East of the turnpike lay the prosperous farm of David R. Miller, including the house, outbuildings, orchard, and a 24-acre field of ripening corn, grown taller than a mans head and nearly ready for harvest. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. I was in the hospital in the afternoon, for it was then only that the wounded began to come in. Gen. John Gibbon, commander of the 4th Brigade, I Corps. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, Jackson in turn detailed Maj. Gen. A.P. By David A. Welker The 90th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment was recruited exclusively within the city of Philadelphia. The Battle of Antietam in September 1862 turned back the first major Confederate invasion of the North in the Civil War. Antietam on the Web. Gen. Samuel Garland, mortally wounded just as he completed an assessment of the situation. He believed McClellan spent too much of his command drilling troops and little of it pursuing Lee. The fighting in the southwest corner of the cornfield became desperate. Lee, hopelessly outnumbered, still intended to make a stand in Maryland. The next day, as Lee began the painstaking job of moving his ravaged troops back to Virginia, McClellan, surprisingly, did nothing. The 5th North Carolinas Captain Thompson came up to me in a very excited manner and tone cried out to me They are flanking us! The Civil War was in the midst of its second costly year, and the Union armies had yet to win a significant victory in the eastern theater. Following the Confederate triumph at Second Bull Run, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston had observed that the Union forces had received a very complete smashing. If Lees remarkable run of success continued, said Palmerston, Would it not be time for us to consider whether in such a state of things England and France might not address the contending parties and recommend an arrangement on the basis of separation?, For all those reasons, the stakes were extremely high when the Army of Northern Virginia reached Whites Ford on the banks of the Potomac River on September 4 and 55,000 hungry troops stripped off their ragged clothes and began wading into Maryland. But do you know their experiences in the month and hours before marching together into the Cornfield? Many regiments on both sides were cut to pieces. Free shipping for many products! Hood, however, was unable to consolidate his gains. His decision was pivotal. And it gave President Abraham Lincoln enough of a military victory to go forward with the Emancipation Proclamation . About half a mile on the other side of the Hagerstown Turnpike, the East Woods flanked the Smoketown Road, which joined the turnpike at an acute angle. Repeated Union attacks and equally vicious Confederate counterattacks sweep back and forth across Millers cornfield and the West Woods. . For the next four hours the Cornfield was the center of a storm of lead, iron, and flame as Federal soldiers from the First and Twelfth Corps clashed with Lee's men. I lived there as a child and these were the fields we played in before they became National Park Service protectorates, the mid-1950s. President Lincoln, however, wasnt pleased. Lee detailed his complex plan in Special Orders No. Hoods men threw down half-eaten biscuits and stuffed bacon into their mouths as they rushed to fill the gap. The Union and Confederates fought in the cornfield, many being wounded. Near the center of the battlefield, another site of slaughter was a farm lane known as the Sunken Road, where Hills division of approximately 2,600 men had piled fence rails along the roads embankment to fortify their position against Union Major General William H. Frenchs 5,500 approaching troops. By 9:30 a.m. thousands of them lay dead and dying. Please stay on the trail and remember you are in an agricultural area. After losing his command, McClellan took up a new careerpolitics. More Union troops joined in from across the turnpike, and the Texans were caught in a murderous crossfire. Hooker threw a blanket on the ground near the Poffenberger farmhouse and commented within earshot of George Smalley, a reporter for the New York Tribune, If they had let us start earlier, we might have finished tonight.. This army will respect your choice whatever it may be., To Lees immediate disappointment, the citizens of Frederick generally kept their shops locked up tight. The Cornfield: Antietam's Bloody Turning Point tells for the first time the full story of the exciting struggle to control "the Cornfield," the action on which the costly battle of Antietam turned, in a thorough yet readable narrative. The 12th Massachusetts had 224 of its 334 soldiers shot down, a casualty rate of 67 percent that was the highest of any Union regiment on the field. This article appears in: Early Fall 2014 By Michael E. Haskew The White House was a somber