when was the battle of antietam

Based on events such as the Baltimore riots in the spring of 1861 and the fact that President Lincoln had to pass through the city in disguise en route to his inauguration, Confederate leaders assumed that Maryland would welcome the Confederate forces warmly. Gen. Jacob D. Cox exercised operational command during the battle), consisted of the divisions of: The XII Corps, under Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Mansfield, consisted of the divisions of: The Cavalry Division of Brig. A copy of the order having been lost, was recovered by Union soldiers of the 27th Indiana on the Best Farm in Maryland. Instead, McClellans half-hearted approach allowed Lee to hold ground by shifting forces from threat to threat. First Previous Next Last Download This Dataset Casualties by Phase of Battle As the battle unfolded, some areas proved particularly deadly as the opposing armies contested places including the cornfield, the sunken road, and Burnside Bridge over the course of the day. Not only was McClellan misinformed, his other commanding officers, who were present at the line of battle, also noted extremely large numbers from 100,000 to 130,000. Jones had only about 3,000 men and 12 guns available to meet Burnside. Share to Google Classroom Added by 43 Educators Robert E. Lee issued Special Order 191 during the Maryland campaign, before the Battle of Antietam. The mostly Irish immigrants lost 540 men to heavy volleys before they were ordered to withdraw.[57]. Dr. James Dunn, a surgeon at the Battle of Antietam lauded her efforts: The rattle of 150,000 muskets, and the fearful thunder of over 200 cannon, told us that the great battle of Antietam had commenced. "Union deadConfederate Dead'.". He had defeated the Union Army on the Virginia peninsula in May, and again at the second battle of Bull Run in August. At dawn on September 17, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank. Enduring heavy fire from a range of 250 yards (230m) and gaining no advantage because of a lack of reinforcements, Durye ordered a withdrawal. Doctors at the scene are overwhelmed. Gen. Lee used this time to bolster his right flank. "Confederate soldier who after being wounded had evidently dragged himself to a little ravine on the hillside where he died". abraham lincoln. The bridge was dominated by a 100-foot (30 m) high wooded bluff on the west bank, strewn with boulders from an old quarry, making infantry and sharpshooter fire from good covered positions a dangerous impediment to crossing. Reluctantly, Richardson ordered his division to fall back to north of the ridge facing the sunken road. Farther to the Union left, Rodman's division advanced toward Harpers Ferry Road. After that, Lee moves northward. This allowed them to get enfilade fire into the Confederate line, turning it into a deadly trap. I was in the hospital in the afternoon, for it was then only that the wounded began to come in. Battle of Antietam | Summary & Significance | Britannica He could not understand why his general was not on the tail of the Confederates, and he went to McClellans headquarters at Antietam to light a fire under him. Gen. William N. Pendleton. This war was fought between General George McClellan of the North and General Robert E. Lee of the South. This breach of the line forced Hood and his men, outnumbered, to regroup in the West Woods, where they had started the day. Gen. John C. Caldwell into battle around noon (after being told that Caldwell was in the rear, behind a haystack), and finally the tide turned. Jones's badly outnumbered force with infantry units from the left. He sent a succession of couriers to motivate Burnside to move forward. Reinforcements were arriving on both sides, and by 10:30a.m. Robert E. Lee sent his final reserve divisionsome 3,400 men under Maj. Gen. Richard H. Andersonto bolster Hill's line and extend it to the right, preparing an attack that would envelop French's left flank. Site identified by Frassanito, pp. However, in a strategic sense, despite being a tactical draw, Antietam is considered a turning point of the war and a victory for the Union because it ended Lee's strategic campaign (his first invasion of Union territory). 105108. The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War and is considered one of the major turning points of the war. Antietam: Forging the modern military medicine system As Walker's men forced Seymour's back, aided by Lee's artillery fire, Ricketts's division entered the Cornfield, also to be torn up by artillery. After receiving punishing fire for 15 minutes, the Connecticut men withdrew with 139 casualties, one-third of their strength, including their commander, Col. Henry W. Kingsbury, who was fatally wounded. The Antietam National Battlefield now consists of 2,743 acres. They also broke and ran, leaving the 8th Connecticut far out in advance and isolated. Hill with one division. Updated on March 31, 2019. [99][100] They were featured in a 1984 Time-Life book entitled The Bloodiest Day: The Battle of Antietam.