Posted on 09/17/2012 4:22:21 AM PDT by iowamark
On this morning 150 years ago, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the crossroads town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history.
The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War.
It is called simply the Cornfield, and it was here, in the first light of dawn that Union troops — more than a thousand — crept toward the Confederate lines. The stalks were at head level and shielded their movements.
Cannon fire opened the battle with puffs of white smoke rising from the tree line, at the precise spot where men re-enacting the battle are firing artillery today.
Just 200 yards in front of the Union forces, Confederate troops from Georgia were flat on their stomachs. They leveled their guns and waited, and when the Union troops broke out of the corn, the Georgians all rose up and fired.
"The smoke, the noise, the artillery is crashing in from all directions," says Keith Snyder, a park ranger at Antietam. "It's just a concentrated terror."
It was complete chaos in and around the cornfield, Snyder says, with people screaming and bodies everywhere. In that first phase of the battle, 10,000 soldiers are killed and wounded.
One of the men who survived the cornfield was Cpl. Lewis Reed of the 12th Massachusetts Regiment. He wrote about that day in a letter years later. He remembered all the men around him screaming for help.
"I found myself on the ground with a strange feeling covering my body ... My shirt and blouse filled with blood and I supposed it was my last day on earth. I had the usual feelings of home and friends and thousands of thoughts ran through my mind at once."
Cpl. Reed managed to stagger to the cover of nearby woods. He would live to the age of 83. As for his fellow soldiers, two of every three men in his unit would be dead or wounded by nightfall.
There was nothing special about these fields, or even this town. It had no strategic value. Gen. Robert E. Lee's plan was to push his troops north, perhaps to Pennsylvania, fight a decisive battle and pressure northern politicians to sue for peace. Union troops marched from Washington and intercepted Lee.
"The thing about Antietam is it's a very personal battle," Snyder says. "The vast majority of combat here is done at very close range — hundred yards and closer. It's savage and personal. So when you pop out the enemy is right there."
By late morning the fight in the cornfield was a stalemate. The Union shifted its attack, and actually turns south and head toward what was called the Sunken Road.
The Bloody Lane
The Sunken Road was an old country farm lane worn down by years of wagon traffic and erosion. A few hundred yards long and about 5 feet or so below ground level, it was a ready-made fort for the southerners. The Confederates — more than 2,000 — were hunkered down, waiting for the Union troops.
The Confederates peered over the top and watched the northern troops coming across an open field. As the Union soldiers came into view, the southerners rose up and fired, taking out nearly every soldier in the front rank.
One Union general saw his troops disappear into the sunken road, and was heard to say, "God save my poor boys."
But after terrible losses, the Union troops were able to encircle the Confederates, and the Sunken Road became a death trap for the men inside. Men like Sgt. James Shinn of the 4th North Carolina Regiment. He watched hundreds of his fellow soldiers flee to the rear, and later scratched this entry in his diary.
"The Minie balls, shot and shell rained upon us from every direction except the rear. Many men took this chance to leave the field entirely. Many officers were killed and wounded, and I am sorry and ashamed to say, left the field unhurt."
Almost 2,000 Confederate dead and wounded that have piled up on this road, Snyder says. The Sunken Road would forever be known as Bloody Lane, and it was a turning point in the battle.
"Once this thing collapses, the center of Lee's entire Army has been broken wide open," he says. "It is absolute desperation."
The Burnside Bridge
The battle shifted to the third and final phase, next to the waters of Antietam Creek.
Nearby, a stone bridge crosses the creek, and on the other side, there's a steep bluff, 100 feet straight up. Confederate soldiers were dug in and they had a perfect shot at any advancing troops below.
Antietam Park Ranger Keith Snyder describes it as fortress for the Confederates.
"The Union 9th Corps had to attack a castle," he says. "It's almost impossible to take this position."
The plan was to hit the Confederates from two sides. Some would cross the river downstream, while other federal troops would storm straight across the bridge. The bridge was a crucial crossing.