place in the summer of 1862. Gen. Truman Seymour, quickly reached the edge of the East Woods at the Smoketown Road. His division had suffered 1,380 dead and wounded, about 60 percent of its strength, and was forced to withdraw to the West Woods. But Antietam eclipses even this modern tragedy as America's single bloodiest day, on which 22,000 men became casualties in a war to determine our nation's future. The carnage was terrific; only two dozen of the original 250 men of the 6th Georgia survived the maelstrom without being killed or wounded. Stay up-to-date on our FREE educational resources & professional development opportunities, all designed to support your work teaching American history. Bodies in front of the Dunker Church - Antietam Battlefield (Library of Congress) In the nether world of the West Woods, choked with the bodies of the dead and wounded and shrouded in the misty blue-gray smoke of musketry and artillery fire, the North Carolinians struck with a vengeance. This 24-acre cornfield, owned by D.R. His orders from Lincoln and Army General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck were somewhat vague: protect Washington and, if possible, destroy Lees army in the process. After he failed to attack Lees depleted troops as they fled Sharpsburg on September 18, he wrote to his wife, Ellen, that, ''those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly & that it was a masterpiece of art.'' Among the wounded were Sergeant Bloss and Corporal Mitchell, who had found Lees lost orders four days earlier. Our first stop is D. R. Miller's farm, around which swirled fighting in the bloody Cornfield By David A. Welker One of the most enjoyable moments when researching history comes in finding something new, even when that thing is quite old. Despite heavy losses and tenacious resistance, Doubleday had driven deeply into Jacksons line. By mid-summer 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had the Emancipation Proclamationa document declaring freedom for all slaves in the so-called rebellious statesready to go. Lee prodded Jackson and McLaws to wrap up their work at Harpers Ferry. Mansfield was carried from the field and died within hours. What happened next was pivotal: On September 13, two Union soldiers, Private Barton W. Mitchell and Sergeant John M. Bloss, discovered a copy of Special Order 191 with detailed Confederate troop movements, allegedly wrapped around three cigars. Lincoln hoped against hope that McClellan would finally bring Lee to decisive battle and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia once and for all. Antietam's Cornfield - a blog dedicated to preserving and sharing stories of the events of 17 September 1862 -, This page was last edited on 14 February 2023, at 16:47. In less than fifteen we were sending and receiving death missiles by the bushel. Hoods men drove north, forcing the First Corps back across the Cornfield. When the Confederates withdrew, Franklin was only six miles from Harpers Ferry. All Rights Reserved. There are more than 22,000 casualties at the Battle of Antietam. Free delivery for many products! You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Despite having the advantage, he allowed Lee to retreat without resistance. If either effort made good progress, McClellan was prepared to pitch every available soldier against the center of Lees line. Continued passivity would invite the Federals to return and once again mount an offensive against Richmond. He tended to details while three of Jacksons footsore divisions began trickling into the vicinity. [1]. Gen. Alpheus Williams and Colonel Samuel Pittman read the document with great interest. Colonel Robert H. Chilton, his adjutant, copied the orders for subordinate generals. Mumma Farm and Cemetery 7. The three-hour fight at Cramptons Gap left 500 Union and 750 Confederate dead and wounded. For more than three hours, fewer than 500 Confederate soldiers held Lower Bridge against multiple assaults by Union General Ambrose Burnsides Ninth Corps. Within the limits of this Army, at least, Marylanders shall once more enjoy their ancient freedom of thought and speech. more information on current conditions Visit our keyboard shortcuts docs for details. Nearing the end of 2018, well be bombarded by the annual parade of top ten lists counting down everything from the years news events to songs and online fads. Lees positions provided natural cover, with an undulating landscape and rocky limestone outcroppings, while west of the Hagerstown Turnpike the knoll known as Nicodemus Hill offered a commanding position for Confederate artillery. Americas bloodiest day was far from over. After Lee thwarted the plan of General George B. McClellan to lay siege to Richmondthe capital of the Confederate States of Americain the Peninsula Campaign in the spring and summer of 1862, McClellan retreated. The