Civil War Antietam Vacation Photographs - Bloody Lane / Sunken Lane

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.

Although the battle of Antietam was tactically inconclusive, it ended Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign and the Confederate forces were forced to withdraw to Virginia. The Battle of Antietam was also enough of a victory to give President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation changed the dynamics of the Civil War, and discouraged the British and French governments from potential plans for recognition of the Confederacy.

Sunken Lane / Bloody Lane was the center of Phase Two of the Battle of Antietam. Confederate troops formed up by the hundreds in a country lane that had been sunken through years of use. In this sunken lane the soldiers found perfect cover against the advancing Union soldiers. Through several waves of attacks, hundreds of soldiers on both sides fell under the fire of soldiers from Sunken Lane. Ultimately the Confederate soldiers suffered enough losses of their own that Union forces were able to advance; this was helped by the Union flanking the Sunken Lane / Bloody Lane so the protection the lane once offered became a trap for the soldiers who were there. The carnage from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the sunken road gave it the name Bloody Lane, leaving about 5,600 casualties (Union 3,000, Confederate 2,600) along the 800-yard road. By the end of the fighting, the Confederate dead were stacked two and three deep in Bloody Lane and Union soldiers kneeled on their bodies as they shot at the surviving, retreating Rebels.