Battle of Antietam - Bloody Cornfield

Confederate Artillery near Dunker Church

Dawn broke at 6:00 on the morning of September 17th 1862. The hollows of the fields around Antietam were filled with mist. The battle had begun hours before with Hooker's Corps moving toward Stonewall Jackson's position. To attack Jackson they would move through a forty acre field of corn that was owned by David Miller. It was bordered on three sides by woods, called West, North and East, while to the South lay Dunker Church. Jackson already knew of Hooker's position and plans. Hooker had advanced a skirmish line the day before, alerting the Confederates. The attack came as no surprise. Colonel Stephen D. Lee had four batteries of artillery posted on the plateau near Dunker Church, and more artillery was placed on the left. In the cornfield was posted the brigades of Jones and Lawton, with more brigades in reserve. Stuart's cavalry was on the left, guarding the flank. As soon as the day dawned an artillery duel began between the cannon on both sides. The fire was terrific from both sides. "Pray that you may never see another Sharpsburg.” Stephen Lee later told a subordinate, “Sharpsburg was artillery hell.”

On the Federal side although Mansfield's corps had not yet arrived, Hooker decided to go forward with his men anyway. He hoped to gain fame and renown for defeating Jackson without the help of Mansfield. Doubleday's division was on the right, Rickett's on the left and Meade's in the rear in reserve. They were heading for the Confederate artillery positioned at the Dunker Church. As they advanced forward they were struck with a crossfire from the Confederate artillery. Men began to fall, and soon after the start of the advance a Union Brigadier General was hit. The Federals soon saw Confederates ahead in the corn, their bayonets glistening in the air. Hooker brought up his artillery, opened fire on the Confederates, and ordered his infantry to charge. On the right of the turnpike the charge was spearheaded by the Iron Brigade, with their tall black hats and famous fighting powers. Under John Gibbon, a North Carolinian, they spearheaded the attack of Doubleday's division. The fighting was very heavy throughout the cornfield. Major Rufus Dawes of the Iron Brigade wrote:

Our lines on the left now came sweeping forward through the corn and the open field beyond. I ordered my men up to join the advance, and commanded: 'Forward - guide left - march!' ... At the front edge of the corn-field was a low Virginia rail fence. Before the corn were open fields, beyond which was a strip of woods surrounding a little church, the Dunkard church. As we appeared at the edge of the corn, a long line of men in butternut and gray rose up from the ground. Simultaneously, the hostile battle lines opened a tremendous fire upon each other. Men, I cannot say fell; they were knocked out of the ranks by the dozens. But we jumped over the fence, and pushed on, loading, firing, and shouting as we advanced. There was, on the part of the men, great hysterical excitement, eagerness to go forward, and a reckless disregard of life, of everything but victory. ... Every body tears cartridges, loads, passes guns, or shoots. Men are falling in their places or running back into the corn. ... After a few rods of advance, the line stopped and, by common impulse, fell back to the edge of the corn and lay down on the ground behind the low rail fence. Another lien of our men came up through the corn. We all joined together, jumped over the fence, and again pushed out into the open field. There is a rattling fusillade and loud cheers. 'Forward is the word' The men are loading and firing with demoniacal fury and shouting and laughing hysterically, and the whole field before us is covered with rebels fleeing for life, into the woods. Great numbers of them are shot while climbing over the high post and rail fences along the turnpike.

The Iron Brigade charges

With Lawton's division crushed by Hooker's attack, he sent a message to Hood asking for his assistance. Lawton, Jones and Starke had all been hit, and Jackson's old division was commanded by a Colonel. Hood's men were in the rear cooking their breakfast, their first hot meal in days. But they were needed in the battle, so throwing away their food they fell into line and moved forward to assist Lawton's men. When they arrived on the field the Federals had broken through all the Confederate brigades in the area, and were pushing towards Dunker Church. But Hood's famous Texans gallantly charged into the enemy. Dawes wrote:

A long and steady line of rebel gray, unbroken by the fugitives who fly before us, comes sweeping down through the woods around the church. They raise the yell and fire. It is like a scythe running through our line. ... It is a race for life that each man runs for the cornfield. A sharp cut, as of a switch, stings he calf of my leg as I run. Back to the corn, and back through the corn, the headlong flight continues.