fighting was so gory Sunken Road earned a new name: Bloody Lane. Miller's 30-acre cornfield at Antietam. Because Federal and Confederate forces repeatedly traded control of the spot, the fight for the Cornfield is a story of human struggle against fearful . As the sun was setting, the entire Union I Corps under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker advanced toward Turners Gap. After chasing Confederate skirmishers off the Miller farm, Gibbons men headed for the northwest corner of the cornfield and began taking fire from Douglass troops and the Stonewall Brigade posted in the West Woods. Men laughed and giggled, screamed and cried. Reinforcements from Longstreet tried to stem the tide but were driven back. Sergeant E.J. For those of us interested in understanding and preserving the events of the Civil War and Antietams Cornfield, heres our own such list the Cornfield casualty top ten. Nine regimental color bearers were killed, and in less than half an hour the 1st Texas lost 186 dead and wounded, more than 82 percent of its strength, the highest casualty rate of any regiment on either side during the entire war. Americas bloodiest day began with heavy fighting that ravaged a previously innocuous cornfield in western Maryland. As the sun climbed into the sky on September 15, Lee surveyed a long, low ridgeline east of the town and asserted, We will make our stand on those hills. At noon he received confirmation from Jackson that Harpers Ferry had fallen and directed Stonewall to hurry to Sharpsburg, 12 miles to the north. Gathering up his gearEzra discovered hed misplaced the right glove of his newly-purchased pair, a loss that troubled him considerably. Click here to open PreserveCast Few names are as synonymous with Civil War battlefields as The Bloody Cornfield. Their fire was devastating. Confederate troops ferociously fought off offensive after offensive to prevent being overrun, turning the cornfield into a massive killing field. Gen. John Bell Hood went into line on the fringe of the West Woods, a stretch of trees 300 yards wide to the west of the Hagerstown Turnpike, the major thoroughfare that led into Sharpsburg. The two brigades emerged from the North Woods simultaneously and crossed a field of clover. Starke, shot three times, died on the field. As Brig. When another officer asked the whereabouts of his division, he replied sorrowfully, Dead on the field.. On the political front, Lincoln felt that the war-weary North needed to be energized. 126, May 18,2020, The Cornfield Inside the Action at Antietams Bloody TurningPoint, Abner Doubleday in Antietams Cornfield: No Day in the (Baseball)Park, Garlands Brigade at the Cornfield: The Death of a Reputationand MuchMore, The 88th Pennsylvania at Antietam: A Cornfield Invalid SavesWashington, Farming the Cornfield: D. R. Millers 1862 Harvest ofDeath, Buffalo in the Cornfield: The 21st New York atAntietam, Claimed by the Cornfield: Georgias Colonel MarcellusDouglass, Cowards in the Cornfield? Hartsuff was wounded and Christian suffered an emotional breakdown and fled the field. Strategically, Lees decision to invade the North made sense. Racing 150 yards ahead of the units on either side, the whooping Texans came within 30 yards of the Pennsylvanians, who rested their rifles on the lowest fence rails and fired a withering volley at the legs of the onrushing Rebels, shrouded in the thick smoke of battle. 191. Gen. D.R. Gen. Samuel Sturgis, one of his division commanders, Hallo, Sam, I am dead! Within minutes, Reno proved as good as his word. Here is a paper, McClellan chirped, with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home.. Late that evening and on September 19, after realizing that no further attacks are coming from McClellan, Lee withdraws from the battlefield and slips back across the Potomac into Virginia. At the same time, he began throwing together a patchwork defense of the South Mountain passes at Turners, Foxs, and Cramptons Gaps. It is remembered as the site of some of the most savage fighting of the Battle of Antietam, which itself was the bloodiest single-day action of the Civil War. The Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. Jefferson County, WV|Sep 12-15, 1862, Frederick County and Washington County, MD|Sep 14, 1862, Washington County, MD|Sep 16-18, 1862, Town of Shepherdstown, WV|Sep 19-20, 1862, Washington County, MD | September 17, 1862. The 5th Virginia's Ezra Stickley awakened and realized the firing had picked up considerably. The Army of the Potomac began to concentrate that night, but during the following day McClellan declined to make a decisive move. Brig. John Cook swung his bugle over his shoulder and wrested from the dead man his leather pouch, bearing the undelivered shell without which the cannon was useless. The fight began to peter out with the gathering darkness. Updated: November 28, 2022 | Original: October 27, 2009. The Unions claim of victory at Antietam and Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation are thought to be why Republicans held the House in the 1862 mid-term elections. Union forces outnumbered Confederates by two to one, although McClellan thought Lees forces were much larger. The terrain was dotted by farmsteads, pastures, and cornfields, separated here and there by rail fences. