Jackson Prepares an Ambush

Taken back of the picket-and-rail fence on the Hagerstown Pike, where Jackson’s men attempted to rally in the face of Hooker’s charge.From photograph by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy, National Archives.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Mansfield.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

It may have been while observing this critical fight near the Dunker Church, that General Lee saw a straggler heading back toward camp lugging a pig that he had killed. With disaster so close, and straggling one of its chief causes, Lee momentarily lost control and ordered Jackson to shoot the man as an example to the army. Instead, Jackson gave the culprit a musket and placed him where action was hottest for the rest of the day. He came through unscathed and was afterward known as the man who had lost his pig but saved his bacon.

Going into Action.From etching by W. H. Shelton. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

By 9 a.m., 3 hours of killing had passed. The Miller cornfield had become a no-mans’ land, its tall stalks trampled to the groundand strewn with blood-soaked corpses. Firing had been so intense, had so fouled the men’s muskets, that some of them were using rocks to pound their ramrods home.

For a moment, the fighting ceased. Then powerful reserves were rushed forward by commanders of both armies to renew the battle.

Jackson was in extreme danger. Greene’s Federals still lurked near the Dunker Church, waiting only for support to renew their attack on the frayed Confederate line. And at this very moment a mass of blue-clad infantry could be seen emerging from the East Woods half a mile away—it was part of Sumner’s II Corps moving up for the morning’s third major Federal attack.

Swiftly Jackson gathered together reinforcements from other sectors of the battlefield. Some had just arrived from Harpers Ferry; these were McLaws’ men. With hardly a pause they moved north and disappeared into the West Woods. Lee ordered Walker’s two brigades north from the Lower Bridge; they too disappeared into the West Woods. Thus they came, racing from far and near.

As soon as they came in, Jackson craftily placed these men behind the rocks and ridges at the western fringe of the woods. Soon they formed a great semicircle whose outer points perfectly encompassed the 5,000 men in Sumner’s approaching column. Ten thousand Confederates were there. Now they disappeared into the landscape and waited.

Knap’s Independent Pennsylvania Battery “E” supported Mansfield’s corps.Courtesy, National Archives.

Sumner’s II Corps, under orders to support the attack on the Confederate left, had prepared at dawn to cross Antietam Creek at Pry’s Mill Ford. Impatiently, Sumner had awaited the signal to march while the battle raged with increasing violence on the ridge beyond the stream. Finally, at 7:30 a.m., he led Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick’s division across the ford. Brig. Gen. William French’s division followed, but soon drifted to the south and lost contact with Sedgwick.

Closeup of Dunker Church where Greene’s men were halted.From Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Federal artillery at Antietam. Note the observer in foreground, and the smoke of battle.From photograph by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAMSEPTEMBER 17, 1862High-resolution Map

THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAMSEPTEMBER 17, 1862

High-resolution Map

Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner.From photograph by Brady or assistant. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick.

Believing that he still led two divisions, Sumner continued his march past the East Woods. By now he knew that the earlier Federal attackers could give him no support, but he believed that the Confederates who had repulsed them must be equally exhausted and disorganized. Striking now—immediately—he might turn the tide before the enemy had time to recover. In his hurry, Sumner neglected to make sure that French’s division followed closely in his rear. Neither had he taken time to reconnoiter the Confederate front in the West Woods.

Soon after 9 a.m., Sedgwick’s heavy column, with Sumner at the head, started toward the Hagerstown Pike. Battleflags waving, bayonets glistening, the division marched forward in brigade front—long swaying lines of two ranks each.

Unmolested, they crossed the pike and passed into the West Woods. Almost surrounding them were Jackson’s quietly waiting 10,000. Suddenly the trap was sprung. Caught within a pocket of almost encircling fire, in such compact formation that return fire was impossible, Sedgwick’s men were reduced to utter helplessness. Completely at the mercy of the Confederates on the front, flank, and rear, the Federal lines were shattered by converging volleys. So appalling was the slaughter, nearly half of Sedgwick’s 5,000 men, were struck down in less than 20 minutes.

The Halt of the Line of Battle.From the wartime sketch by Edwin Forbes. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Scene of the ambush. Sedgwick’s men marched in from left; note rock outcroppings where Jackson’s men were hidden.

