The terrain is gently rolling, but the surface can be slightly uneven, so good walking shoes are recommended. About half a mile on the other side of the Hagerstown Turnpike, the East Woods flanked the Smoketown Road, which joined the turnpike at an acute angle. The Tigers poured heavy fire into the 2nd and 6th Wisconsin, temporarily checking their advance. The distance between the blue and gray lines was less than 250 yards. In spite of his diminished ranks, Lee continues to skirmish with McClellan on September 18, while removing his wounded south of the Potomac River. One soldier of the 6th Wisconsin captured the essence of that horrific morning. It pitted Confederate General Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia against Union General George McClellans Army of the Potomac and was the culmination of Lees attempt to invade the north. As the Union troops came into view, more enemy guns under Colonel Stephen D. Lee, sited on the high ground opposite the Dunker Church, hit the attackers in their front. I was in the hospital in the afternoon, for it was then only that the wounded began to come in. North Woods 3. Sergeant E.J. Gen. Abner Doubledays 1st Division marched through the North Woods, Gibbons 4th Brigade, wearing its distinctive black hats, led the way on the right. By the evening of the 13th, it appeared to Lee that his risky plan was coming apart. The Cornfield 5. Stuarts cavalry was to remain east of South Mountain, screening the movements from the enemy. Gen. John Walkers division was to recross the Potomac and capture Loudoun Heights on the Virginia side of Harpers Ferry. The single, bloodiest day in American History had begun in earnest. Here is a paper, McClellan chirped, with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.. Take a virtual tour of Antietam Battlefield by clicking on the links for the battlefield tour stops below. A recently discovered 1864 map suggests the Cornfield's human cost was even greater than previously understood, among other new insights it reveals about the men who fought in and around David Millers deadly Cornfield. After a Union victory at the Battle of South Mountain and a Confederate victory at the Battle of Harpers Ferry, Confederate general Robert E. Lee opts to make one last stand in the hopes of salvaging his Maryland Campaign. Brigadier General David Ricketts 2nd Division, led by Brig. After more than an hour of fighting around the East Woods and the eastern half of the cornfield, the Federals had failed to press their slight advantage, feeding troops into the battle piecemeal as the Confederates had rushed reinforcements from the center to stem the Union tide. Lincoln hoped against hope that McClellan would finally bring Lee to decisive battle and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia once and for all. Excellent summaries of the individual skirmishes and the overall battle. At about 9:00 a.m. there was a short lull in the action. The little hillock would be his objective for the morning attack. Kop sent the order farther up the chain to Colonel Silas Colgrove, the commander of the 27th Indiana, who went directly to XII Corps headquarters, where Brig. I feel Gen. M. should have no problem.. General Robert E. Lee also recognized dissent among Lincolns ranks and hoped a battle victory on Union land might topple Lincolns congressional support and help secure the Confederacy once and for all. And keeping Confederates in their southern box enabled President Lincoln to finally release his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. Spotting Mansfields tightly packed troops, Hoods men fired on the 10th Maine Regiment. Lee knew that the capacity of the Union to wage war was virtually limitless. For nearly three hours, Hooker and Mansfield's Union forces battled Jackson's Confederates. Hills division charges into battle after a long march from Harpers Ferry, helping drive back the assault and saving the day for the Army of Northern Virginia. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Eventually he decided against another general assault. Had Franklin overwhelmed McLaws and marched hard for Harpers Ferry, he might have lifted the siege and checked any subsequent movement by Jackson. For generations of Americans, the word Antietam - the name of a bucolic stream in western Maryland - held the same sense of horror and carnage that the date 9/11 does for Americans today. