THE GREAT BATTLE: TERRIFIC FIGHTING FOR TWO DAYS; Probably the Decisive Struggle of the War (9/18/1862)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 9/18/1862

[Homer_J_Simpson]

THE BATTLE OF TUESDAY.

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Sept. 17.

It is credited here that a battle commenced yesterday afternoon in the vicinity of Sharpsburgh, continuing until 9 P.M.

Our army rested for the night where the last of yesterday's fight left them, and expected to renew the engagement at daylight this morning.

The above facts are gathered from non-official sources.

HARRISBURGH, Penn., Wednesday, Sept. 17.

The battle fought yesterday between Sharpsburgh and Middletown closed without a definite result.

No firing has been heard from Hagerstown since 4 o'clock yesterday.

Strangers coming into Hagerstown report that Gen. LONGSTREET had been killed, and that the rebels had been surrounded.

The stragglers also say that the ammunition and provisions of the rebels have run completely out.

TERRIFIC BATTLE FOUGHT YESTERDAY

REPORTS BY WAY OF HARRISBURGH

PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Sept. 17.

A dispatch from Harrisburgh to Gov. CURTIS, states that the battle at Sharpsburgh recommenced early this morning, and raged with the greatest fury up to 9:45 A.M.

Our latest advices from Harrisburgh, say that the State troops are pushing forward to the border.

PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Sept. 17.

The Bulletin has the following special dispatch:

HARRISBURGH, Wednesday, Sept. 17.

At Hagerstown, this morning, heavy firing was constantly heard in the direction of Sharpsburgh but no definite information from that quarter had been received. It is supposed that the rebels are making a most desperate push to reach Williamsport and get across the Potomac.

A Union scout, who left the battle-field at 11 o'clock this morning, has reached Hagerstown.

He reports that the fighting has been perfectly terrific.

The rebels have been desperately hard pressed by our army.

A force has been detached from the Union army to destroy the Williamsport Bridge, or to block the ferry over the Potomac at that point.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4094034/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Great Battle: Terrific Fighting for Two Days – 2
A Glorious Victory: Dreadful Carnage on Both Sides – 2-3
The Reverse at Harper’s Ferry: Three Days’ Hard Fighting – 3-8
Recapture of Harper’s Ferry: The Place in Possession of Gen. Burnside – 8
An Attack on Charleston: Preliminary Bombardment of Fort Sumter by our Gunboats – 8
Frightful Explosion: One of the Buildings of the United States Arsenal at Pittsburgh Blown Up – 8
Urgent Call for Surgeons – 8
News from Washington: Important Order to Medical Inspectors – 8-10
The Battle of Sunday: Further List of Killed and Wounded – 10
The Indian War: Fort Abercrombie Attacked – 10-11
Editorial: The Great Battle of the War – 11
Editorial: The Surrender of Harper’s Ferry – 11-12
Editorial: Drafting – North and South – 12
Editorial: Rebel Designs West of the Mississippi – 12-13
News of the Day: The Rebellion – 13
General News – 13
Amusements this Evening – 13

[glorgau]

The great mystery of that battle is “How the hell did McClellan manage to not win?”

My thoughts: It was plain lack of hustle.

[GreenLanternCorps]

Incompetence, delusions of grandeur, inability to pour urine out of a boot with instructions written on the heel…

[Seruzawa]

How many “decisive battles” did the NYT report between 1862 and 1865?

[nathanbedford]

“How the hell did McClellan manage to not win?”

He failed to win because he was out out fought by better generals, Lee, Jackson and Longstreet, he failed to win because AP Hill drove his men past exhaustion for 9 miles as the crow flies from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsburg with these underfed, barefoot, thirsty and exhausted rebels forced marching to the sound of guns, many passing out along the way.

All day Lee had masterfully defended his interior lines against overwhelming odds, shifting assets from one threatened point to another until the close of day when he was out of troops to shift and the Yankees were finally breaking through at Burnside Bridge.

The scene is as dramatic as it gets, Lee seeing dust to the south and east, asks a younger officer with younger eyes, " what is that dust there"? The officer replies, "Yankees." Lee points to another, dust column and repeats the question. The officer replies, "they are Confederates, sir."