Part of the ground over which Sedgwick’s men fought, possibly near Hagerstown Pike.Courtesy, National Archives.

But the trap had not been completely closed. In the confusion of the surprise assault, many regiments on the Federal right found an opening. Hastily withdrawing to the northeast, they soon found cover under the protecting fire of Sedgwick’s artillery in the cornfield. Other batteries in the East Woods and to the north joined in the cannonade.

Eagerly grasping the opportunity for a counterattack, Jackson’s line now swept across the open fields and charged the Federal batteries in front of East Woods. But the fire was more than sheer valor could overcome. Blasted with grape and canister from the crossfire of 50 guns, the Confederates staggered, then gave way and drew back to the cover of West Woods. There, protruding rock strata protected them. Meanwhile, from his menacing position near the Dunker Church, Greene was driven back by Confederate reserves.

Sunken Road in 1877.

The same view today.

Three-quarters of Lee’s army was now north of Sharpsburg. The successive Federal attacks had punched the northeast salient of the Confederate left and center inward toward the Dunker Church. Now these two sectors were merged into one long line that ran roughly southeast from Nicodemus Hill, past the Dunker Church, to end along the Sunken Road. What had been the right (southern) end of the long Confederate line was now the rear. Properly speaking, Lee had no center. He had two separate lines—the main one, facing northeast toward East Woods; and a detached guard force, facing southeast toward the Lower Bridge. Between them was only a thin line of riflemen. If McClellan now delivered simultaneous hammer blows from northeast, east, and southeast, he would surely destroy Lee’s weak defensive setup. But if he continued his piece-meal attacks, Lee could keep on shuttling his brigades back and forth to meet them. And this is what they both did.

Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws, who led Jackson’s counterattack after the ambush.Courtesy, Frederick Hill Meserve Collection.

Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Sedgwick may have wondered, in the moments before the Confederate onslaught in the West Woods, why General French was not closely following him. Nor is it clear, in view of French’s instructions, why he did not do so.

French’s troops had crossed Pry’s Mill Ford in Sedgwick’s wake. After marching about a mile west, they had veered south toward the Roulette farmhouse, possibly drawn that way by the fire of enemy skirmishers. Continuing to advance, they became engaged with Confederate infantry at the farmhouse and in a ravine which inclines southward to a ridge. On the crest of this ridge, a strong enemy force waited in a deeply cut lane—the Sunken Road.

Mumma farm, left; Roulette farmhouse, far right. This view looking east from Hagerstown Pike. French’s division advanced from left toward the Sunken Road, which is off picture to the right. Both farmhouses seen in this modern view were here at time of the battle.

Worn down by farm use and the wash of heavy rains, this natural trench joins the Hagerstown Pike 500 yards south of the Dunker Church. From this point the road runs east about 1,000 yards, then turns south toward the Boonsboro Pike. That first 1,000 yards was soon to be known as Bloody Lane.

Posted in the road embankment were the five brigades of D. H. Hill. At dawn these men had faced east, their line crossing the Sunken Road. But under the pressure of the Federal attacks on the Confederate left, they had swung northward. Three of Hill’s brigades had been drawn into the fight around the Dunker Church. Then Greene’s Federals had driven them back toward the Sunken Road. There Hill rallied his troops. About 10:30 a.m., as the men were piling fence rails on the embankment to strengthen the position, a strong enemy force appeared on their front, steadily advancing with parade-like precision. It was French’s division, heading up the ravine toward Sunken Road Ridge.

Crouched at the road embankment, Hill’s men delivered a galling fire into French’s ranks. The Federals fell back, then charged again. One Union officer later wrote: “For three hours and thirty minutes the battle raged incessantly, without either party giving way.”

But French’s division alone could not maintain its hold on the ridge. Hurt by fire from Confederates in the road and on either side, the Union men gave way. Still it was not over. French’s reserve brigade now rushed up, restoring order in the disorganized ranks; once again the division moved forward.

Now, opportunely, Maj. Gen. Israel Richardson’s Federal division—also of Sumner’s corps—arrived on the left of French and was about to strike Hill’s right flank in the road embankment.

