The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) 9/17/1862 Part II - Sep. 18th, 2004

http://www.texasrifles.com ^ | July 30, 1995 | Peter Carlson

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

The Battle at Antietam, Part II

'If you turn around, folks, you'll see a road like most of you have in your own home town,' says Jerry Holsworth.

Union Generals William French and Israel Richardson moved their divisions up this elongated ridge to assist Sedgwick but veered slightly to their left and directly into the center of the Confederate line under General Daniel Hill who was reinforced by General Richard Anderson. An 800 yard long sunken road, worn deep over the years by heavy grain wagons made an ideal defense for Hill's troops to aim at Union forces marching toward them in almost parade rank formation. The roar of gunfire was loud and long. Anderson's backup division of 3,400 troops was mostly destroyed. One Union officer later wrote: “For three hours and thirty minutes, the battle raged incessantly without either party giving way.” Over 5,500 men died in the area of Bloody Lane.

He points south, to a sunken dirt road set behind a snake-rail fence about 500 yards from the Dunkard Church. "See, back in the Civil War, folks didn't like to get caught in traffic any more than we do today. So what do you do? Why, you build a bypass, that's what you do. This is the Sharpsburg, Maryland, Civil War bypass. Over the years, it had worn down from heavy use, and folks called it the Sunken Road."

The Confederates were crouched in that Sunken Road. It made a good natural trench -- even better after the Rebels tore down William Roulette's fences and piled the rails in front of them. Dug in, they waited for the Federals to attack.


Remembering his assurance to General Lee that the Confederate center would be defended against the Federals, Colonel John B. Gordon in the oppressive heat near the noon hour stumbles from one flank of his fighting regiment to the other. With blood flowing from his wounds, he inspires the Sixth Alabama to fight on. As he inspects the determined Gray line, Colonel Gordon notices a wounded father holding his lifeless son and also the many devoted Southern soldiers ensuring that the promise to General Lee will be kept. He has sent a young messenger toward the right flank to remind the men of their duty to General Lee, but the messenger has fallen dead. Colonel Gordon knows if the message is to be delivered, he alone must take the risk. Surppressing his pain, he pushes on, knowing he can never abandon his men unless his will is stripped from him by a bullet. This is shortly to occur when a shot strikes him in the face, rending him unconscious. Nevertheless, his men will stand steadfast.

Just as the battle in the Cornfield died out, the attack came. Gen. William French's division was supposed to follow Sedgwick's troops to the Dunkard Church, but French's men got lost in the smoke and confusion and marched, shoulder to shoulder, right toward the Sunken Road. The Confederates waited silently, watching the Yankees march over the crest of a hill that ran parallel to the road about a hundred yards away -- first the American flags appeared, then their heads and shoulders. Finally, when the Rebels could see the bluecoats' belts, they rose and fired, blasting away 150 men in French's front line.

The Federals retreated, regrouped, then returned. Again the Rebels blew them away. Again they fell back. Again they attacked. Again they were driven back, suffering terrible casualties. Finally, after three hours of fighting and the arrival of reinforcements, the Yankees seized a little hill above the Rebels' right. From there, they could fire down into the Sunken Road, killing Confederates by the score. It was, one Union soldier said, like "shooting sheep in a pen."

The Rebels fled, leaving behind so many dead comrades that, as one Union soldier put it, a man could have walked the road from end to end without ever touching ground. The Sunken Road had earned a new nickname: Bloody Lane.



Now, the Confederate line was broken in its center. With one quick push, McClellan could have cut Lee's army in two, then destroyed it. He had fresh troops ready to go. But he never gave the order to attack.

"It would not be prudent," he explained.

A battered old school bus now painted the color of dried blood bounces into the parking lot and rumbles to a stop at Bloody Lane.

Inside are 20 members of the Civil War Society, a group based in Berryville, Va., that sponsors battlefield tours and seminars. These are hard-core buffs. They've come from Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, even Bermuda to ride canoes down Antietam Creek with historian Dennis Frye. Last night, Frye, who grew up near Antietam and has been studying it since was 4 years old, delivered a long, passionate lecture on the battle. This morning, he marched the group across the battlefield so he could explain exactly what happened to Sedgwick's division. Now, he has stopped the bus for a few words about Bloody Lane.

"These attacks were never ordered by McClellan," he says. "They were accidental. They happened because they couldn't see Sedgwick. They were lost."

Frye isn't thrilled to be explaining all this from the bus. "The only way you can understand a battlefield," he likes to say, "is to stand on the battlefield." But he's eager to get his students into canoes for their trip down the creek, so he has to cut this lecture short. He asks if there are any questions.