Lee's only comment, "it's AP Hill come from Harpers Ferry." He might have added AP Hill is coming to the survival of the Army of Northern Virginia, to the survival of the Confederacy and AP Hill comes to end America's single bloodiest day. The exhausted men slammed into the Yankee flank to end the bloodletting.

Both Lee and Jackson fought at the ragged edge of disintegration throughout the day. Indeed, few American generals, perhaps George Washington among them, have so often been put to this ultimate crisis as have Lee and Jackson. His composure in the face of seemingly inevitable disaster measures Lee's greatness. It is his integrity, among so many other character attributes, that distinguish R E Lee and George Washington as America's greatest generals.

My ancestors were there defending Dunker church and the cornfield under Stonewall Jackson. This evening in 2022 on the anniversary of this battle, I expect to participate in a class reunion when the question that haunts is how would the revelation that my great-grandfather and great uncle were with Stonewall Jackson at the battle of Sharpsburg in America's single bloodiest day be received by these highly educated, woke classmates?

Of course, they will be polite, they will be no less polite about Philistine political opinions as are those who populate faculty lounges. But what of the atmospherics behind the politeness?

[rdl6989]

He feared Confederate reinforcements that didn’t exist. He estimated enemy strength to be three times what it really was. He could have taken Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign but we know how that ended.

[rdl6989]

I’ve always been fascinated by the story of the Lost Order. We may never know who lost it, or if it ever reached D. H. Hill. The courier was supposed to get a signature on the envelope and return it to Lee’s headquarters, but apparently the envelope was never signed for.

[Lazamataz]

y ancestors were there defending Dunker church and the cornfield under Stonewall Jackson

I just played this scenario in Ultimate General: Civil War. It is, of course, the Antietam scenario.

I not only defended all my victory points, but actually counterattacked after the Union spent themselves on my defenses. I believe I eliminated more than 90% of their army.

In the real world, this would have been equivalent to the Union Gettysburg victory and would have marked the end of the war, with the Confederacy victorious.

In this situation, I expect that by the 1920s, the issue of slavery would have been on the ballot in the South, as machines were more economical than slaves.

Then, the Confederacy and the Union would have fought together in WWII against the Axis forces.

After that, maybe in the 1950's or 1960's, I could see the Confederacy joining the Union either loosely, or more formally, reuniting our countries... and this time, the concept of successful secession would have been proven as viable, so the North might have minded its p's and q's a little better this time.

[nathanbedford]

I am old enough so that in my youth I knew men who knew veterans of the Civil War, all of whom fought under Jackson and Lee. This is during the years just past World War II expressed by a generation who had either fought in that war or lived through that war and who had done so as Americans no matter where they might reside in South.

It was an article of faith among these people, expressed to me more than once by my father and others, that the hand of God can be seen in the untimely death of Stonewall Jackson because it meant the ultimate loss by the Confederacy because he was not available to Lee at Gettysburg.

These Southerners saw God's hand in the affair to preserve the union to fight the second world war and to wage the Cold War.

[SES1066]

I am wondering if this successful escape from a near disaster in 1862 did not contribute to Lee’s over confidence 9 months later some 25 miles to the north at Gettysburg? Memories are a powerful influence upon future actions and this was a perfect example of how the CSA Army of Northern Virginia out thought the USA Army of the Potomac, even at the 1 to 2 odds of available forces.

Of course there were significant differences between the two forces at Gettysburg and Lee erred in mis-accounting for them. Longstreet was not Jackson and Meade was not as pathetic as McClellan. Also significant was how the Union (USA) forces were learning how to fight and to RESPECT Lee’s strategy & tactics. Also, the US Navy was successfully implementing the strangle plan that reduces the CSA’s support. They took the Port Royal Sound / Hilton Head in 1861 and then New Orleans in 1862 from the sea.

If Jackson had not been killed in May, it is a near certainty that he would have been Lee’s ‘Second in Command’ and the endless speculation of what would the advice be on that 3rd day? The charge to the center (Pickett) OR move the ~70 miles towards Washington for better ground? The CSA, in both these campaigns was seeking a “Battle of Saratoga” victory that MIGHT get a foreign alliance and aid for the Confederacy.

[nathanbedford]

If Jackson had survived to be on the scene at Gettysburg on the first day it is widely believed that he, unlike Jubal Early, would have immediately seized the heights and utterly transformed the course of the battle of Gettysburg so that there would have been no second or third days at Gettysburg that transpired the way they did.