It was a critical moment for the Confederates. Aware that loss of the Sunken Road might bring disaster, Lee ordered forward his last reserve—the five brigades of Maj. Gen. R. H. Anderson’s division. At the same time Brig. Gen. Robert Rodes of Hill’s division launched a furious attack to hold the Federals back until Anderson’s men could arrive. This thrust kept French’s men from aiding Richardson, who even now prepared to assault the Confederates in the road.

As French’s attack halted, Richardson swept forward in magnificent array. Richardson was a tough old fighter—bluff and courageous, a leader of men. One of his officers recalled his leading the advance, sword in hand: “Where’s General ——?” he cried. Some soldiers answered, “Behind the haystack!” “G— d— the field officers!” the old man roared, pushing on with his men toward the Sunken Road. In three units they passed to the east of the Roulette farmhouse and charged the Confederates at the crest of the ridge.

As the struggle increased in fury, R. H. Anderson’s brigades arrived in the rear of Hill’s troops in the road. But Anderson fell wounded soon after his arrival, and suddenly the charging Confederate counteroffensive lost its punch. By a mistaken order, Rodes’ men in the Sunken Road near the Roulette lane withdrew to the rear. A dangerous gap opened on the Confederate front. The artillerist Lt. Col. E. P. Alexander wrote later, “When Rodes’ brigade left the sunken road ... Lee’s army was ruined, and the end of the Confederacy was in sight.”

Union Col. Francis Barlow saw the gap in the Confederate front opened by Rodes’ withdrawal. Quickly swinging two regiments astride the road, he raked its length with perfectly timed volleys. Routed by this devastating enfilade, the Confederate defenders fled the road and retreated south toward Sharpsburg. Only a heroic rally by D. H. Hill’s men prevented a breakthrough into the town.

The Sunken Road was now Bloody Lane. Dead Confederates lay so thick there, wrote one Federal soldier, that as far down the road as he could see, a man could have walked upon them without once touching ground.

On the Firing Line.By Gilbert Gaul. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Bloody Lane.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

The Federals had suffered heavily, too. Their bodies covered the approaches to the ridge. In the final moments, while leading his men in pursuit, Colonel Barlow had been seriously wounded; and shortly after, his commander, General Richardson, had fallen with a mortal wound.

The fight for the Sunken Road had exhausted both sides. At 1 p.m. they halted, and panting men grabbed their canteens to swish the dust and powder from their rasping throats.

The Confederate retreat from Bloody Lane had uncovered a great gap in the center of Lee’s line. A final plunge through this hole would sever the Confederate army into two parts that could be destroyed in detail. “Only a few scattered handfuls of Harvey Hill’s division were left,” wrote Gen. William Allen, “and R. H. Anderson’s was hopelessly confused and broken.... There was no body of Confederate infantry in this part of the field that could have resisted a serious advance.” So desperate was the situation that General Longstreet himself held horses for his staff while they served two cannon supporting Hill’s thin line.

But McClellan’s caution stopped the breakthrough before it was born. Though Franklin’s VI Corps was massed for attack, McClellan restrained it. “It would not be prudent to make the attack,” he told Franklin after a brief examination of the situation, “our position on the right being ... considerably in advance of what it had been in the morning.”

So McClellan turned to defensive measures. Franklin’s reserve corps would not be committed, but would remain in support of the Federal right. And in the center, McClellan held back Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps. After all, reasoned the Federal commander, was not this the only force that stood between the enemy and the Federal supply train on the Boonsboro Pike?

But Porter was not quite alone. The entire Federal artillery reserve stood with him. Further, Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton had placed his cavalry and artillery on a commanding ridge west of the Middle Bridge during the morning. From here he had already supported the attack by Sumner’s corps on the Sunken Road, and he had aided Burnside’s efforts on the left. Now he stood poised for further action. Pleasonton was to wait in vain. His dual purpose of obtaining “... an enfilading fire upon the enemy in front of Burnside, and of enabling Sumner to advance to Sharpsburg” was nullified by McClellan’s decision to halt and take the defensive.

In striking contrast to McClellan’s caution, General Lee was at that very moment considering a complete envelopment of the Federal flank at the North and East Woods. By this means he might relieve the pressure on D. H. Hill; for despite the lull, Lee could not believe that McClellan had halted the attack there. If the attack in the North Woods succeeded, Lee hoped to drive the Federalremnants to the banks of Antietam Creek and administer a crushing defeat.

