Civil War Battlefields - Antietam

I scheduled an extra day for myself on the east coast. Maryland prides itself on having a central place in American history, from being one of the first states, to hosting naval battles in the War of 1812, to being the scene of one of the most devastating battles of the Civil War. In the Confederate states, it was called the Battle of Sharpsburg for the nearby town. Union soldiers named it Antietam for the stream that was the site of a bloody assault at the end of the fight.

There is an excellent description of the actual battle at this link. Check it out!

My own wanderings took me only over the land fought over in the first part of the day, north of the visitor's center. Confederate soldiers under Stonewall Jackson set up their cannon on a rise in the West Woods near the Dunker Church (named for Germans who baptized by dunking). The Union attack  came through the cornfields in the north and east.

The view over one of Stonewall Jackson's guns in the direction of the Federal attack

I hopped back in my rental car and drove the tour of the rest of the battlefield. A lookout tower in roughly the middle of the battlefield overlooked the "sunken  road" where 2,600 soldiers from Alabama and North Carolina, under orders from General Hill, held off a series of attacks from a much larger Federal force. By the end of the battle, the road was re-named Bloody Lane.

The view north from the tower, overlooking the Sunken Road

A few days after the battle (New Market Historical Society)

The final major action of the day came at Rohrbach's Bridge, a lovely span of stone arches across Antietam creek. Georgians on the west bank had the advantages of elevation and trees for cover. Towards the end of the day, Maj. Gen. Burnside's troops were on finally gained a foothold on the far side and pushed towards Sharpsburg. Had AP Hill not arrived at that moment from Harper's Ferry, the  Confederacy's southern flank would have collapsed completely.

One of the many regimental monuments on the battlefield

So, who won? 87,000 Federal troops pushed 45,000 Confederates back from Northern territory. In that sense, it was a victory for the North - a victory that Lincoln followed up with the Emancipation Proclamation. At the same time, Lee was able to hold a force twice the size of his to a draw. Either way, it remains the bloodiest day in  American history.