18. Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland

               Hello and welcome back to our blog.  In this installment, we will be visiting the location of the single bloodiest day in U.S. history, Antietam National Battlefield.

 

Entrance Sign

BACKGROUND:

               In the late summer of 1862, the Confederacy seemed to have the upper hand in the Civil War following a string of Union defeats in Virginia.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee decided to press his advantage and stage an incursion into the North.  Meanwhile in Washington D.C., President Lincoln was desperate for a win.  A decree, the Emancipation Proclamation which would free the slaves of all States in rebellion and whose announcement would clearly define the goals of the war, lay languishing on his desk.  The Proclamation would be useless unless the Union could prove it could defeat the Confederates.

               In September, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac river into Maryland.  The Union Army, under the command of George B. McClellan, who had been humiliated in combat by Lee around Richmond fired from command of the army by Lincoln once before already, raced to meet them.  The two armies engaged just outside the small town of Sharpsburg along the banks of the Antietam Creek.

               With the Confederates deployed on the western side of the creek, it was up to the Union to attack and drive the Confederates back into southern territory.  On the morning of September 17^th, Union forces assaulted the Confederate line north of Sharpsburg.  The first attack struck the left of the Confederate line.  Fighting raged across several wooded areas and a cornfield.  For hours both sides attacked and counterattacked, and by the end of the day, the cornfield, like so many of the men who charged across it, had been completely cut down.

The cornfield today, with a monument to the Vermont contingent of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooter Regiment in the foreground.

               McClellan then shifted his attack against the center of the Confederate line.  Here however, the Confederates lay in wait along a sunken road which formed a makeshift trench where they could take cover from enemy fire.  Wave after wave of Union troops attacked the road, including the new “Irish Brigade,” but all were repulsed with mounting casualties until at last the road was flanked by a Union unit and suddenly it became a deathtrap for the Confederates.  The road was taken at great cost, and was known thereafter as “Bloody Lane.”

"Bloody Lane" as seen from a 1920s Army observation tower.  The sunken lane lies between the two fences, and Union forces attacked from the right of the photo.

               The battle now entered its third phase with the Union attack now shifting once again to the right of the Confederate line.  Here Union troops had not crossed Antietam Creek yet, and found their way across a single narrow bridge blocked by Confederates on the bluff above it.  The Union commander of the troops attacking in this sector, Ambrose Burnside (namesake of term “sideburns”) stubbornly kept sending his men across the narrow bridge despite the creek only being knee deep.  Union troops were needlessly slaughtered, though they eventually took the bridge.  Burnside then attacked up the bluff and threw the Confederates back.  It looked as though Lee and his army might be on the verge of destruction when suddenly, fresh Confederate reinforcements who had marched twenty miles from Harpers Ferry crashed into the Union advance.

Burnside Bridge as seen from the Confederate position atop the bluff.

               The day ended in a tactical stalemate, but Lee withdrew into Virginia ending his invasion of the North.  Lincoln used his withdrawal as enough of a victory to justify issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.  Antietam had however become the bloodiest day in American history, with more Americans killed than either Pearl Harbor, D-Day, or 9/11, and more casualties than the entirety of the country’s previous conflict, the Mexican War, alone.  The high casualty total was a mitigating factor in Lincoln firing McClellan (again), and replacing him with Ambrose Burnside, who would lead the Army of the Potomac to disaster in December at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Map of Antietam National Battlefield.  The areas shaded in green are the lands preserved by the National Park Service.  The colored arrows represent the different attacks staged during the fighting.  The red highlights stand for important battlefield locations (Dunker Church, Bloody Lane, and Burnside Bridge).

THE BATTLEFIELD:

               Antietam National Battlefield preserves tracts of land over which the battle of Antietam was fought in 1862.  The area around Antietam is still very rural, despite being relatively close to the District of Columbia metro area.  The town of Sharpsburg is still small and few houses encroach on the battlefield.  The land is virtually in the same condition as it was in 1862.  Many memorials to both sides dot the park, but the battlefield is not saturated with them, unlike Gettysburg.

               The visitor center is located near the center of the battlefield, across the road from the Dunker Church, a chapel made famous from a photo of Confederate artillerymen lying dead in front of it.  The visitor center includes a gallery with artifacts from the battle, a short film, a gift shop, and an observation deck.

Cannon placed in the positions they would have occupied during the battle at the center of the Confederate line with the famous Dunker Church in the background.

               To the North is the famous cornfield, now fully regrown and managed every year as part of the battlefield.  Toward the center of the battlefield, past the Dunker Church and the visitor center is “Bloody Lane,” now no longer an actual road.  At the end of the lane is a stone observation tower built by the army in the 1920s when they were performing training exercises in the area, which provides a superb view of the surrounding terrain.  Farther to the south is Burnside Bridge, closed to road traffic but still intact after over one hundred and fifty years, and Antietam National Cemetery, where many of the dead from the battle are interred.  Separated from the main portion of the battlefield is the Pry House, which served as Union headquarters during the battle.  The house is on a hill above Antietam Creek, two miles distant from the visitor center, and the northern and center sections of the battlefield can be seen from it.  The house now contains a museum on Civil War medical practices.

 

The Pry House, which served as Union Headquarters

TRAVEL TIPS:

               Antietam National Battlefield is located roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes south of Hagerstown, Maryland, and about an hour and a half drive from Washington D.C.  It is recommended to come in warmer months in order to view the battlefield as closely as it would have appeared in 1862.  The brochure map includes a driving tour around the battlefield that includes the landscape’s most famous landmarks.  Most park facilities are handicapped accessible, with the notable exception of the observation tower.  The battlefield and visitor center are open year-round with major holiday exceptions from 9am to 5pm, and a small fee is required for entry to the park.  Ranger programs are scheduled regularly and reenactor groups are a common sight.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

The bell of the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Antietam on display outside the visitor center.

The Maryland Monument near the Dunker Church and visitor center.  Maryland, a slave state that remained loyal to Union, tragically had native sons fighting for both sides.

The distant view of the battlefield from the Pry House.  The white speck at the center of the photo is the visitor center two miles away.

Artifacts from both Union and Confederate participants on display in the visitor center.

A group of Confederate reenactors conducts an artillery demonstration near the Maryland Monument.