Jackson and J. E. B. Stuart, early in the afternoon, shifted northward and prepared to charge the Federal lines. When they arrived close to the powerful Federal artillery on Poffenberger Ridge, they saw that a Confederate attack there would be shattered by these massed guns. A wholesome respect for Federal artillerists now forced Lee to withdraw his order. As he did so, heavy firing to the south heralded a new threat developing there.

During the morning of the 17th, Confederate observers on the ridge north of Sharpsburg had spotted masses of Federals moving southward beyond Antietam Creek. These were the four divisions of Burnside’s IX Corps concentrating for the attack on the Lower Bridge.

Topography at the Lower Bridge heavily favored the few hundred Georgia men who defended it under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Robert Toombs. The road approaching the east end of the bridge swings on a course paralleling that of Antietam Creek; in the last few hundred yards before reaching the bridge, the road plunges into a funnel-like depression between the opposing bluffs of the creek. Toombs’ men were in rifle pits on the west bluff overlooking the bridge and the approach road.

Because of faulty reconnaissance, Burnside did not know that fords were nearby where his men could have waded across the stream. Instead, the Federal plan of attack forced the advancing columns to pile into this funnel and storm across the bridge.

Soon after 9 a.m., the Federal divisions began to assault the bridge. One after another, their gallant charges were broken by deadly short-range fire from Toombs’ Georgians. By noon, when the agony at the Sunken Road was reaching its highest pitch, and despite repeated orders from McClellan to get across Antietam Creek at all costs, the bottleneck at the bridge was still unbroken.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Isaac Rodman’s Union division had moved slowly downstream from the bridge in search of a crossing. Rounding a sharp bend in the creek, nearly a mile south, scouts came upon shallow water at Snavely’s Ford. Late in the morning Rodman crossed the stream and began to drive against the right flank of the Georgians guarding the bridge. About the same time, Col. George Crook’s scouts located a ford a few hundred yards above the bridge; there he sent his brigade across. Capt. Seth J. Simonds’ battery was placed in position to command the bridge.

Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside.From photograph by Brady or assistant. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Burnside or Lower Bridge shortly after the battle. Toombs’ men were on the bluff in background.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Burnside’s men storm the bridge.From wartime sketch by Forbes.

The same view today. Note how tree at near end of bridge has grown.

Zouaves of Burnside’s IX Corps charge toward Sharpsburg.From wartime sketch by Forbes. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

At 1 p.m., the defending Confederates saw a sudden stir across Antietam Creek. Two regiments, the 51st New York and the 51st Pennsylvania, marched swiftly out from the cover of the wooded hill and charged for the bridge. Supported now by converging artillery fire, they quickly formed into columns and were over the bridge before Confederate artillery could halt them. Soon a wide gap split the Confederate defense. Masses of Federal troops poured across the bridge while Rodman and Crook hammered the Confederate flanks. Burnside’s men had gained the west bank of the creek.

But again there was fateful delay as Burnside paused to reorganize. By the time he was ready to drive the Southern defenders from the ridge in his front, 2 critical hours had passed.

Close to 3 p.m., the mighty Federal line moved slowly up the hill toward Sharpsburg, then gained momentum. “The movement of the dark column,” related an observer, “with arms and banners glittering in the sun, following the double line of skirmishers, dashing forward at a trot, loading and firing alternately as they moved, was one of the most brilliant and exciting exhibitions of the day.”

First brushing aside the depleted ranks in the rifle pits above the bridge, the Federals struck D. R. Jones’ four lonely brigades on the hills southeast of Sharpsburg—whence every other Confederate infantry unit had been withdrawn to reinforce the line to the north. Unable to stem the massive Federal attack, Jones’ men were driven back toward the town.

To halt the Federal tide, Lee shifted all available artillery southward.By 4 p.m., however, the Federals were approaching the village itself; only a half mile lay between them and Lee’s line of retreat to the Potomac. Disaster seemed at hand for Lee’s decimated force.

A Confederate battery on this site on the Harpers Ferry Road fired on Burnside’s men as they charged toward the left across the low ground in the middle distance. A. P. Hill’s division marched behind these guns, going left, then turned off the road and passed through the cornfield to hit Burnside’s corps in flank.

