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Album was created 8/5/09 8:41 PM.
The Battle of Antietam, also called the Battle of Sharpsburg was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek. The Battle of Antietam was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties, including more than 3,600 killed. While the Union Forces outnumbered the Confederate forces by 75,000 to 38,000, the battle ended up in a tactial draw, with no clear gains for either side. This was due to poor communication and inadequate leadership on the part of the Union generals.
The battle of Antietam took place in three separate phases, although the phases were actually supposed to take place simultaneously. The first phase took place in the north part of the Antietam Battlefield on Miller's Farm in a field now known simply as The Cornfield (or the Bloody Cornfield), and the surrounding wooded areas known as North Woods, East Woods and West Woods. The Union objective was a small church known as Dunker Church.
As the fighting took place in the Bloody Cornfield, it rolled over to the middle of the Antietam Battlefield into the second phase of the Battle of Antietam. Much of the fighting in this phase took place around a small rural road known as Sunken Lane. After the battle, Sunken Lane became known as Bloody Lane in response to the terrible casualties that took place there.
Phase three of the Battle of Antietam was south of Bloody Lane. Starting on Antietam Creek Union forces under command of General Burnside fought their way across a small bridge now known as Burnside's Bridge. Union troops ultimately drove through this part of the battlefield and had the Confederate forces on the run until they collided with 3,000 Rebel soldiers who were part of General A. P. Hill's Light Division, who arrived on the scene at the last moment, following an exhausting 17 mile march from Harpers Ferry.
Miller's Farm and the Bloody Cornfield was the center of the first phase of the Battle of Antietam. The battle began by 6 a.m. when the Union assaulted and Confederate countered in the Bloody Cornfield, East and West Woods, and around the Dunker Church. The cornfield was owned by the D. R. Miller family and was extremely close to their farm house.
At 6:00 a.m., 12,000 men from the I Corps charged down the Hagerstown Pike to attack the ground held by Jackson's smaller force of around 7,000. The Union continued the attack through the woods and into a forty acre cornfield. The heavy fire of the Confederate muskets commanded a heavy toll from the Union attackers. With each step forward, Union soldiers fell to the ground, having been struck down by the whining song of the Confederate mini balls. The Union troops almost reached the high ground near the Dunker Church. Lead rained down all around them, as cannonballs and canister took a devastating toll upon the attackers. The cornfield of the Miller farm soon yielded gruesome harvest as the weapons of war turned it into a slaughter pen. Shortly before 7:30 a.m., Jackson's line was in danger giving way--it seemed that the Union would succeed. At this desperate moment, the fresh southern troops led by Generals Hill and Hood rushed into the melee, forcing the I Corps from the field. The I Corps lost 25% of its number and were unable to fight any more that day. Their commander, General Hooker, was one the casualties.
The Union's next assault was lead by Major General Joseph K. F. Mansfield. Mansfield commanded the XII Corps composed of the veterans of Banks's Valley Campaign. Mansfield hurried his troops into the battle, and was one of the first to be mortally wounded. The assault moved forward and the Union managed to retake a portion of the east woods and cornfield. This assault lasted around 29 minutes and bore no fruit. Hooker later described the scene in these words, "every stalk in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield."
After 3 hours of murderous fighting, McClellan order a third attack over this bloodied ground. At 9:00 a.m. General "Bull" Sumner attacked Jackson's line from the east-northeast. The lull in the battle had allowed Jackson the time needed to readjust his lines in an arc facing northward. As Sumner's 18,000 men charged forward, they quickly lost alignment and fell victim to Jackson's trap. In less than 20 minutes, Sedgwick's lead division had suffered a casualty rate of around 50%. Jackson then ordered his command to charge into the cornfield and reached the northern end before coming under a crossfire from fifty Union cannons hidden from view. Jackson was force to abort his attack.
The Bloody Cornfield, an area about 250 yards deep and 400 yards wide, was a scene of indescribable destruction. It was estimated that the Cornfield changed hands no fewer than 15 times in the course of the morning. The morning phase ended with casualties on both sides of almost 13,000. As many as 5,000 died in the Bloody Cornfield.