[101]. Gen. Truman Seymour, began advancing through the East Woods and exchanged fire with Col. James Walker's brigade of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina troops. For other uses, see, Confederate soldiers on the Antietam battlefield as they fell inside the fence on the Hagerstown road, September 1862 by Alexander Gardner, Confederate horses lay dead and artillery caissons destroyed on Antietam battlefield. Stonewall Jackson - Wikipedia After an improvised truce for both sides to recover and exchange their wounded, Lee's forces began withdrawing across the Potomac that evening to return to Virginia. "Contrast: Federal buried, rebel unburied, where they fell at the Battle of Antietam", The Battle of Antietam, by Kurz and Allison (1878), depicting the scene of action at Burnside's Bridge. Antietam Battle Facts and Summary | American Battlefield Trust Gen. Samuel Sturgis's division, the rest of the Kanawha Division and Brig. Antietam ranks fifth in terms of total casualties in Civil War battles, falling behind Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania Court House. After he failed to attack Lees depleted troops as they fled Sharpsburg on September 18, he wrote to his wife, Ellen, that, ''those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly & that it was a masterpiece of art.'' At 3:40p.m., Brig. There are 4,776 Union remains (1,836 or 38% are unknown) buried here from the Battle of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other action in Maryland. Although he was a veteran of 40 years' service, he had never led large numbers of soldiers in combat. September 16 - 18, 1862 The Battle of Antietam Sharpsburg After his success at Second Manassas, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north across the Potomac River on an invasion of Maryland in early September of 1862. The lower bridge (which would soon be named Burnside Bridge) was dominated by Confederate positions on the bluffs overlooking it. Lincoln called the generals condition a bad case of the slows., Though well-liked by his men, McClellan could be vain and boastful. This made it difficult for him to control the separate corps. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022. Antietam - The Battle of Antietam: A Two Fold Turning Point - Weebly Jefferson County, WV|Sep 12-15, 1862, Frederick County and Washington County, MD|Sep 14, 1862, Washington County, MD|Sep 16-18, 1862, Town of Shepherdstown, WV|Sep 19-20, 1862, Washington County, MD | September 17, 1862. General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck wrote in his official report, "The long inactivity of so large an army in the face of a defeated foe, and during the most favorable season for rapid movements and a vigorous campaign, was a matter of great disappointment and regret. They also fell prey to the Confederate sharpshooters and artillery, and their attack fell apart. History Engine 3.0 + Leaflet The Battle of Antietam The Civil War was not just one battle that cut the connecting fibers between the North and the South, but a collection of micro battles, that, as a whole made up the Civil War. Previously, Burnside had commanded a wing that included both the I and IX Corps and now he was responsible only for the IX Corps. While the Battle of Antietam is considered a tactical draw, President Lincoln claims a strategic victory. Both countries had already abolished slavery, and the public would not have tolerated the government militarily supporting a sovereignty upholding the ideals of slavery. Meanwhile, towards the center of the battlefield, Union assaults against the Sunken Road pierce the Confederate center after a terrible struggle for this key defensive position. The 2nd Division of the XII Corps, under George Sears Greene, however, broke through McRae's men, who fled under the mistaken belief that they were about to be trapped by a flanking attack. The Civil War Soldiers' Views of the Battle of Antietam : CSPAN2 : July Sedgwick's division of 5,400 men was the first to ford the Antietam, and they entered the East Woods with the intention of turning left and forcing the Confederates south into the assault of Ambrose Burnside's IX Corps. James Hope of the 2nd Vermont Infantry, a professional artist, painted five large murals based on battlefield scenes he had sketched during the Battle of Antietam. . [76], The Federals were completely unaware that 3,000 new men would be facing them. But the upper bridge was 2 miles (3km) east of the Confederate guns and could be crossed safely. [53], French confronted D.H. Hill's division. [43] Maj. Rufus Dawes, who assumed command of Iron Brigade's 6th Wisconsin Regiment during the battle, later compared the fighting around the Hagerstown Turnpike with the stone wall at Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania's "Bloody Angle", and the slaughter pen of Cold Harbor, insisting that "the Antietam Turnpike surpassed them all in manifest evidence of slaughter. Implicitly refusing to give up his higher authority, Burnside treated first Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno (killed at South Mountain) and then