But now came a great moment in Confederate military annals. A. P. Hill’s notable Light Division, having hurriedly crossed the Potomac, 3 miles away, was driving hard toward the jubilant Federals charging on Sharpsburg. Some of Hill’s artillery had already arrived from Harpers Ferry with the cheering news that Hill’s brigades of infantry were close by.

At Lee’s urgent order, Hill had left Harpers Ferry early. Sensing the critical role they would play, urged on at sword point by their grim commander, Hill’s veterans had covered the 17 miles from Harpers Ferry to the Potomac in 7 hours. Hundreds of men had fallen out, unable to keep the pace. Now, across the river, the stalwart survivors pounded on toward the sound of the guns.

Suddenly the head of Hill’s column appeared on the road to the south. Hill rode up to Lee’s headquarters at the Oak Grove, then quickly to D. R. Jones, whose exhausted troops formed the last defenseline in front of Sharpsburg. Hill’s five brigades now rushed toward the Federal flank. Confusion gripped Burnside’s men as this unexpected onslaught plowed into their lines. Men broke and started to run. In moments the tide had turned. The Federal lines, sagging from the overwhelming charge of the Southerners, and with gaping holes cut by artillery, fell back across the hills to the sheltering banks of Antietam Creek.

Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill.From an engraving by A. H. Ritchie.

Powerful Federal artillery continued to thunder across the hills; heavy blue columns could still be seen in overmastering strength across Antietam Creek and far to the north. But the Federal commander had called a halt.

An hour and a half after the timely arrival of A. P. Hill’s division from Harpers Ferry, the battle ended. With sunset, the firing died away. That night, the tired men lay on their arms in line of battle. Neither side would admit defeat; neither could claim the victory.

Seldom had Lee’s army fought a battle so strenuous and so long. “The sun,” a soldier wrote, “seemed almost to go backwards, and it appeared as if night would never come.” From dawn to sunset, the Confederate commander had thrown into battle every organized unit north of the Potomac. Straggling in the days preceding Antietam had reduced Lee’s army from 55,000 to 41,000 men. This small force had sustained five major attacks by McClellan’s 87,000-manarmy—three in the West Woods and the Miller cornfield, and those at the Sunken Road and the Lower Bridge—each time the outcome hanging in the balance.

Blackford’s Ford from the Maryland side of the Potomac.

In the stillness of the night, Lee called his commanders to his headquarters west of Sharpsburg. Of each in turn he asked the condition of the men, and each, even Jackson, spoke against renewal of battle on the morrow. “Still too weak to assume the offensive,” Lee wrote later, “we waited without apprehension the renewal of the attack.”

Early on the following morning, it became apparent that McClellan was not going to attack, though during the night he had received strong reinforcements, and more were on the way. Still undaunted, Lee returned to his plan of striking the Federal right at Poffenberger Ridge. But after surveying the ground, his officers informed him that Federal batteries completely dominated the narrow strip of land over which the attack must be launched. An attempt against the Federal guns would be suicidal.

Balked in his last hope of a counteroffensive, Lee realized that he could not recall the decision won by McClellan at South Mountain: The campaign was lost. During the afternoon, he announced to his lieutenants his intention of withdrawing that night across the Potomac. At midnight Longstreet led the way across Blackford’s Ford and formed a protective line on the south bank. Steadily through the night and early morning, the Confederate columns crossed over into Virginia.

McClellan did not actively pursue. As the days passed and Lee’s army withdrew into the Shenandoah Valley, President Lincoln became impatient. The time was at hand, he thought, for the decisive blow. Calling upon McClellan on the field of Antietam, October 1, Lincoln urged a vigorous pursuit of the Confederate army. McClellan insisted that his army required reorganization and new equipment. The President, having lost all confidence in McClellan, removed him from command on November 7.

Tactically, Antietam was a draw. Strategically, however, it was a Northern victory because it halted Lee’s invasion.

Though McClellan failed to destroy Lee’s army, his contribution was in many ways notable. In the 3 weeks after he was chosen for command on September 3, he provided for Washington’s defense, created a new field army, fought two major actions, compelled Lee’s evacuation of Maryland, and established Federal control of the Potomac River from Washington to Williamsport. That he was not a daring commander of Lee’s stripe cannot detract from these solid achievements.

