The Maps of Antietam: The Movement to and the Battle of Antietam, September 14 - 18, 1862 by Gottfried Bradley

Author:Gottfried, Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2012-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

Map Set 18. Antietam: Burnside

Advances on Sharpsburg

(Afternoon, September 17)

Map 18.1: The Federals Consolidate

Their Bridgehead (2:00 - 3:30 p.m.)

It had taken several hours, but the fight for the Lower Bridge was finally over. About 500 IX Corps men lay dead or wounded on the east side of Antietam Creek, with some 120 Georgians sharing the same fate on the opposite bank. The encounter swelled the breasts of those who had held on for so long. Although eventually driven back, a proud Col. Henry Benning wrote in his report that “during that long and terrible fire not a man, except a wounded one, fell out and went to the rear—not a man.” According to William Allan, an early historian of the Army of Northern Virginia, “On the Confederate side of the stream Toombs’ two small regiments held their ground and threw back assault after assault with a coolness and tenacity unsurpassed in history.” The Georgians still had plenty of fight left in them, and most waited for the new round behind a stone wall 900 yards west of the bridge (No.1).1

While the Georgians waited the Federals poured across the Lower Bridge and splashed through Antietam Creek at Snavely’s Ford (No. 2). Col. Harrison Fairchild’s men crossed first and filed to the right, with Col. Edward Harland’s brigade behind them. Once Brig. Gen. Isaac Rodman’s division was finally across Col. Eliakim Scammon’s brigade, now under Col. Hugh Ewing (Scammon’s division) took its turn. Capt. Benjamin Eschleman’s Rebel battery tried but failed to disrupt the move.

Three Union divisions (Scammon, Sturgis, and Rodman) were now across Antietam Creek and preparing to assault Gen. Robert E. Lee’s weak right flank. Brig. Gen. Jacob Cox and Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, however, ordered a halt. “The ammunition of Sturgis’ [division] and Crook’s [brigade] men had been nearly exhausted, and it was imperative that they should be freshly supplied before entering into another engagement,” explained Cox. “Sturgis also reported his men so exhausted by their efforts as to be unfit for an immediate advance.” Cox asked permission to replace Sturgis’ men with Brig. Gen. Orlando Willcox’s fresh division (Cols. Benjamin Christ’s and Thomas Welsh’s brigades, positioned about three-quarters of a mile from the bridge), and to bring up the ammunition train to replenish cartridge boxes (No. 3). Cox assured Burnside that Sturgis’ division would remain on the west bank of the creek to be called up if needed.2

“This was done as rapidly as was practicable, where everything had to pass down the steep hill road and through so narrow a defile as the bridge,” Cox explained. Progress, however, was painfully slow. Burnside rode over to hasten the troops and wagons across the stone span. Christ and Welsh filed their men into position on Cox’s right flank about 3:00 p.m. Three Federal batteries deployed to support the coming advance. Capts. George Durell and Joseph Clark unlimbered their guns in front of the infantry (No. 4), while Lt. Charles Muhlenburg’s battery deployed farther southeast and closer to the creek. Confederate artillery on the heights to the west pounded the Federal pieces.

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