Antietam National Battlefield

 

   On our third day we decided you can only take so many photos of cherry trees so we decided to do something different. We had left the binoculars at home and I left my big lens so birding wasn't going to be a good idea. We planned on going to Mount Vernon but we had done that a couple years ago. I came up with Antietam Battlefield. I went to Antietam when I went on a solo vacation by myself to Shenandoah National Park in 2010. I went to the battlefield on my way home and only spent a couple of hours. Since Laurie had never been there, it was a no-brainer to go back. The GPS said the time to get there from our campground was one hour and twenty three minutes. 

   Okay, background- September 17, 1862 has the sad distinction of being the bloodiest day in American history. It was bloodier than D-Day, the invasion of Iwo Jima or Okinawa (in a single day). There were over 23,000 casualties including 3600 deaths. For most of the morning and afternoon there was someone killed or wounded every second!

  Antietam (or Sharpsburg) was an extremely important battle during the Civil War. If the South would have won, European countries would have recognized the Confederacy as an independent nation. On the other hand, if the North won, Lincoln was prepared to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. The North had been whipped badly for the entire summer by Robert E. Lee. They were demoralized. The fighting men knew there wasn't any real leadership and the generals were subpar. Before the battle, Lincoln made George McClellan  commanding general for the second time. Despite being inadequate in combat, his troops loved him and his reinstatement did bring morale back to the Union Army.

   Lee invaded the north hoping to take pressure off of the southern farmers and civilians in Virginia that were bearing the brunt of the war. A southern victory on northern soil would do much to have England and France recognize the Confederate States of America. The Northern army got a copy of Lee's orders and knew exactly what Lee's strategy was and where he would be. Unfortunately, Little Mac was slow and took forever to muster his men and get them where they needed to be to fight. Because of this, Lee got to choose the ground the battle would take place. Despite this, the North had a two to one advantage in man power. 

   The nice thing about going to Antietam Battlefield is the entire battle happened in one day. To make things also simple, the battle moved in a line roughly north to south throughout the entire day.

   

Dunker Church

At dawn artillery opened fire at the north end near a little German Church known as Dunker (spelled multiple ways) Church. The goal was for the North to take this church. Fighting centered around a 24 acre cornfield . Men could not see one another from either side due to the corn and the smoke. The cornfield changed hands many times. Soldiers were shooting at whatever was in front of them despite not being able to see the enemy. It was a bloodbath. 

When I went to Antietam in Oct 2010
The Cornfield did have corn and you could
picture the hell the soldiers went through

   In the late morning, the area known as a Sunken Road in the middle of the battlefield saw the majority of the fighting. The South held this road with 2300 men being opposed by ten thousand boys in blue. They held the road for three hours before eventually being over run and falling back a few hundred yards. This road earned the nickname Bloody Lane. It was covered with dead Southerners laid out like cordwood in rows and men piled on each other. Most of the men died of head and neck wounds so you can imagine the carnage in this once quiet farm road.

The Sunken Road would later be renamed 
Bloody Lane

   In the early afternoon the fighting moved further south to a bridge spanning Antietam Creek that was renamed Burnside's Bridge. General Burnside's men were tasked with taking this bridge. On the other side were Georgians just as determined to hold the bridge. After hours of fighting the Union gained the upper hand. They sensed the fire of the Rebels slowing down so without orders from their commanders they charged the bridge. They took it and drove the Southerners into the town of Sharpsburg. The last part of the battle was known as "The final attack" which was basically the North using their superior numbers and finally taking the field. 

Burnside's Bridge. The huge Sycamore on the
 right of the photo was present for the battle

   While the battle was basically a draw the North took the field and therefore could consider the day a Union victory. On the day of the 18th, both sides declared a truce so the dead and wounded could be picked up. McClellan timid as he was, allowed Lee's army to cross the Potomac that night and get back to Virginia. If he pressed, he would have crushed Lee's army and who knows if the war would have lasted three more years.

Clara  Barton was at the battle. She brought
bandages to soldiers on both sides and later
founded The Red Cross

   The Union victory was what Lincoln needed to free the slaves. Three months later he announced the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in all of the states in rebellion (not the border states). 

  Laurie and I spent time at Dunker Church, the Cornfield, Bloody Lane, and Burnside's Bridge. We stopped at all of the stops on the auto route. As we finished out last stop it started to rain. Because of this we did not go to the Antietam National Cemetery. We went back to our campsite and made supper.