It took three Union assaults — and nearly three hours — to take the bridge. The final assault was led by Brig. Gen. Edward Ferraro, who led veteran soldiers from New York and Pennsylvania.
Ferraro had taken his men's whiskey ration because they got in a little trouble, so one of the soldiers said, "give us our whiskey and we'll take the bridge."
They did take the bridge, and later got a keg of whiskey. Thousands of union troops climbed the bluff, and then the real fight began against the main Confederate force.
Gen. Lee's reinforcements saved his forces, and the Union troops were pushed back to the bridge. But at the end of all the combat, 23,000 casualties and after 12 hours of fighting, Snyder says everyone was just about where they were when they started.
"The lines shifted [about] a hundred yards," he says.
It was basically a stalemate.
Late the next day, Gen. Robert E. Lee slipped his army across the Potomac. The Union commander, Gen. George McClellan, failed to pursue Lee. He was soon fired by President Lincoln.
The partial victory at Antietam, however, gave Lincoln what he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation that would free the slaves in the Confederate states the following January.
After Antietam, the war would no longer be just about preserving the Union.
I believe all those things to be true. There are nuances associated with those views that make it a complicated discussion at best. As I told someone the other day, it wasn’t just that Lincoln got elected, it was that the entire balance of power in Congress had swung the other way. Slave states knew their days were numbered one way or the other.
They made a bunch of wrong moves and played into Lincoln hands. At the same time, at one point northern support for the war was so low that even Lincoln probably would not have been able to continue with it had Confederates won one more major victory. That’s what Antietam was all about.
Antietam has always been one of my favorite battlefields to visit. I always enjoyed visiting Gettysburg, Antietam, and other sites during the winter months because you practically had them to yourself. The place that really got to me the first time I went there was Andersonville. I walked the perimeter of the wall, all the way around the camp, and as I walked, I felt an unbelievable sorrow and depression come over me, to the point that by the time I had gotten back to where I had started, I felt like bursting into tears, and had to fight the feeling off. It took several hours for those feelings to finally leave me, and it only happened after I’d left the park. I’ve been to many battlefields, but this was the first time I had ever been effected that severely.
Correct... and between us (whether or not we totally agree) we certainly know more about the thing than Mr. Dylan and THAT’S what I meant all long.
Based on letters I’ve read of Union soldiers, had they been told that the war was to free the slaves, they never would have enlisted. If Lincoln had declared emancipation early on, enlistment would have been much lower, and I believe the draft would have had to be enacted long before it was in 1863.
Amen!
I think you’re missing a key point. Just because slaves were “emancipated” by decree on paper, that did not make them free in reality.
Think about it.
In 1861, when Fremont issued his own emancipation of slaves in Missouri, Lincoln ordered him to revise the proclamation because he thought the Union would lose the southern states they had gained control of. Fremont refused, and was removed from command, and sent east. In 1864, he ran for President, backed by abolitionists. Besides Fremont, McClellan had thrown his hat in the ring, nominated by the Democrats. Lincoln firmly believed he would not be re-elected.
The following letter was widely published in several of the newspapers of New York State in late 1864. It was discovered in the 10/15/1864 issue of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph:
A Soldiers Letter
We have been favored by an old resident of Mabbettsville, in this county with the following interesting letter written to him by a nephew in the army, dated
Morris Island, S.C.
