Antietam National Battlefield was the sight of the bloodiest day in American History and one of the best known battle of the American Civil War. Along Antietam Creek just north of the tiny town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, 100,000 soldiers marched into battle on September 17th, 1862. By the end of that day almost 23,000 were dead, wounded or missing.
After a Confederate victory at the 2nd Manassas/Bull Run, General Robert E. Lee pushed into the North for the first time. The Virginia countryside had been ravaged during the first year of the war, and Lee wanted to give it time to heal, plus a decisive victory in the North might bring President Lincoln to the negotiating table.
On September 15th, 1862, Lee crossed the Potomac River into Maryland and dug in along the high ground west of Antietam Creek. Union forces under Commanding General George McClellan moved in from the east. At dawn on September 17th, the battle began. Fighting around the Dunker Church and in the North Woods began the day, but soon the armies would engage across an open cornfield. The loss of life over the next three hours was staggering. Union forces gained some ground and pushed into the West Woods at 9:30 a.m.By 9:50, 2,200 Union soldiers lay dead or wounded - that’s a steady rate of two casualties per second.
Confederate soldiers dug in along a sunken road to defend their position as fighting raged through the afternoon. They held off the superior number of Union troops for several hours before finally being overrun and driven back.
Union General Ambrose Burnside was trying to bring reinforcements against the Confederates’ right flank, but Georgia sharpshooters were keeping them from crossing Antietam Creek. The Union soldiers were finally able to capture the bridge, which would forever after be called Burnside Bridge, and attack in force up the hill on the other side. Confederate General A.P. Hill arrived with reinforcements of his own from Harpers Ferry, just in time to keep the Confederates from being overrun.
The battle ended at around 6 p.m. While not a decisive victory for either side, it did cause Lee to lead his men back across the Potomac River and head south again. McClellan decided not to pursue him, a decision which would contribute greatly to him being relieved of his command. The withdrawal of Lee from the North was enough of a victory for President Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation, which would be a major turning point in the politics of the war. By the time the armies would meet again in December at Fredericksburg, Virginia, it would be Burnside at the Union helm. That battle will be in my next installment of Civil War Chronicles which you can find at the link below.
The photos below come from a cloudy visit to Antietam National Battlefield, the site of the bloodiest day in the American Civil War. Civil War Chronicles will trace the major battles of the Eastern Theater through photos and brief histories. Click on any photo to enlarge it. All photos are available for sale and licensing. For more information, check out the National Park Service’s Antietam website HERE.