Scenes From Antietam: Burnside Bridge

The Burnside Bridge

The position of Toomb's Georgians looking down on Antietam Creek. The foliage was much less on the day of the battle and the sharpshooters had a clear view up and down the creek.

The Burnside Bridge. This would have been the view of Union soldiers as they attempted to cross the creek. You can see the imposing heights just beyond.

As the battle passed south through the afternoon, General Ambrose Burnside was ordered to take a bridge over the creek. He delayed however due to his observation that the opposite bank rose in a steep rise bristling with Confederates. Eventually after much prodding by his superior General George McClellan, Burnside moved his troops forward. They immediately came under a hail of fire from the heights including a brigade of Georgians under the command of Georgia's General Robert Toombs. Repulsed several times with staggering losses, the Union forces eventually gained the far bank and reinforcements began to push towards the town. At this critical moment, the division of A.P. Hill after a 17 mile forced march arrived from Harpers Ferry and pushed the Union forces back across the creek.

As dusk fell the battle staggered to an end with both forces back in nearly the same position as dawn that morning. No tactical gain had been achieved, but the following evening Lee retreated into Virginia and with the failure of the southern forces to penetrate northern soil, the respite gave President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to present the Emancipation Proclamation.

Scenes From Antietam: Bloody Lane

In The Bloody Lane. The view of Confederates as Union Soldiers charged the position.

The Bloody Lane towards the left end of the Confederate Line

The Bloody Lane towards the right end of the Confederate line

Fighting in the cornfield led General Robert E. Lee to strip his southern lines to re-inforce Jackson. This adjustment left his center woefully undermanned. Circumstance and the fog of war led the division of Union General French squarely into the line of Confederate General D.H. Hill. Hill's men were entrenched on a sunken farm road which forever after would be known as "Bloody Lane".

After several bloody repulses, partially delivered by the 6th Alabama led by future Georgia Governor John B. Gordon, the Union soldiers eventually took the position. However, General Hill rallied his troops on a ridge at the outskirts of town, delivered a counter attack which gave the Union commanders pause and the battle passed further south.

Scenes From Antietam: Dunker Church, West Woods, Cornfield

The Dunker Church. The West Woods is behind the building.

The Miller Cornfield as seen from near the Dunker Church

A fawn (lower right corner) nibbles some corn on the edge of the corn field.

From dawn until mid-morning, General Stonewall Jackson's corps fought three separate Union corps. The solidiers attacked and counter-attacked repeatedly in the area of the Dunker Church, the West Woods and the Miller Cornfield. The rain of bullets was so heavy some soldiers described the view of the cornfield as if a giant scythe had cut the stalks. At the end of the day both sides remained essentially where they began, only less the thousands of dead and wounded who now lay among the rows and around the church.

Scenes From The Road: Antietam National Battlefield

On September 17th, 1862, for the first time the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac clashed north of the the Potomac River. Near the small town of Sharpsburg, Md. the warriors of both causes struggled for hours over the rolling hills and farmland of Maryland. As dusk fell, over 23,000 men were dead, wounded or missing. To this day, the largest single day casualty count in U.S. history.

The following are a few pictures I took as I toured the battlefield. If you ever visit, even though relative to a site like Gettysburg, Antietam is small, take at least half a day. Even if the history doesn't grab your heart, the beauty of the park will. It is simply one of the prettiest national parks I've visited.