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. McRae remembered: The most unutterable stampede occurred. Gen. Samuel Garland, mortally wounded just as he completed an assessment of the situation. Fewer know about the films opening scenes, which take Captain Shaw and the 2nd Massachusetts into the horror of the Cornfield. One of his junior officers observed a large Union formation moving to the right. The first Confederate shell struck the ranks of the 6th Wisconsin, killing two soldiers and wounding 11. In the afternoon, the third and final major assault by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's Ninth Corps pushes over a bullet-strewn stone bridge at Antietam Creek. When Lees order reached Jackson, he dutifully prepared another copy for Hill, his brother-in-law, unaware that Chilton had included Hill among those receiving the order directly from Lee. Stop the Largest Rezoning in Orange County History, Nineteenth-Century Geolocation: The Elliott Map of Antietam, Antietam: Federal Flank Attack at Dunker Church, Lessons From the Fallen: Depictions of the Dead of Antietam, Antietam | Burnside's Bridge | Sep 17, 1862. Elliot captured temporary markers left by Union burial details to record for later reburial teams the mass resting place of several regiments, both Union and Confederate. Gen. Truman Seymour, quickly reached the edge of the East Woods at the Smoketown Road. The ensuing delay was costly, and before the brigades could rally it was too late to help Duryea. But Antietam eclipses even this modern tragedy as America's single bloodiest day, on which 22,000 men became casualties in a war to determine our nation's future. The Cornfield: Antietam's Bloody Turning Point tells for the first time the full story of the exciting struggle to control "the Cornfield," the action on which the costly battle of Antietam turned, in a thorough yet readable narrative. A collapse of the Confederate left appeared imminent. And it gave President Abraham Lincoln enough of a military victory to go forward with the Emancipation Proclamation . It explains what happened in Antietam's Cornfield and why. Lee invaded Maryland in September 1862 with a full agenda. Mansfield was carried from the field and died within hours. The dejected Lee ordered Jackson to march to Shepherdstown to cover the withdrawal of Longstreets force. Gen. George G. Meades 3rd Division led the way as flank protection, and one of its regiments, the 13th Pennsylvania, hearty deer hunters from the western woodlands known as the Bucktails, was hit particularly hard. Stuarts cavalry screened the Confederate left while D.H. Hills five brigades were funneled into the center of the Confederate line and filed into the sunken road. Antietam on the Web. She saw the desperation of the wounded and dying and did what she could to aid and comfort them. As Longstreets men began trudging toward Sharpsburg, Lee reversed his earlier order. Doctors at the scene are overwhelmed. Six generals were killed or mortally wounded, three from the Union army and three Confederates. This further isolated the Confederacy and made it harder for them to re-supply their troops and citizens. Miller Farm, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. A mile east of the town of Sharpsburg, the creek meanders through the hilly but open countryside, good for long-range artillery and moving infantry. From that moment on, John Cook worked a gun alongside the trained artillerymen to face down the onslaught of Woffords attacking Texas Brigade. Facing threats in front and right, as the enemy advanced the Georgians suddenly realized they were in a tremendous Union vise that was about to literally squeeze the regiment to death. One of my ancestors, Robert W. Austin of . This 24-acre cornfield, owned by D.R. It was one of those marvelous flights that beggar explanation or description.. For more than three hours, fewer than 500 Confederate soldiers held Lower Bridge against multiple assaults by Union General Ambrose Burnsides Ninth Corps. Adding insult to injury, Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. It was an act that earned John Cookwho had turned fifteen years old barely a month beforethe Medal of Honor. Inconclusive. Reinforcements from Longstreet tried to stem the tide but were driven back. On September 15, Lee positions his men behind the creek and waits for McClellan to arrive. The Cornfield Trail at Antietam National Battlefield. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NAMING THE EASTERN SIERRA By Marguerite Sowaal Dirty Sock to Bloody Canyon 1985 at the best online prices at eBay! Meanwhile, Jackson got the remainder of his command on the road toward Sharpsburg. Greene rode forward and warned the New Yorkers to slow down before they outran covering artillery. Commented one civilian: They were the dirtiest men I ever saw. THE BATTLE OF Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, remains America's bloodiest single day. The smoke, heat and roar of battle deluged the senses, obliterating all rational thought. Antietam's Cornfield - a blog dedicated to preserving and sharing stories of the events of 17 September 1862 -, This page was last edited on 14 February 2023, at 16:47. Despite having the advantage, he allowed Lee to retreat without resistance. Brig. As night fell, thousands of bodies littered the sprawling Antietam battlefield and both sides regrouped and claimed their dead and wounded. The Civil War was in the midst of its second costly year, and the Union armies had yet to win a significant victory in the eastern theater. Hooker ordered four batteries to unlimber. The Cornfield Trail loops around and through the Bloody