Contents
Page [ACROSS THE POTOMAC] 1 [McCLELLAN IN COMMAND] 4 [LEE DIVIDES HIS FORCES] 6 [THE LOST ORDER] 9 [FIGHTING FOR TIME AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN] 10 [HARPERS FERRY SURRENDERS] 13 [LEE TAKES A STAND ON SHARPSBURG RIDGE] 14 [McCLELLAN CONCENTRATES AT THE ANTIETAM] 16 [THE LINES ARE POISED FOR ACTION] 18 [HOOKER STRIKES AT DAYBREAK] 21 [MANSFIELD RENEWS THE ATTACK] 23 [JACKSON PREPARES AN AMBUSH] 25 [THE FIGHT FOR THE SUNKEN ROAD] 34 [BURNSIDE TAKES THE LOWER BRIDGE] 40 [A. P. HILL TURNS THE TIDE] 44 [RETREAT FROM SHARPSBURG] 45 [THE BATTLE AND THE CAMPAIGN] 47 [THE WAR FOR THE UNION TAKES ON A NEW PURPOSE] 47 [CLARA BARTON AT ANTIETAM] 49 [ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD AND CEMETERY] 50 [ADMINISTRATION] 55 [SUGGESTED READINGS] 56 [APPENDIX] 57
Focal point of the early morning attacks, the Dunker Church and some who defended it. From photograph attributed to James Gardner. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
In Western Maryland is a stream called Antietam Creek. Nearby is the quiet town of Sharpsburg. The scene is pastoral, with rolling hills and farmlands and patches of woods. Stone monuments and bronze tablets dot the landscape. They seem strangely out of place. Only some extraordinary event can explain their presence.
Almost by chance, two great armies collided here. Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was invading the North. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac was out to stop him. On September 17, 1862—the bloodiest day of the Civil War—the two armies fought the Battle of Antietam to decide the issue.
Their violent conflict shattered the quiet of Maryland’s countryside. When the hot September sun finally set upon the devastated battlefield, 23,000 Americans had fallen—nearly eight times more than fell on Tarawa’s beaches in World War II. This single fact, with the heroism and suffering it implies, gives the monuments and markers their meaning. No longer do they presume upon the land. Rather, their mute inadequacy can only hint of the great event that happened here—and of its even greater consequences.