Hooker

Hooker's attack was stopped by the gallant charge of Hood's division, supported on the right by D. H. Hill and on the left by Early. However, the fighting was still terrible. Hood was able to drive Hooker to the north end of the cornfield, but at terrible cost to his men. The 1st Texas lost 80% of its strength in the terrible fighting. "Tell General Jackson,” Hood told a courier, “unless I get reinforcements I must be forced back, but I am going on while I can!"

Hood

Jackson had no reserves available to throw in to the fight, so he sent a request to Lee. Lee had already sent Walker's division from the right, and sent McLaw's as well. There was always the risk that McClellan would launch an attack on the Confederate right, but that had to be taken. If Jackson's line gave, it would mean disaster for the entire army.

Mansfield

However, Hooker's attack was over. All his strength had been used up. He sent a message to Mansfield, who had now arrived, for him to try his hand at the attack. Joseph Mansfield was an old army soldier, but like many of his men this was his fist battle in war. Mansfield thought that Hooker's men were driving the Confederates, and that he was only coming to complete the victory. Advancing towards the rebel lines, he was surprised when he was fired upon, thinking he were being fired on by his friends. He discovered his mistake, but the Confederate line fired a volley, hitting Mansfield in the stomach. He was brought to the rear, and died the next day. His men continued on under the command of Alpheus Williams. They were able to push Hood's veterans back through the cornfield into the west woods. D. H. Hill wrote in his official report:

[O]ur progress was arrested by a lane, on either side of which was a high, staked fence stretching along our whole front.... The men, being formed along this fence, kept up an accurate and well-sustained fire, which visibly told upon the enemy's ranks; and, although we suffered greatly, as well from musketry in front as from a battery on our left ... not a man was seen to flinch from the conflict. ... [O]ur left being unprotected, we were about to be outflanked, when the order to retire was given and obeyed, the men withdrawing in tolerable order, and fighting as they fell back.

However Walker and McLaws arrived, and throwing their throwing into the fight Jackson was able to keep Williams's corps at bay. Williams was not able to press forward, and requested reinforcements from McClellan. Reinforcements were already coming up in the form the lead division of Sumner's corp. They did not go directly into the cornfield. They came further to the south through the edge of the East Woods, shifting the battle from the Confederate left to center. Sumner, in his eagerness to get his men into battle, made an important mistake. He neglected his flank. He stumbled into Confederates under McLaws and Walker, who happened to be at the right place at the right time. Their volleys tore through Sumner's men, who were virtually unable to defend themselves. Surrounded on three sides, Sumner's men held out for twenty minutes before breaking into a rout. Out of the 5,4000 soldiers who went into the fight, 2,200 fell. One regiment lost over 50% of its 600 men. The corps of Hooker, Mansfield and part of Sumner's after three hours of heavy fighting had gained a foothold on the Dunker Church Plateau, but the Confederates by stripping men from the right had been able to prevent their line from being demolished. The cornfield in which much of the battle had taken place was covered with bodies, fallen down in rows marking the positions of the troops. It was called the Bloody Cornfield. Hooker wrote

In the time that I am writing every stalk of corn 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.

Jackson lost around 5,000 men. When Hood was asked where his division was, he said “it was dead on the field.” It did not seem as though they could put up much of a defense against another attack. However, the battle was over in Jackson's section of the line. Sumner was badly scared by his reverse, and was wounded in the hand. As ranking officer in the area, he would allow no more attacks, believing that he was about to be over run by a counterattack. As it was, the Confederates were doubting their own ability to resist another attack.