Jackson's artillery would've played on the Yankee positions and made them untenable.

[SES1066]

I commend to your attention the 1961 (CW Centennial) book “If the South had won the Civil War” by MacKinlay Kantor, a noted CW historian and author. Your thoughts echo much of what he put into this book. One interesting variance was how the CSA conquered and incorporated Cuba as a state WHILE the Union failed to buy Alaska.

So there was a non-Castro Cuba but the Soviet Union had Alaska which was worse.

[nathanbedford]

Correction: it was general Ewell not general Early who failed to take Culps Hill the evening of the first day of the battle of Gettysburg

[BroJoeK]

"Yesterday" was the single bloodiest day in American history, Antietam / Sharpsburg, Maryland, an Union strategic victory:

Maryland 1861-'62 Engagements

Date	Engagement	Military Units	Losses	Victor
April 19	Baltimore Riots, MD	MA 6th, PA 26th vs secessionist crowd	4 Union soldiers killed, 12 civilians killed, hundreds wounded	USA
Jan 5-6, 1862	Hancock, MD	Union PA infantry (Lander ~2,000) & Confederate Stonewall Brigade (Jackson ~2,800)	~25 total	Inconclusive
Sep 14	South Mountain, MD	Union Army of the Potomac (McClellan, Burnside ~28,000), Confederate Army of N VA (RE Lee, AP Hill ~18,000)	Union 2,325-total (443-killed), Confederates 2,685-total (325-killed)	USA (fort held)
Sep 17	Antietam/Sharpsburg, MD	Union Army of the Potomac (McClellan, ~87,000), Confederate Army of N VA (RE Lee, ~38,000)	Union 12,140-total (2,108-killed), Confederates 7,752-total (1,018-killed)	USA

The war's 146th engagement, it increased total casualties to 223,000 including 26,000 killed in action.

Summary of Civil War Engagements as of September 17, 1862:
Engagements in Confederate states:

State	Union Victories	Confederate Victories	Inconclusive	Total Engagements
South Carolina	2	2	1	5
Virginia	7	25	11	43
North Carolina	5	1	0	6
Florida	1	0	0	1
Louisiana	3	1	0	4
Tennessee	5	3	1	9
Arkansas	4	0	1	5
Georgia	1	0	0	1
Mississippi	1	1	0	2
Total Engagements in CSA	29	33	14	76

Engagements in Union states/territories:

State	Union Victories	Confederate Victories	Inconclusive	Total Engagements
Maryland	3	0	1	4
West Virginia	9	3	2	14
Missouri	12	12	1	24
New Mexico	5	8	0	13
Kentucky	4	6	2	12
Oklahoma	0	3	0	3
Total Engagements in Union	33	31	6	70
Total Engagements to date	62	64	20	146

[Verginius Rufus]

The battle of Sharpsburg is better known as the battle of Antietam, of course. It's interesting that a Northern newspaper is calling the battle by the nearby town--usually when there are rival names for a battle, the Confederate name is for the nearby town and the federal name is for a nearby river.

I never saw any Civil War veterans in person but remember as a child reading a newspaper report that the last Confederate soldier had died. Many years ago I heard a talk by a 97-year-old man whose father had ridden with Nathan Bedford Forrest...his father was rather advanced in years when he was born.

[Reily]

Maudie White Hopkins (née Maudie Cecelia Acklin; December 7, 1914 – August 17, 2008) is believed to have been the oldest surviving widow of a Confederate soldier.

[rxh4n1]

I’ve always been fascinated by the story of the Lost Order. We may never know who lost it, or if it ever reached D. H. Hill. The courier was supposed to get a signature on the envelope and return it to Lee’s headquarters, but apparently the envelope was never signed for.

One theory is Stonewall Jackson made a copy for D.H. Hill, and Hill got that one. To me, it fits better because an officer on McClellan’s staff claimed to recognize the handwriting of Lee’s aide. Not getting a receipt, maybe Lee sent another courier to ask Hill if the order was received and Hill replies yes. It is the biggest mystery of the war.

[rdl6989]

One theory is Stonewall Jackson made a copy for D.H. Hill, and Hill got that one.

I think I read this theory in “Lee’s Lieutenants” by Douglas Southall Freeman. I highly recommend this three part series to any Civil War buff.