Lee, on the other hand, may have been too daring. Because of this he made two major miscalculations. First, his invasion of Maryland imposed a strain that his poorly equipped and exhausted army could not support; heavy straggling was the surest evidence of this. Second, he misjudged the capacity of the enemy to recuperate from the effects of Second Manassas and quickly put a reliable field army on his trail. He did achieve one of his objectives: The delay of the Federal armies in resuming major offensive operations in Virginia until the next winter. But the price was high and the South could not afford the kind of attrition suffered in the campaign.

Casualties were so heavy in the Battle of Antietam that September 17, 1862, is termed the bloodiest day of the Civil War. Of McClellan’s 26,023 killed, wounded, and captured during the Maryland Campaign (including Harpers Ferry), he counted 12,410 at Antietam. Of Lee’s 13,385 casualties during the campaign, 10,700 fell at Antietam.

After Antietam there was no serious threat of foreign recognition or intervention on behalf of the Confederacy. And the repulse inflicted on Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had sought: On September 22—just 5 days after the battle—the President issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It declared that upon the first day of January next all slaves within any State or district then in rebellion against the United States “... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Lincoln visits McClellan and his staff after the battle. McClellan is the fourth man to the left from the President.Courtesy, National Archives.

Lincoln and McClellan confer on the field of Antietam.

The President reads the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.From an engraving based on the painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

With the formal Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, the war took on new purpose. In the North, and in many foreign lands, the cause of American Union had become one with that of human liberty.

At Antietam, also, was Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. On this field of desolation, long after the guns had ceased, Miss Barton was still busily rendering care to the wounded and dying. Having arrived early in the day in the northern area of battle, she witnessed the wounded men of Sedgwick’s depleted ranks streaming to the cover of North and East Woods. By midmorning herwagonload of supplies, donated by the citizens of Washington, had arrived. She worked tirelessly with army surgeons at the field hospital on the Joseph Poffenberger farm. Her supply of bandages, linens, anesthetics, and oil lanterns replenished the surgeons’ urgent need of dressings and provided light to carry on through the night. So outstanding were her services on the field of battle that she later received official recognition by the United States Army Medical Corps. Her work here and later would become basic to the establishment of the American Red Cross.

Barn near Keedysville, used as field hospital after the battle.Courtesy, National Archives.

The Antietam National Battlefield was established August 30, 1890, to commemorate the significant events of September 17, 1862, and to preserve the important features of the battlefield. Administered by the War Department until 1933, the site was transferred that year to the U.S. Department of the Interior to be administered by the National Park Service.

Clara Barton.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Citizen volunteers assisting the wounded at Antietam.From wartime sketch by Waud. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

Maryland Monument.

Turner’s Gap looking east.

War Correspondents’ Memorial Arch at Crampton’s Gap.

The Battle of Antietam was fought over an area of 12 square miles. The site today consists of 810 acres containing approximately 8½ miles of tour roads. Located along the battlefield avenues to mark battle positions of infantry, artillery, and cavalry are many monuments, markers, and narrative tablets. Similar markers describe the actions at Turner’s Gap, Harpers Ferry, and Blackford’s Ford.

Lee headquarters marker in the Oak Grove.

Key artillery positions on the field of Antietam are marked by cannon. And 10 large-scale field exhibits at important points on the field indicate troop positions and battle action.

The War Correspondents’ Memorial Arch and the 1st New Jersey Regimental Monument are located at Crampton’s Gap, and at Fox’s Gap is the memorial to Maj. Gen. Jesse Reno, who was killed while leading the Federal attack there.

Outstanding in the observance of battle anniversaries at Antietam was the occasion of the 75th anniversary on September 17, 1937. Thirty-five thousand persons, including 50 veterans who fought at Antietam, joined in the observance held on the battleground near the Sunken Road.

The National Cemetery.

The Robert E. Lee Memorial tablet, located in a plot at thewestern limits of Sharpsburg, marks the headquarters of General Lee. General McClellan’s headquarters were in the Philip Pry house, 2 miles east of Sharpsburg near the Boonsboro Pike.

McClellan’s headquarters, the Philip Pry House.