Brig. Although most histories, including the. The Battle of Antietam | facts of civil war - Old Dominion University The order indicated that Lee had divided his army and dispersed portions geographically (to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Hagerstown, Maryland), thus making each subject to isolation and defeat if McClellan could move quickly enough. As Caldwell's brigade advanced around the right flank of the Confederates, Col. Francis C. Barlow and 350 men of the 61st and 64th New York saw a weak point in the line and seized a knoll commanding the sunken road. After two hours and 2,500 casualties, they were back where they started. Questions Tips & Thanks Want to join the conversation? McClellan's plan called for Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the IX Corps to conduct a diversionary attack in support of Hooker's I Corps, hoping to draw Confederate attention away from the intended main attack in the north. Learn About the Battle [95], On September 19, 1862, two days after the Battle of Antietam, Mathew Brady sent photographer Alexander Gardner and his assistant James Gibson[96] to photograph the carnage. [9] Confederate casualties were 10,316 with 1,547 dead. Antietam enabled the Union to repel the first Confederate invasion of the North. [citation needed], Burnside had four divisions (12,500 troops) and 50 guns east of Antietam Creek. [a] The battle was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. --History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Maps French's division suffered 1,750 casualties (of his 5,700 men) in under an hour.[55]. The Union order of battle is listed separately. Civil War Breaks Out Like many people at the time, McClellan opposed the outright abolition of slavery, though he was committed to the preservation of the Union. In 1979, the National Park Service purchased and restored them. Hill's Light Division, currently embarked on an exhausting 17 mile (27km) march from Harpers Ferry. Subscribe to the American Battlefield Trust's quarterly email series of curated stories for the curious-minded sort! Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field armylevel engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton consisted of the brigades of Maj. Charles J. Whiting and Cols. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up. Instead, he counted on the arrival of A.P. But at the same time, the 4,000 men of Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson's division arrived on French's left. John F. Farnsworth, Richard H. Rush, Andrew T. McReynolds, and Benjamin F. Davis. By. Battle of Antietam Begins - HISTORY Conservation work undertaken by Antietam National Battlefield and private groups, has earned Antietam a reputation as one of the nation's best preserved Civil War battlefields. Hill commanded about 2,500 men, less than half the number under French, and three of his five brigades had been torn up during the morning combat. [63], Later in the day, the commander of the other reserve unit near the center, the V Corps, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter, heard recommendations from Maj. Gen. George Sykes, commanding his 2nd Division, that another attack be made in the center, an idea that intrigued McClellan. From a tactical standpoint, the battle was somewhat inconclusive; the Union army successfully repelled the Confederate invasion but suffered heavier casualties and failed to defeat Lee's army outright. Confederate troops streamed toward Sharpsburg, their line lost. This represented another two-hour delay. They fought in the area between the Cornfield in the West Woods, but soon Walker's men were forced back by two brigades of Greene's division, and the Federal troops seized some ground in the West Woods. Unfortunately for the Union, this temporal advantage in the center is not followed up with further advances and eventually the Union defenders must abandon their position. Site identified by Frassanito, pp. But the loss of a pair of his orders, which had been found by Union privates, led to his plans being revealed. Jackson defended the left (northern) flank, anchored on the Potomac, Longstreet the right (southern) flank, anchored on the Antietam, a line that was about 4 miles (6km) long. The Battle of Antietam: The Creation of Artillery Hell - OCLC Benjamin F. Cook of the 12th Massachusetts Infantry, on the attack by the Louisiana Tigers at the Cornfield[38]. declaration of independence. The Texans attacked with particular ferocity because as they were called from their reserve position they were forced to interrupt the first hot breakfast they had had in days. Antietam Confederate order of battle. The president relieved McClellan of his duties on November 7 and appointed Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside to be his replacement. Gen. John Gibbon's 4th Brigade of Doubleday's division (recently named the Iron Brigade) began advancing down and astride the turnpike, into the cornfield, and in the West Woods, pushing aside Jackson's men.
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