ANTIETAM
NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD, SHARPSBURG MARYLAND ANTIETAM BATTLEFIELD: Located near the town of Shapsburg Maryland,
Antietam is a look into the past. It remains relatively unchanged from how it appeared during the civil war. There
are no shops and hotels everywhere, and you get the feeling that you are back in time. IN September of 1862, General
Lee had pushed into Maryland to bring the war to the north. He was in need of supplies and men and thought he could
find both in Maryland. Union troops stationed near Frederick found a set of cigars wrapped in a letter.
That letter was the "lost order 191" which was a copy of Lee's battle plan and troop deployment. Dawn approached slowly through
the fog on September 17, 1862. As soldiers tried to wipe away the dampness,
cannons began to roar and sheets of flame burst forth from hundreds of rifles, opening a twelve hour tempest that swept across the rolling farm fields in western Maryland. A clash between North and South that changed the course of the Civil War, helped free over four million Americans, devastated Sharpsburg, and still ranks as the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. The Battle of Antietam was the culmination of the Maryland Campaign of 1862,
the first invasion of the North by Confederate General Robert
E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. In Kentucky and Missouri,
Southern armies were also advancing as the tide of war flowed north. After Lee’s dramatic victory at the Second Battle of Manassas during the last two days of August, he wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that “we cannot afford to be idle.”
Lee wanted to keep the offensive and secure Southern independence
through victory in the North; influence the fall mid-term elections; obtain much needed supplies; move the war out of Virginia, possibly into Pennsylvania; and to liberate Maryland, a Union state, but a slave-holding border state divided in its
sympathies. After splashing across the Potomac
River and arriving in Frederick, Lee boldly divided his army to capture
the Union garrison stationed at Harpers Ferry. Gateway to the Shenandoah Valley, Harpers Ferry was a vital location on the Confederate lines of supply and communication back to Virginia. The 12,000 Union soldiers at Harpers Ferry threatened Lee’s link south.
Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and about half
of the army were sent to capture Harpers Ferry. The rest of the Confederates moved north and west toward South Mountain and Hagerstown, Maryland. Back in Washington D.C., President Abraham Lincoln turned to Major General George B. McClellan to protect the capital and respond to the invasion. McClellan quickly reorganized the demoralized Army of the Potomac and advanced towards Lee. The armies first clashed on South Mountain where on September 14 the Confederates tried unsuccessfully to block the Federals at three mountain passes – Turner’s, Fox’s and Crampton’s Gaps. Following the Confederate retreat from South Mountain, Lee considered returning
to Virginia. However, with word of Jackson’s capture
of Harpers Ferry on September 15, Lee decided to make a stand
at Sharpsburg. The Confederate commander gathered his forces on the high ground west of Antietam Creek with Gen. James Longstreet’s command holding the center and the right while Stonewall Jackson’s men filled in on the left. The Confederate position
was strengthened with the mobility provided by the Hagerstown
Turnpike that ran north and south along Lee’s line; however there
was risk with the Potomac River behind them and only one crossing back to Virginia. Lee and his men watched the Union army gather on the east side of the Antietam.
On a recent trip to the battlefield, it was a very windy day. I started in the North
Woods and hiked to the Joseph Poffenberger farm where I had lunch on a rock with a great view. It was hard to get any
EVP evidence, but that did not stop me from trying. I walked to the farm and huddled next to a smokehouse where there
was a slight break from the 25 mph winds. Here I got an answer to "What happened to You" and you can watch
the video on our ON DEMAND PAGE. Then I hiked the cornfield trail, although
I was off it more than on it. Near the corner of the North Woods, was a slight depression and I now believe this is
where the picture was taken with the ghost soldiers in black and white. This picture was compiled by Wilmer Mumma, Great
Grandson of the Mumma Farm, which was burned during the battle to keep either side from using it as a sharpshooters nest.
Wilmer told me that he knew the man who took it and said he believed him 100 percent. My picture in color is on the
other side of the monument looking east, but I believe now that is the area it was taken in.
“…we are driven to protect our own country by transferring the seat of war to that of an enemy who pursues us with
a relentless and apparently aimless hostility.” Jefferson Davis September 7, 1862 “The present
seems to be the most propitious time since the commencement of the war for the Confederate army to enter Maryland.” General R.E. Lee 3 September1862 Thousands of soldiers
in blue marched into position throughout the 15th and 16th as McClellan prepared for his attempt to drive Lee from Maryland. McClellan’s plan was, in his words, to “attack the enemy’s
left,” and when “matters looked favorably,”
attack the Confederate right, and “whenever either of those flank
movements should be successful to advance our center.” As the opposing forces moved into position during the rainy night of September 16, one Pennsylvanian remembered, “…all realized that there was ugly business and plenty of it just ahead.” The twelve hour battle began at dawn on the 17th. For the next seven hours
there were three major Union attacks on the Confederate left,
moving from north to south. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s command led
the first Union assault. Then Gen. Joseph Mansfield’s soldiers attacked, followed by Gen. Edwin Sumner’s men as McClellan’s plan broke down into a series of uncoordinated Union advances. Savage, incomparable combat raged across the Cornfield, East Woods, West Woods and
the Sunken Road as Lee shifted his men to withstand each of
the Union thrusts. After clashing for over eight hours, the Confederates
were pushed back but not broken, however over 15,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.While the Union assaults were being made on the Sunken Road, a mile-and-a-half farther south Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside opened the attack on the Confederate right. His first task would be to capture the bridge that would later bear his name. A small Confederate force, positioned
on higher ground, was able to delay Burnside for three hours.
After taking the bridge at about 1:00 p.m., Burnside reorganized for
two hours before moving forward across the arduous terrain—a critical delay. Finally the advance started only to be turned back by Confederate General A.P. Hill’s reinforcements that arrived in the late afternoon from Harpers Ferry. Neither flank of the Confederate army collapsed far enough for McClellan to advance his center attack, leaving a sizable Union force that never entered the battle. Despite over 23,000 casualties of the nearly 100,000 engaged, both armies stubbornly held their ground as
the sun set on the devastated landscape. The next day, September
18, the opposing armies gathered their wounded and buried theirdead.
That night Lee’s army withdrew back across the Potomac to Virginia, ending Lee’s first invasioninto the North. Lee’s retreat to Virginia provided President Lincoln the opportunity he had beenwaiting for to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Now the
war had a dual purpose ofpreserving the Union and ending slavery.
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