The National Cemetery, located at the eastern limits of Sharpsburg, is the burial place of Federal dead from the Battles of Antietam, South Mountain, and minor engagements. The cemetery was established by an act of the Maryland legislature in March 1865; the dedication took place September 17, 1867, the fifth anniversary of the battle. The cemetery plot of 11 acres was deeded by the State of Maryland to the United States Government on March 13, 1878. Of 4,776 Civil War burials, 1,836 are listed as unidentified. The total number of burials, including nearly 300 from recent wars, is more than 5,000.

The Antietam National Battlefield is a part of the National Park System, owned by the people of the United States and administered for them by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Communications should be addressed to the Superintendent, Antietam National Battlefield, P.O. Box 158, Sharpsburg, Maryland 21782.

Bradford, Ned, editor,Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1956.

These selections from the original four volume 1887-88 edition are excellent for on-the-spot impressions of participants. Should be used with caution concerning historical accuracy.

Catton, Bruce,Mr. Lincoln’s Army. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, 1951.

Popular well-written interpretive study with colorful battle accounts. Descriptions of camplife are very good.

Commager, Henry S., editor,The Blue and the Gray. Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., New York, 1950.

Fine selection of readings from the pens of participants. Again, as withBattles and Leaders, these accounts suffer from immediacy and should be used with caution.

Freeman, D. S.,R. E. Lee, Vol. II. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1934.

Outstanding as biography and as military history. Detailed analysis of Lee’s actions as commander with vivid battle descriptions. Excellent footnotes for further reference.

Hassler, Warren W., Jr.,General George B. McClellan, Shield of the Union. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1957.

Interesting interpretation of McClellan’s actions as Federal commander. His difficulties with subordinates, especially Burnside, are used to explain Federal failure to take advantage of opportunities at Antietam.

Henderson, G. F. R.,Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War. Longmans, Green and Company, London, 1955 reprint.

This is a modern reprint of Henderson’s classic military biography, first printed in 1898; it is still a standard work on the legendary Jackson.

Longstreet, James,From Manassas to Appomattox. J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia, 1896.

Written many years after the war, this account by a leading participant emphasizes his own point of view.

On August 22, 1862, just one month before Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote a letter to Horace Greeley, abolitionist editor of the New York Tribune. The letter read in part:

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same timesaveSlavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same timedestroySlavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggleisto save the Union, and isnoteither to save or destroy Slavery.... I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free....

For some months before the Battle of Antietam, as his letter to Greeley indicates, Lincoln had been wrestling with the problem of slavery and its connection with the war. He became convinced that a new spiritual and moral force—emancipation of the slaves—must be injected into the Union cause, else the travail of war might dampen the fighting spirit of the North. If this loss of vitality should come to pass, the paramount political objective of restoring the Union might never be attained.

Another compelling factor in Lincoln’s thinking was the need to veer European opinion away from its sympathy for the South. A war to free the slaves would enlist the support of Europe in a way that a war for purely political objectives could not.

Thus, slowly and with much soul searching, Lincoln’s official view of his duty came to correspond with his personal wish for human freedom. The outcome of these deliberations was the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Federal victory at Antietam gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the proclamation—a dramatic step toward eliminating slavery in the United States.

By this act, Lincoln stretched the Constitution to the limit of its meaning. His interpretation of presidential war powers was revolutionary. It would become a precedent for other Presidents who would similarly find constitutional authority for emergency action in time of war.

First page of Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the formal Emancipation Proclamation.Courtesy, Library of Congress.

More important, the proclamation was to inaugurate a revolution in human relationships. Although Congress had previously enacted laws concerning the slaves that went substantially as far as the Emancipation Proclamation, the laws had lacked the dramatic and symbolic import of Lincoln’s words. Dating from the proclamation, the war became a crusade and the vital force of abolition sentiment was captured for the Union cause, both at home and abroad—especially in England.

The immediate practical effects of the Emancipation Proclamation were negligible, applying as it did only to those areas “in rebellion” where it could not be enforced. But its message became a symbol and a goal which opened the way for universal emancipation in the future. Thus the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution are direct progeny of Lincoln’s proclamation.

Any document with the long-term importance of the Emancipation Proclamation deserves to be read by those who experience its effects. Following is the text of the formal Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A Proclamation.Whereas on the 22d day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.“That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.”Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary warmeasure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Paquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A Proclamation.

Whereas on the 22d day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

“That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary warmeasure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Paquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1986 0 - 157-109: QL 3

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