Battle of Antietam – Introduction

Lee and McClellan's armies at Sharpsburg were arrayed for battle roughly along Antietam Creek. The landscape was that of rolling farmland and groves of trees, and Lee was in a strong defensive position, but no where near impregnable. His army was along an approximately four mile long low ridge overlooking the valley containing the creek. Both of his flanks were anchored along the sides of a bend in the Potomac River. Although this meant that he could not be flanked, it also meant that if defeated it would be very difficult to make an orderly retreat. Lee's position could be broken down into three parts, distinguished by recognizable landmarks. On the left was Jackson's Corps around Dunker Church and the Cornfield. In the center was D. H. Hill's division along the Sunken Road, a road bordered by fences which formed a natural trench. On the right was Longstreet's Corps, and the landmark there was what was later called Burnside's Bridge over Antietam Creek. By the time Lee was attacked on the 17th, all of his scattered troops had arrived except for A. P. Hill. His division was on it's way from Harper's Ferry, and would arrive sometime that day.

Antietam

McClellan, after personally examining the Confederate position, decided to attack the Confederate left. On the right the bridges were overlooked more closely by the bluffs. He hoped to overwhelm the left and then move South down the ridge, driving Lee off the ridge and into the Potomac. He also ordered attacks to be made on the center and right, which would serve as diversions, and could also be turned into a main attack if successful. Fighting Joe Hooker's and Mansfield's corps would attack on the Confederate left, Franklin and Sumner would be available to attack there or in the center, Burnside would attack the right, with Porter in reserve to resist a counter attack. In the afternoon of the 16th McClellan had his troops moving into position. Troops began crossing the creek over the North bridge to get in position for the fight of the next day. McClellan's plans would not be put into coordinated execution. The corps commanders dd not communicate well, and through the rolling nature of the ground they could not do it by sight. At his headquarters in the rear, McClellan exercised little direct control. The battle therefore occurred in three separate phrases, with little connection to each other from the Union perspective.

Armies Moves to Antietam

After McClellan's capture of South Mountain on the 15th, the fall of Harper's Ferry to Stonewall Jackson on the 15th came just in time to redeem the Union fortunes for the campaign. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was moving on the 16th to concentrate on Sharpsburg, Maryland, along the banks of the Potomac River. McClellen was already in Sharpsburg with his army. However, he refused to attack. Just days before he had been confident that with Lee's Lost Order telling of the division of his army he could, without a doubt, whip Bobby Lee. But now he lost that confidence. Although he should have known Lee's army was divided, he spent the day reconnoitering instead of pushing forward to attack. This mistake meant that instead of crushing a small part of Lee's army, he would have a hart fight the next day against a unified Confederate army.

Siege of Munfordville

Wilder

150 years ago today the Confederate armies of Bragg and Smith were embarking on an invasion of Kentucky, pursued by Don Carlos Buell's Union army. Today Bragg turned his forces toward Munford, a station of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad where the railroad crossed the Green River. He decided to attack this station, which was held by Union troops, because of an injudicious move by one his his subordinates, who had moved without authorization on the heavily fortified Union stronghold. He had asked Colonel J. T. Wilder of Indiana, who was commanding the fort to surrender. Wilder refused, and beat back a Confederate attack with heavy losses. To avoid discouraging his men with what looked like a defeat Bragg delayed the strategic course of the invasion to attack Munfordville with his whole army. Wilder again refused the demand of surrender, and Bragg, after again failing to capture the city with a direct attack, began a regular siege.

Battle of Harper's Ferry – Day 3

Having spent the previous day dragging the artillery into position on the heights around Harper's Ferry, the Confederate artillery was ready to open fire 150 years ago today. In the morning an artillery barrage of 50 guns opened on the Federals in the town. Dixon Miles realized that the situation was hopeless. He had not received McClellan's message that relief was on the way, and after holding a council of war ordered that the white flag be raised. Many of troops were not happy about this decision, and shouted to Miles, "For ——'s sake, Colonel, don't surrender us. Don't you hear the signal guns? Our forces are near us. Let us cut our way out and join them." "Impossible" Miles replied, "They will blow us out of this place in half an hour."