"How many casualties were there here at Bloody Lane?" asks Lawrence Donohoe.

About 3,000 for the Federals, Frye replies, more than 2,000 for the Confederates.

"In three hours?" Donohoe asks.

"Right," Frye replies.

"Incredible," Donohoe says.

He's a 68-year-old lawyer from Louisiana, a short, portly gentleman with glasses and a gray mustache. This is his second trip with the Civil War Society. He went to Gettysburg last year. His interest was sparked by Ken Burns's Civil War series on PBS. "All those old pictures intrigued me," he says.

Now, as the bus chugs down the road, Donohoe recalls the day some 60 years ago when he met his grandmother's uncle, who had fought for the Rebels at Vicksburg. "He was kind of a scary fellow. He wore dark clothes and had a long gray beard and a walking stick, and he was frightening to a little fella like me."


General Burnside

After the fall of Vicksburg, grandma's uncle got home to Louisiana by grabbing hold of a big log and floating across the Mississippi. Or so the family legend goes.

"I'm intrigued by the fact that: Here I am, alive, and I talked to a fellow who actually fought in that war 130 years ago," Donohoe says. "It's amazing."

"Don't forget your great-great-grandfather," says his son, Tim Donohoe, a psychologist and Civil War buff who has researched the family tree.

"My great-great-grandfather was killed at the Battle of Mansfield," Donohoe says, referring to the fighting along the Red River in Louisiana in 1864. "We tried to find his grave, but we couldn't . . . All we know is that we could trace him to the battle and he never came home. He was a young man who just never came home."

The bus stops at the Pry house, where McClellan made his headquarters during the battle. Frye wants to show the group what McClellan could and could not see from his command post.

Donohoe is talking about a book on Antietam that he tried, and failed, to read. It contained those Alexander Gardner photographs of the battlefield. "I would take a look at that book in bed," he says, "but I found I could not look at it without crying. I'd look at those faces and read the names of these kids 17, 18, 19 years old and I'd get tears in my eyes. I was touched by the fact that so many of these young kids got killed there. It's such a sad thing."

Donohoe shuffles off the bus with the other buffs and starts up the hill to the overlook where McClellan watched the carnage unfold in the valley below.

"This is quite an emotional thing for me right now," he says softly.

---

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on September 18:
1709 Dr Samuel Johnson writer (Boswell's tour guide)
1733 George Read lawyer/signed Declaration of Independence
1752 Adrien-Marie Legendre mathematician, worked on elliptic integrals
1779 Joseph Story Mass, US Supreme Court justice (1812-45)
1805 Robert Cowdin Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1874
1815 Henry Constantine Wayne Brig General (Confederate Army)
1818 Marcellus Augustus Stovall Brig General (Confederate Army)
1870 Clark Wissler anthropologist (American Indian)
1893 Arthur Benjamin Sydney Australia, composer (Jamaican Rumba)
1895 John G Diefenbaker Neustadt Ontario, 13th Canadian PM (C) (1957-63)
1905 Agnes De Mille NYC, choreographer (Oklahoma)
1905 Claudette Colbert Paris, actress (Lily Chauchoin, Arise My Love)
1905 Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Oakland Calif, actor (Jack Benny Show)
1905 Greta Garbo Stockholm (Ninotchka, Grand Hotel, Camille)
1920 Jack Warden Newark NJ, actor (NYPD, Crazy Like a Fox, Norby)
1928 Phyllis Kirk Syracuse NY, actress (Thin Man, Red Button's Show)
1932 Jack Mullaney Pitts Pa, actor (My Living Doll, It's About Time)
1932 Nikolai N Rukavishnikov cosmonaut (Soyuz 10, 16, 33)
1933 Jimmie Rodgers Wash, country singer (Honeycomb)
1933 Robert Blake Nutley NJ, (Baretta, Little Rascals, Coast to Coast)
1933 Roman Polanski Paris France, director (Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown)
1939 Fred Willard Ohio, comedian (Fernwood 2 Night, Real People)
1940 Frankie Avalon Phila, actor (Beach movies)/singer (Venus)
1944 Charles Lacy Veach Chicago Illinois, astronaut (STS 39)
1964 Holly Robinson Phila, actress (21 Jump Street)
1966 Spike vocal/guitar (Ian Spice Breathe, Flash Cadillac-R&R Forever)
1970 Michela Rocco Udine Italy, Miss Italy (1987)