September 24, 1864
Dear Uncle:--Your good advice I will try and follow. I tell you, George B. McClellan is the only man, that can carry the old ship of State safely through; already we are drifting near the rock that will submerge the noble ship, and we need a man at the helm that will take her out into the broad ocean and gide her toward and into the port of Peace. I say there is too much negro about this matter; only look at the thousands of valuable lives that have been sacrificed for the black man, but my opinion is the South are not fighting for slavery now, but for their honor; but the present administration are continually harping on the negro. They say we are determined to break the bonds of every slave--or disunion God forbid I should ever have those feelings. No, no. The Union must and shall be preserved. Let the negro go. The white man must rule and reign. The noble and tried patriot to-day stands before the American people for the high position of President of these United States. His enemies will ask you what he has ever done to entitle him to occupy the presidential chair? He has done much. Why did he not do more? Simply because he was neveer supported by the Administration as he should have been; troops were withheld from him, when he called loudly for them. The great secret was, he was too popular with the people and soldier. The Republicans were afraid of him. But thank God he is as much beloved to-day as ever. The soldiers love him, and when their votes are counted you will find we will roll-up such a majority for General George B. McClellan that will astonish the country. He is our choice, and if you could have witnessed as I did the scene that transpired when he was relieved from command, it would have made your heart (though it were adament) melt to see the tears trickle down the cheek of the war worn veteran and the raw recruit when the news reached them, but I trust the day of deliverance is at hand. Dear Uncle, though you may have never engaged in politics before in your life, I implore you to put your shoulder to the wheel, and every chance you have don't neglect the opportunity of urging the claim of Little Mac upon your friends. Please tell them to stand by him. I hope Old Duchess [county] will roll up a large majority for him. I must close as it is near 10 o'clock at night. Please write me a few lines. Your nephew, Edwin A. Hoag.
Shaprsburg sits on a wide bend in the Potomac River, and, for whatever reason, it has always had a reputation for violence and the macabre. Long before the Civil War, the indians used to think it was haunted, and they avoided the place. Later, when the B&O Railroad and the canal came through, it became the site of deadly battles between Irish and German laborers who were competing for jobs. When that was settled, a cholora epidemic swept through and killed hundreds of the survivors, who are burried in a mass grave now lost to hisory. I’ve camped out on the C&O Towpath nearby the battlefield, and I know what the indians were talking about.
His Proclamation didn’t free any one. It proposed freeing slaves in the South only-no mention of the North. (Ths South had already seceded and Abe had no authority there.)
The 13th Amendment later abolished slavery whem ratified in the latter part of 1865.
The feelings you describe are similar to mine ... not malicious, but sadness, sorrow .... always brings me to tears. I tend to think that the suffering and horror of the Antietam battle were so awful that it’s taking a long, long time to dissipate and I’m not sure it ever will. I am convinced, as I said before, some souls still wander there.
There used to be a museum of sorts (visitor’s center) at The Wilderness battlefield park. In it was a soldier’s uniform - a teenager. It was SO tiny, almost like a childs - really hits home how much smaller folks in that day and age were. Anyway, the pant leg was cut/ripped off because he was shot in the leg. He survived that battle, but I was absolutely transfixed by that uniform when I saw it - for some reason, it became very real to me that a human being had been in those very clothes and what he must have gone through.
A fairly ‘famous’ battle took place on my great-great-grandparents farm in the Shenandoah Valley and a cousin was executed by Union soldiers .... the Civil War definitely figures in our family history and that is one reason it interests me so much.
Which battle was it? I've been to Fisher's Hill, Winchester I, II, and III (aka Opequan), Cedar Creek, New Market, and probably a few of the others. Haven't been there in many years though.
“Ths South had already seceded and Abe had no authority there.” LOL! If only it had been that simple. Abe didn’t see it that way nor did he recognize the Southern states secession, thus, in his mind, he did have the authority. It sucks, I know, but that’s the long and short of it.
Note the repeated use of the word “free” or “freed”.
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It was not a law passed by Congress. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states then in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at that time. The Proclamation immediately freed 50,000 slaves, with nearly all the rest (of the 3.1 million) freed as Union armies advanced. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not itself outlaw slavery, and did not make the ex-slaves (called freedmen) citizens.[1]
Nice letter. Note that he is one person arguing against what turned out to be the majority and that majority proves my point.
Antietam is definitely spooky.
“Why not have the decency to credit the US with the tremendous effort, sacrifice and near suicidal risk which Americans took to accomplish just such a noble task? “
More like the “noble task” to preserve the cotton tarrif’s. LOL!!
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