Cornfield where 8,000 men were killed, wounded or went missing is the ferocious battle for two hours on the morning of September 17. Alfred Colquitt and Robert Rodes fought desperately to hold the pass. The White House was a somber place in the summer of 1862. The fighting in the southwest corner of the cornfield became desperate. We cannot afford to be idle.. Gen. John Bell Hood went into line on the fringe of the West Woods, a stretch of trees 300 yards wide to the west of the Hagerstown Turnpike, the major thoroughfare that led into Sharpsburg. The cannon fire literally blew men apart. To the west, Doubledays division made better progress. The Union and Confederates fought in the cornfield, many being wounded. Even before the nine-day trek, Lincoln had all but given up on the man who had once been christened Young Napoleon for his military promise. Lieutenant James Wilson, a member of McClellans staff, observed, Nobody seemed to be in a hurry. For nearly three hours, Hooker and Mansfield's Union forces battled Jackson's Confederates. Williams sent the order to McClellan with a note that read: I enclose a Special Order of Gen. Lee commanding Rebel forces which was found on the field where my corps is encamped. Nine Union batteries on the ridge behind the Poffenberger farm replied. Lincoln and McClellan had a tortured relationship. Pvt. Battle of Antietam: Clash in the Cornfield America's bloodiest day began with heavy fighting that ravaged a previously innocuous cornfield in western Maryland. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Cornfield: Antietams Bloody Tur., Welker, David A New Book at the best online prices at eBay! 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.'' Buy new: $40.64. Rifles are shot to pieces in the hands of the soldiers, canteens and haversacks are riddled by bullets, the dead and wounded go down in scores, he wrote. Badly needed supplies are brought in by nurse Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield. During the night, both armies tend their wounded and consolidate their lines. Weeks later, he names Burnside commander of the Army of the Potomac. Artillery to dislodge the Rebels to his front. A total of 23,000 men were killed, wounded or captured; 3650 soldiers were killed - 2100 Unionists and 1550 Confederates. It was finalized on the afternoon of the 16th, a full day after McClellan had arrived on the scene. In August of 2021, the Park Service rerouted the Cornfield Trail to include more of East Woods and . Colonel Thomas Munford led a brigade of cavalry, bloodied from the fighting at South Mountain, to cover the fords south of the lower bridge. About noon on the 16th, Jackson rode up to find Lee and Longstreet observing the Union troops across the creek. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.The Battle of Antietam. Mansfield spluttered, Yes, yes, you are right. Precisely at that moment a bullet hit the 58-year-old general squarely in the chest. In a superb organizational effort lasting just four days, he completed the assimilation of units from the former Army of Virginia into the Army of the Potomac. There are more than 22,000 casualties at the Battle of Antietam. The ordeal on the Confederate left was not yet over. Lee detailed his complex plan in Special Orders No. The First American President: Setting the Precedent, African Americans During the Revolutionary War, Help Save 820 Acres at Five Virginia Battlefields, Save 343 Acres at FIVE Battlefields in FOUR Western Theater States, Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Phase Three of Gaines Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign, An Unparalleled Preservation Opportunity at Gettysburg Battlefield. Unable to remain in command, he left the scene convinced that Union forces were poised to drive the Confederates into the Potomac. The Proclamation, which vows to free the slaves of all states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, will forever change the course of the war and the nation by marrying the Union cause with an attack on the institution of slavery. A military victory in the North, Lee reasoned, would all but assure recognition of the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation. It was obvious to the Union veterans that the area had recently served as a Rebel bivouac. The Cornfield changed hands again and again as both sides attacked and counterattacked. Simultaneously, the hostile battle lines opened a tremendous fire upon each other. Hesitant to support a pro-slavery regime, England and France decline to form an alliance with the Confederate States of America. "Battle of Antietam: Carnage in a Cornfield", "cwla - Antietam Modern Image Gallery 11 Frame", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miller%27s_Cornfield&oldid=1139340604, Battlefields of the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. I will have a battery here to help you.. Gen. Alpheus Williams and Colonel Samuel Pittman read the document with great interest. 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