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Deaths which occurred on September 18:
0031 Sejanus, Roman head of praetorian guard, executed
0096 Domitian, Roman emperor, dies
1137 Erik II Eimune, king of Denmark (1134-37), murdered
1180 Louis VII King of France, dies
1426 Hubert [Huybrecht] van Eyck, painter, dies
1792 Gottlieb August Spangenberg founder (Moravian Church in Amer), dies
1797 Louis-Lazare Hoche French revolutionary general, dies
1905 George MacDonald, Fantasy author (Princess & Curdie), dies at 80
1944 Paul Grubner German SS-captain, dies in battle in Arnhem
1944 Peter Waddy British major 1st Para Brigade, dies in battle in Arnhem
1959 Serial killer Harvey Glatman is executed in a California gas chamber
1961 Dag Hammarskjold UN Sect General, dies in an air crash over the Congo
1964 Sean O'Casey, Irish playwright (Playboy of Western World), dies at 84
1970 Jimi Hendrix rock guitarist, dies at 27 in London
1979 Gene Kelly sportscaster (Sportsreel), dies at 60
1996 Spiro Theodore Agnew, US VP (1969-73), dies at 77

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 BARBER ROBERT FRANKLIN SEATTLE WA.
[CRASH EXPLODE AT SEA NO SURV]
1965 VOGT LEONARD F. JR. CINCINNATI OH.
[CRASH EXPLODE AT SEA NO SURV]
1968 WOODS BRIAN D. SAN DIEGO CA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1969 CLINE CURTIS R. BURLINGTON MI.
1970 KEESEE BOBBY JOE
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
1437 Farmer uprising in Transsylvania
1679 New Hampshire becomes a county Massachusetts Bay Colony
1739 Treaty of Belgrade-Austria cedes Belgrade to Turks
1755 Fort Ticonderoga, NY opens
1758 James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War
1769 Boston Gazette reports 1st US piano (a spinet)
1793 Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building
1810 Chile declares independence from Spain (National Day)
1812 Fire in Moscow destroys 90% of houses & 1,000 churchs
1830 A horse beats the 1st US made locomotive (near Baltimore)
1838 Anti-Corn Law League established by Richard Cobden
1850 Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.
1851 NY Times starts publishing, at 2 cents a copy
1874 The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West
1888 Start of the Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Sign of Four"
1891 Harriet Maxwell Converse is became the first white woman to be made a Native-American chief.
1895 Booker T Washington delivers "Atlanta Compromise" address
1895 D.D. Palmer of Davenport, Iowa, becomes 1st chiropractor
1908 Cleve Indian Bob "Dusty" Rhoades no-hits Boston, 2-1
1911 Britain's 1st twin-engine airplane (Short S.39) test flown
1914 The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I
1914 Battle of Aisne ends with Germans beating French during WW I
1915 Boston Braves trounce St Louis Cardinals 20-1
1919 Hurricane tides 16 feet above normal drown 280 along Gulf Coast
1926 Hurricane hits Miami, kills 250
1927 Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air (16 radio stations)
1928 Cards beat Phillies for 20th of 22 games in 1928
1930 Enterprise (US) beats Shamrock V (England) in 15th America's Cup
1934 St Louis Brown Bobo Newsom loses no-hitter to Boston in 10, 2-1
1938 Chicago Bears beat Green Bay Packers 2-0
1938 Despite losing a double header, Yanks clinch pennant #10
1942 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized for radio service
1944 British submarine Tradewind torpedoes Junyo Maru: 5,600 killed
1945 1000 whites walk out of Gary Ind schools to protest integration
1947 USAF (US Air Force) forms
1947 The National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force into a National Military Establishment, went into effect.
1948 Ralph J Bunche confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine
1948 Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress.
1949 Baseball major league record 4 grand slams hit
1954 Cleveland Indians clinch AL pennant, beat Tigers (3-2)
1957 "Wagon Train" premiers
1959 Vanguard 3 launched into Earth orbit
1959 Serial killer Harvey Glatman is executed in a California gas chamber for murdering three young women in Los Angeles.
1960 Two thousand cheer Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.
1962 Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad admitted (105th-108th) to the UN
1963 Final game at Polo Grounds, 1,752 see Phillies beat Mets 5-1
1965 "Get Smart" premiers
1967 Intrepid (US) beats Dame Pattie (Aust) in 21st America's Cup
1969 Tiny Tim & Miss Vicky get engaged
1972 1st black NL umpire (Art Williams-Los Angeles vs San Diego)
1974 Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, 5,000 die
1975 Heiress/bank robber Patricia Campbell Hearst captured by FBI in SF
1977 Courageous (US) sweeps Australia (Aust) in 24th America's Cup
1977 US Voyager I takes 1st space photograph of Earth & Moon together
1979 Bolshoi Ballet dancers Leonid & Valentina Kozlov defect
1979 Steven Lachs, appointed Calif's 1st admittedly gay judge
1980 Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station
1982 Christian militia begin massacre of 600 Palestinians in Lebanon
1983 George Meegen completes 2,426d (19K mile) walk across Western Hemisphere
1983 New Orleans Saints 1st OT victory; beating Chic Bears 34-31
1987 Detroit Tiger Darrell Evans is 1st 40 year old to hit 30 HRs
1989 Hurricane Hugo causes extensive damage in Puerto Rico
1990 A 500 lb 6' Hershey Kiss is displayed at 1 Times Square, NYC
1990 Atlanta is chosen to host the 1996 (centennial) Summer Olympics
1991 Saying he was "pretty fed up," President Bush said he would send warplanes to escort U.N. helicopters searching for hidden Iraqi weapons if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continued to impede weapons inspectors.
1991 Space shuttle STS 48 (Discovery 14) lands
1994 Ken Burn's "Baseball" premieres on PBS
1996 The O.J. Simpson civil trial opened in Santa Monica, Calif.
2001 Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat and Prime Minister
Arial Sharon of Israel both ordered a halt of offensive actions and Israeli troops and tanks began pulling out of the areas around Jericho and Jenin.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Chile : Independence Day (1818)
US : Constitution Week
National Coasts Week (Day 5)
National Cholestrol Education and Awareness Month