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at . She saw the desperation of the wounded and dying and did what she could to aid and comfort them. Gen. George G. Meade on his left. What there are left of us open on them with a cheer; and the next day, the burial parties put up a board in front of the position held by the Twelfth with the following inscription: In this trench lie buried the colonel, the major, six line officers, and one hundred and forty men of the [13th] Georgia Regiment.. Among the wounded during two hours of savage fighting was Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, commander of the 23rd Ohio Regiment and a future president of the United States. ", More than 25,000 soldiers fought in and around the Cornfield. National Park Service.The Maryland Campaign of 1862. The Tigers poured heavy fire into the 2nd and 6th Wisconsin, temporarily checking their advance. Meanwhile, Colonel D.K. Hood said to one of Jacksons aides, Tell General Jackson unless I get reinforcements I must be forced back, but I am going on while I can.. The first reports of the Confederate move into Maryland arrived in Washington on the afternoon of September 4, prompting McClellan to begin moving at a deliberate pace from his encampment at Rockville, Maryland. Then an eighth Union Minie ball suddenly found him By David A. Welker Marcellus Douglass was born in Thomaston, Georgia on October 5th, 1820. Brigadier General David Ricketts 2nd Division, led by Brig. The Cornfield: Antietam's Bloody Turning Point tells for the first time the full story of the struggle to control "the Cornfield," the action on which the costly battle of Antietam turned. The following morning, McClellan attacks. The siege of Harpers Ferry was to be successfully concluded as soon as possible. Meanwhile, on September 2, McClellan retook command of the army to the cheers of his men. He wanted to move the focus of fighting away from the South and into Federal territory. Greenes two brigades were within 200 yards of the Dunker Church, where they halted and watched the West Woods swarm with Confederates. An up-close look at the people, places and turning points of the American Civil War. Two divisions of Sumners corps, commanded by Brig. His opponent, Abraham Lincoln, was reelected for another term. : The Sorry Story of Colonel WilliamChristian, The 90th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Cornfield: Solitary and alone, we gave and took ourmedicine, The 1st Texas Infantry in the Cornfield: Slipping theBridle, Captain Von Bachelle and his canine friend sacrifice all in theCornfield, Elliotts Antietam Burial Map: New Revelations About the CornfieldsToll, Tigers in the Cornfield: Hays Louisiana Brigade atAntietam, The 105th New York in Antietams Cornfield: The High Price ofAchievement, The 6th Georgia in the Cornfield: Squeezed by a DeadlyVice, The 19th Indiana in Antietams Cornfield: The command is no longer forward, but now it is followme!, The 1st Georgia Regulars and 1st Minnesota Infantry at Antietam: A Kindness in theCornfield, The 2nd Massachusetts in the Cornfield: Robert Gould Shaws Command Baptism byFire, New Old Views of the Miller Farm and Antietams Cornfield, The 5th Virginias Private Ezra Stickley: Irony in theCornfield, John Cook: An Ohio boy comes of age in AntietamsCornfield, The 21st Georgia: An Unexpected Mission in Antietams EastWoods, The 97th New York Infantry in theCornfield. The proclamation, Lincoln hoped, would add a moral dimension to the war besides the preservation of the Union. Lee issued a proclamation to the people of Maryland inviting them to join the Southern cause. Detached from the command of Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Greenes 2nd Brigade, under Colonel Henry J. Stainrook, reached the Smoketown Road and unhinged the Confederate right flank. Their company commander, Captain Kop, was killed. Stonewall Jackson, Maj. Gen. D.H. Hills division was to follow Longstreet as the armys rear guard. I will have a battery here to help you.. Captain Benjamin F. Cook of the 12th Massachusetts remembered the horrific fighting in the cornfield and its aftermath. It is remembered as the site of some of the most savage fighting of the Battle of Antietam, which itself was the bloodiest single-day action of the Civil War. Began trickling into the vicinity little of it pursuing lee turning points of the situation places and points! 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