Harper's Ferry

Just momets later, as the white flag was being raised, Miles was struck in leg by an artillery shell which exploded near by. The men were so disgusted with Miles's conduct that for a while no one would take him to the hospital. He was mortally wounded, and died the next day. Meanwhile, his troops were being surrendered. The Union had lost 44 killed and 173 wounded in the fighting, but now 12,419 men were surrendered along with 13,000 weapons, 200 wagons and 73 cannon. It was the largest surrendered of Federal forces in American history until World War II. Harper's Ferry was lost in large part due to the incapacity of Miles. He failed to hold the high ground and refused to make an attempt to recapture it. This victory was won with little cost to the Confederates. Jackson lost 39 killed and 247 wounded mostly from the fighting on Maryland Heights.

Jackson

The capture of Harper's Ferry had a vast impact on the campaign. With the Federal victory at South Mountain the day before Lee had decided to abandon his plans for invasion and pull his army back across the river. However, he received a message that changed his mind. "Through God's blessing," Jackson wrote, "Harper's Ferry and its garrison are to be surrendered." With the fall of Harper's Ferry Jackson was free to move, so Lee determined to assemble the army just upriver at Sharpsburg, Maryland, to prepare to fight a battle on Union soil.

Grant Moves on Iuka

After Halleck had been promoted to general in chief of the Union armies and Grant had replaced in command of the Union army in Corinth, Mississippi, Grant had done little more than protect his supply lines. The Confederates, however, were going on the offensive. There were two armies in the area. In conjunction with Bragg's invasion of Kentucky Sterling Price's Army of the West was moving toward Nashville, and Earl Van Dorn with the Army of West Tennessee was moving to join him.

Sterling Price

150 years ago today the Union commander in Iuka, Missisippi, southeast of Corinth, pulled his brigade back, setting the supplies on fire. Price's troops moved in, putting out the flames and saving most of the supplies. His plan was to wait there until he was joined by Van Dorn, and then move on Grant's supply lines. Grant however, would not wait patiently. He saw an opportunity in the division of the Confederate forces. He planned to converge on Price in Iuka before Van Dorn could join him, with two columns attacking both north and south.

Battle of Harper's Ferry - Day 2

On September 13th, 150 years ago yesterday, the Confederates were able to occupy the high ground around Harper's Ferry. The Federals had given them the key to the position, but it would take time to make the most of it. Jackson ordered that guns be placed on the heights, and that none open until they could open fire all at once. This required a lot of hard work dragging heavy guns up the steep mountain sides. It took 200 men per gun to place four Parrott rifles on the summit of Maryland Heights. Walker was able to get his guns on Loudoun Heights placed fairly quickly, and impatient at the slowness of the preparations, opened fire at 1 pm. However, alone these guns were ineffectual and they soon ceased fire. The Federals realized they didn't have much time left. However, no effort was made to recapture the heights. If they had attacked Maryland Heights, it is likely that it would have been successful, as all of the troops there had been withdrawn except for one regiment to join the battle of Crampton's Gap.

Davis

Dixon Miles, Union commander, did allow another movement to be made. Colonel Benjamin Franklin “Grimes” Davis, commander of the 12th Illinois Cavalry and other mounted Union units in Harper's Ferry, proposed an attempt to break out. The cavalry would be useless in a siege, but at first Miles dismissed the idea as impractical, but Davis finally convinced him. Davis led his 1,400 cavalry across the Potomac and around the base of Maryland Heights. They had several close calls with rebels, but they were able to avoid detection. On their way back to Union lines they encountered a wagon train. It was Longstreet's reserve supply of ammunition. Unprotected by Confederates, it was an easy prey. They were able to trick the drivers into following them in a different direction, drove off the escort in the rear of the column, and brought the 40 wagons back to Union lines. Up to this point in the east Stuart's Confederate troops had literally ridden circles around the Yankees, but now, without loosing a man, Davis had performed the first great cavalry exploit of the Union army.