Antietam Battle Sharpsburg Maryland
September 16-18, 1862

On September 16, Major General George B. McClellan confronted General Robert E Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Sharpsburg, Maryland. At dawn September 17, Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank that began the single bloodiest day in American military history.

Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller's cornfield and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up. Late in the day, Burnside's corps finally got into action, crossing the stone bridge over Antietam Creek and rolling up the Confederate right. At a crucial moment, A.P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry and counterattacked, driving back Burnside and saving the day.

Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout the 18th, while removing his wounded south of the river. McClellan did not renew the assaults. After dark, Lee ordered the battered Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw across the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley.

September 17, 1862 was the bloodiest day of the Civil War. Federal losses totaled 12,410 and the Confederates lost 10,700 men. Although neither side won a decisive victory, General Robert E. Lee's failure to carry the war into the north was significant to the outcome of the war. The battle also gave President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, which on January 1, 1863, declared free all slaves in States still in rebellion against the United States.
Estimated Casualties: 23,100 total






Ballon observing the battle

Click to enlarge

Antietam September 17, 1862  Battle Map

State Park Battlefield Map


Antietam Battle Field

Battle of Antietam, looking north; showing dash of 7th Maine into the Piper cornfield, Cemetery Hill & Sharpsburg.
Photograph of sketch made on the field by Capt. James Hope, Co. B, 2nd Vermont Inf.

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Antietam Expedition Guide
Like other guides in this series, this set of audio and video CD's, along with the accompanying text, is an indespensible asset for those seriously trying to understand the battle that resulted in America's bloodiest day. Despite reading extensively about the battle, the automated and time-scaled troup movement maps helped me clearly grasp the scope and scale of the conflict better than ever before. Well worth the money for those contemplating more than a casual visit to this site, one of the best preserved of all civil war battlefields.
Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam
The bloodiest day in United States history was September 17, 1862, when, during the Civil War battle at Antietam, close to 6,500 soldiers were killed or mortally wounded and another 15,000 were seriously wounded. Moreover, James M. McPherson states in his concise chronicle of the event Crossroads of Freedom , it may well have been the pivotal moment of the war and possibly of the young republic itself. The South, after a series of setbacks in the spring of 1862, had reversed the war's momentum during the summer, and was on not only on the "brink of military victory" but about to achieve diplomatic recognition by European nations, most notably England and France.
The Gleam Of Bayonets
The Battle Of Antietam And Robert E. Lee's Maryland Campaign, 1862
One of the bloodiest days in American military history, the Battle of Antietam turned the tide of the Civil War in favor of the North and delivered the first major defeat to Robert E. Lee's army. In The Gleam of Bayonets, James V. Murfin gives a compelling account of the events and personalities involved in this momentous battle. The gentleness and patience of Lincoln, the vacillations of McClellan, and the grandeur of Lee—all unfold before the reader. The battle itself is presented with precision and scope as Murfin blends together atmosphere and fact, emotions and tactics, into a dramatic and coherent whole.

American Civil War Book Club Selected Title
The Antietam Campaign
The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. Crucial political, diplomatic, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan maneuvered and fought in the western part of the state. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war.

Approaching topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume explore questions regarding military leadership, strategy, and tactics, the impact of the fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which participants and people behind the lines interpreted and remembered the campaign. They also discuss the performance of untried military units and offer a look at how the United States Army used the Antietam battlefield as an outdoor classroom for its officers in the early twentieth century

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DVDs

When Robert E. Lee's victorious confederate Army invaded Maryland in September 1862 the survival of the United States lay in the balance.Abraham Lincoln turned to George McClellan to rally the defeated Federal Armies and save the Union. A lost order wrapped around 3 cigars altered the course of history and led to the brutal deadly Battle of Antietam. The pivotal day that changed the Civil War from a fight to save the union to a fight to free the slaves. History comes alive as over 12,000 Civil War Reenactors stage epic scale historically accurate engagements that are legendary in the annuals of military history - The Cornfield,Bloody Lane, and AP Hill's savage counter attack on Ambrose Burnside corps that saved Lee's army from annihilation and prolonged the struggle

"America's bloodiest Battles" With beautifully shot footage of reenactors, Civil War Combat illustrates aspects of four particular Civil War battles that are rightfully considered legendary. Filmed on location, the reenactors depict the violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor. Produced by the History Channel, the episodes all benefit from insightful appearances by historians as well as rangers from the National Park Service. The format of putting the focus on specific points of action in larger battles allows for narratives about specific soldiers and commanders, in both the Union and Confederate ranks, to develop. For instance, the segment on Antietam profiles commanders and individual soldiers from the Union's Irish Brigade and the Alabama regiment they charged during some of the most violent action of the entire war. The Civil War reenactors provide a credible look at how the war must have appeared to participants. The discussions of strategy and the importance of the events depicted, combined with the uniformly excellent cinematography, make this an entertaining and enlightening look at critical events of the Civil War.
Packed with nearly six hours of historical material, The Last Days of the Civil War provides a fascinating study of a nation in the painful throes of transition. The five History Channel programs compiled here effectively combine to form a multifaceted account of the pivotal events of 1864-65, when the bloodshed of civil war slowly brought forth a government (in the words of President Abraham Lincoln) "of the people by the people for the people," that would define the United States as it progressed toward the 20th century. The cornerstone of this two-disc set is "April 1865: The Month That Changed America," which thoroughly examines the most tumultuous month in U.S. history, encompassing General Robert E. Lee's ill-fated campaigns including carnage at Sailor's Creek and eventual retreat from Richmond, Virginia, and Confederate surrender to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Add the brutal efficiency of Sherman's March, Booth's plot to assassinate Lincoln, and administrative mistakes that put Lee at a strategic disadvantage, and you begin to see (with input from authoritative scholars, authors, and historians) how Union victory was purely a matter of circumstance.
Before Ken Burns, Glory, and Gettysburg, the Civil War proved an effective backdrop for this 1982 miniseries--available complete and uncut on this three-disc set--about two families divided by the War Between the States. John Hammond stars as John Geyser, a Southerner caught "betwixt and between" when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper published by his uncle. Like a Civil War-era Forrest Gump, he finds himself "where history's in the making," from the Battle of Bull Run to the scene of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Stacy Keach costars as an Army scout who takes the "fresh off the farm" Geyser under his wing. Julia Duffy is the schoolmarm who loves Keach. The ham-handed dialogue is a guilty pleasure ("What's wrong with this land that produces such a bitter fruit?" asks the embittered Geyser). The meticulously mounted battle scenes, though, are a Civil War reenactor's dream.
The more you know about the Civil War, the more you'll appreciate Gods and Generals and the painstaking attention to detail that Gettysburg writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell has invested in this academically respectable 220-minute historical pageant. In adapting Jeffrey Shaara's 1996 novel (encompassing events of 1861-63, specifically the Virginian battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville), Maxwell sacrifices depth for scope while focusing on the devoutly religious "Stonewall" Jackson (Stephen Lang), whose Confederate campaigns endear him to General Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall, giving the film's most subtle performance). Battles are impeccably recreated using 7,500 Civil War re-enactors and sanitized PG-13 violence, their authenticity compromised by tasteful discretion and endless scenes of grandiloquent dialogue. Still, as the first part of a trilogy that ends with The Last Full Measure , this is a superbly crafted, instantly essential film for Civil War study.


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