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Religious Observances
Unification Church : Foundation Day
RC : Commemoration of St Joseph of Cupertino, confessor, patron saint of aviators.
Ang : Feast of Edward Bouverie Pusey, priest
Luth : Commemoration of Dag Hammarskj”ld, peacemaker

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Religious History
0052 Birth of Marcus Ulpius Trajan, Emperor of Rome from AD 98-117. He was the third Roman emperor to rule, after Nero (54-68) and Domitian (81-96), who persecuted the Early Church. During Trajan's reign, the apostolic father Ignatius of Antioch was martyred, in AD 117.
1765 Birth of Oliver Holden, early Puritan pastor and statesman. His love for music is demonstrated in the hymn tune CORONATION ("All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name"), which he composed in 1792 at the age of 27.
1924 A complete Bible translation of the Old and New Testaments was published by American Bible scholar and historian James Moffatt, 54. Moffatt's intention was to make available to the lay reader, in simple language, a current scholarly understanding of the biblical text.
1930 Death of New England music evangelist Carrie E. Rounsefell, 69. It was Rounsefell who composed the hymn tune MANCHESTER, to which we sing today, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go."
1962 The Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministers International was founded in Dallas by Gordon Lindsay, 56. In 1967, the name was changed to Christ for the Nations. It ministers today as a service agency supporting foreign missions through fund raising and literature distribution.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

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Things You Wouldn't Hear a Southerner Say...
No kids in the back of the pick-up, it's not safe.

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How Many Dogs Does it Take to Change Light Bulb?
English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? I'm sorry, but I don't see a light bulb!

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The Ultimate Scientific Dictionary...
Bacon, Roger:
An English friar who dabbled in science and made experimentation fashionable. Bacon was the first science popularizer to make it big on the banquet and talk-show circuit, and his books even outsold the fad diets of the period.

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What's Your Business Astrological Sign?...
CONSULTANT
Lacking any specific knowledge, you use acronyms to avoid revealing your utter lack of experience. You have convinced yourself that your "skills" are in demand and that you could get a higher paying job with any other organisation in a heartbeat. You will spend an eternity contemplating these career opportunities without ever taking direct action

[SAMWolf]

There was a 17th Virginia Cavalry at Antietam. Let us know what you find.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Manna!

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor. I've heard the Cherokee wolf story before. Liked it since i first heard it.

[SAMWolf]

1965 "Get Smart" premiers

[The Mayor]

Hi Sam

I agree, it's good.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. I'm innocent officer. Sometimes it's tempting to change what a writer has written but then we'd be just like SeeBS. :-)

[snippy_about_it]

:-)

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you and Good morning Mayor.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone!

[The Mayor]

mornin snippy

[Valin]

Please be patient God is not finished with me yet

Understatement of the day!! :-)

[stand watie]

GM, snippy!

duckie is back from her "cruise to Ivan & Jeanne"!!! she & "judyjudyjudy" had FUN.

free dixie,sw

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[snippy_about_it]

I want a total. Just how many new pairs of shoes did she come home with? :-)

[Soaring Feather]

Oh duckie is home??!!! Well, hot damn!!! Did she have a great time??

[Soaring Feather]

GM, snippy!!!!

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

[Soaring Feather]

GM, PE!!

How be ya today???

[Professional Engineer]

Amazing.