day, the church was used a temporary medical aid station.

Clara Barton

Near noon, Clara Barton arrived at the northern edge of the cornfield with a wagonload of medical supplies.  As she was caring for a wounded soldier, a shot pierced her sleeve and killed the man she was tending.

Samuel and Elizabeth Mumma and their 13 children lived on a farm near Dunker Church and left their home two days before the battle of Antietam.  When they returned, they found their property had been burned to the ground by Confederate soldiers to prevent Union sharpshooters from occupying the buildings.

Antietam's Bloody Lane

In the farm road now known as Bloody Lane,  2,200 Confederate soldiers held off the attacks of Union forces numbering 10,000 for nearly three hours.  Finally, just after noon, this thin gray line collapsed.  Later, one observer of this area of the battle wrote the dead "were lying...in heaps like cordwood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails."

"Bloody Lane" taken by Alexander Gardner, September 1862

Johnny Cook

Johnny Cook, a bugler with the Union's Battery B, 4th Artillery, became the Civil War's youngest Medal of Honor recipient for his conduct during the battle of Antietam.  His citation reads, "Volunteered at the age of 15 years to act as a cannoneer, and as such volunteer served a gun under a terrific fire of the enemy."

Burnside Bridge

Union General Ambrose Burnside's Ninth Corps fought to gain possession of the Rohrback Bridge (now called Burnside Bridge).  The bridge was heavily defended by 500 Confederate infantrymen.  After several attempts, Burnside's men took the bridge, crossed Antietam Creek and forced the Confederates back back towards Sharpsburg, MD.

The Battle of Antietam ended about 6 p.m. when Lee ordered his surviving men to ford the Potomac River back to Virginia.

State of New York Memorial
at Antietam National Battlefield

"Of all the days on all the fields where American soldiers have fought, the most terrible by almost any measure was September 17, 1862."

~ Stephen W. Sears, American historian specializing in the Civil War